Ensemble TIMF - Korean Composers (2022)

Ensemble TIMF was founded in 2001 with the goal of incepting a major performance ensemble as a key representative of Korea and an ambassador of the Tongyeong International Music Festival. It has been engaged in intense activities in and outside of Korea and comprised of excellent young musicians. Its first performance began with the 'D-100 Concert of TIMF 2002'. Since then, it has continuously expanded the range of repertoires and performances to date and established itself as a professional ensemble. With a variety of programs and high-quality performances, it gives fruitful and satisfactory pleasures to audiences of classic and contemporary music.

It has concertized with some of the most renowned composers and pianists around the world, including Unsuk Chin, Tan Dun, Heiner Goebbels, Heinz Holliger, Toshio Hosokawa, Steve Reich, the Ensemble Modern, Martha Argerich, Sergei Nakariakov, Gautier Capucon, Kazuhito Yamashita, and Schola Heidelberg, as well as the top musicians in Korea. Most notably, it was awarded the first prize of the music section during , hosted by the Arts Council Korea, with 'Rainy Day' by Gang Ryul Lee, which it performed on the occasion of 'The night of concertos with pianist Hyung Jun Jang and Ensemble TIMF' in 2004. In 2009, it won the 'Performing Artist' award of the year by the Performing Arts Management Association of Korea.

With 'Ensemble TIMF Academy', which began in 2005, it has spearheaded a movement in providing superior education programs to post-generation of musicians by hosting concerts, lessons, workshops by inviting renowned musicians in and outside of Korea. As a result, it was selected as a prime educator and promoter of concert performers and performances in 2007 by Arts Council Korea, and it received funding for three years. Consequently, the ensemble's excellence has been recognized in and abroad. Currently, the ensemble consistently collaborates with distinguished concert halls in Korea. Through these, they introduce music of currently active composers in and outside of Korea and take the initiative in displaying a number of genres in arts and in collaborating with them. Their unique and special performance projects include ‘Music & Electronics’, ‘C-LAB’, ‘Open your Ears’ and ‘Sound on the Edge’.
Moreover, Ensemble TIMF annually serves to play with finalists of Isang Yun Competition, and has participated in the Korean premieres of such operas as Wozzeck, Salome, and Lulu.

The ensemble's intense activities reach markets not only in Korea but also in foreign countries, and their excellence has been recognized internationally. They have performed in European concert stages, such as the Bacau Contemporary Music Festival in Romania in 2003, the Darmstadt International Contemporary Music Festival, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Arko Art Fair in Spain, the Venice Biennale, KlaraFestival in Belgium. In Aisa, Their realm has also expanded to other parts of Asia: they have been invited by the Asian Composers' League to perform in Bangkok, and also participated in Beijing Contemporary Music Festival, the tour of Japan for the commemoration of Isang Yun's 90th Birthday, the Musikarama Festival in Hong Kong, and the Alexandria Contemporary Music Biennale in Egypt. In 2011, it cooperated with the 'Hong Kong Arts Festival', the most gigantic and the longest-serving music festival in Asia, to co-produce a musical play called , and held a world premiere of that work in Hong Kong. In October 2011, it successfully completed concerts in Geneva, Athens, and Vatican. It was also invited to perform in Singapore and Austria in 2012. After the successful collaboration with GRAME in Lyon 2013, IRCAM in 2014 and it was invited from Sinfonieorchester Basel in March 2015, and they performed another wonderful concerts in Bratislava and Paris in November of 2015.

Ensemble TIMF's expansion of the performance fields will continue. With its freshly creative project planning and its wide range of repertoires from the classical to contemporary periods, it will continue to advance as one of the leading ensembles for the future of Korean music.