L’arsenale, established in Treviso in 2005 under the direction of Filippo Perocco, aims to fill the gap between composing and making music; between conceiving a sound and the gesture that will produce that sound; between the lifetime of a sound and the receiving space that will consume it.
The peculiarity of its unique instrumentation (acoustic instruments beside different electronics extensions and home-made instruments) gives to the ensemble the possibility to explore new commissioned piece and build a new kind of repertoire.
The ensemble collaborated with composers from different countries premiering new works written for the group: Silvia Borzelli, Milica Djordjevich, Marta Gentilucci, Giovanni Verrando, Mauro Lanza, Peter Ablinger, Santiago Diez Fischer, Jagoda Szmytcka, Alexander Khubeev, Stefano Pierini, Giuliano Bracci, Eric Maestri, Lorenzo Troiani, Yotam Haber, Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, Alexander Lunsqui, Juan Arroyo, Yair Klartag, Paolo Perezzani, Stefano Trevisi, Panayiotis Kokoras, Lefteris Papadimitriou, Antonio Agostini, Aziza Sadikova, Fabio Cifariello Ciardi, Timothy McCormack, Marek Poliks, Ian Power, Edgar Barroso, Zad Moultaka, Lin-Ni Lao, Cristina Athinodorou, Gabriel Malncioiu, Nicolas Tzortzis, Cristian Cassinelli, Krisian Ireland, Lin Mu-Xuan, David Litke, Lesley Hunger, Stephen Spencer, Amadeus, Julian Regucera, Luciano Leite Barbosa, Wer Devore, Kristina Wolfe,, Rafael Borges Amaral, Luiz E. Casteloes, Travis Alford, Michail Rataj, Andrea Mattevi, Raul Masu, Marco Longo, etc…
Lʼarsenale organises its own festival, L’arsenale_Nuova Musica a Treviso, that features concerts, seminars, master-classes and the composition course called Chiamata alle Musiche. It constantly proposes collaborations with international level ensembles, soloists and conductors like Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Quartette Maurice, Nikel Ensemble, Tom Pauwels, Uli Fussenegger, ensemble Argento, Nadia Ratsimandresy, LʼImaginarie, Francesco Dillon, ACME, Simone Beneventi, Manuel Zurria, Dario Calderone, Metropolis, Ecce, Latvian Radio Choir, Emanuele Torquati, Ciro Longobardi, Anna D’Errico, ensemble Algoritmo, Edison Studio, Mario Caroli, Marco Angius, Zoltan Pesko, Michele Lomuto, Nadir Vassena, Kaspars Putninsh.
Lʼarsenale in 2010 received the Veneto Region Aid for the promotion and support of youth music.
In 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015 the ensemble received the Grant in Aid from Ernst von Siemens Foundation.
L’arsenale recently received the 35TH AWARD OF MUSICAL CRITICISM “FRANCO ABBIATI” 2016 for its promotion of contemporary music.
L’arsenale collaborates with many institutions and participates in many contemporary music festivals like the Venice Biennale, Mata Festival – New York, Unerhörte Musik – Berlin, AngelicA – Bologna, Le Vivier-Montréal, Kings Place – London, Festival Aperto, MA/IN, Traiettorie – Parma, Rassegna di Nuova Musica – Macerata, Hörfest Neue Musik – Detmold, Bologna Modern, Festival Suggestioni – Boston, American Film Festival – Wroclaw, NU Festival, Beams –
Boston, Harvard New Music, Italian Institute of Culture in Paris, Mi.To, music@Villa Romana – Florence, Moto Contrario – Trento, Timisoara International Music Festival, Zahl_Zeichen_Klang – Linz, Etchings – Toulouse, Ircam, Northestern University and Brandeis University of Boston, University of Minnesota, Contemporanea and Taukay – Udine, American Academy in Rome, Goethe Institute in Rome, Deutsche Studienzentrum in Venedig, Compositori a Confronto – Reggio Emilia and many others.