Echo Ensemble

The Echo Ensemble was founded in 1997 at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin as a training orchestra for students, with the aim of exploring contemporary music through regular concert performances. From 1999 to 2007, Prof. Konstantia Gourzi was the ensemble’s artistic director; since 2008, it has been led by Prof. Manuel Nawri.

Through their work with the ensemble, students become familiar with the stylistic range of the 20th and 21st centuries. The concert programmes also incorporate media such as film and video projection, as well as recorded sound and live electronics, whilst the repertoire focuses on works for chamber ensembles and chamber orchestras. Students have the opportunity to explore advanced technical possibilities on their instruments as well as new artistic concepts, with a view to sparking curiosity and delight in discovering contemporary music.

Under the direction of Manuel Nawri, the ensemble performs chamber music arrangements by well-known composers as well as by forgotten composers of the interwar period. The programme also showcases the rich diversity of musical voices from the university’s composition department, with new works by students and lecturers regularly featured. 
The Echo Ensemble accompanied the ‘NEUE SZENEN’ world premiere series at the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, during which, between 2013 and 2025, the university and the opera house jointly premiered 21 new works of contemporary music theatre from an international composition competition. The ensemble is also a permanent partner in the Mehrlicht!Musik festival organised by KlangZeitOrt, the joint Institute for New Music of the Berlin University of the Arts and the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music Berlin.