Is it possible to love contemporary music?

Not so long ago, a group of visionary composers decided to reconnect with an age-old concept: pleasure. Thanks to their efforts, contemporary music has found a way back into our hearts.

This renewal was far from straightforward. After the Second World War, many leading composers became engrossed in intellectual and abstract compositional systems. Movements like dodecaphonism and serialism sought to impose rigid logic on music, often at the expense of emotional resonance. Audiences drifted away, and contemporary music concerts became insular gatherings for a select few. Yet, classical music is a language—and like any language, it thrives on evolution, not revolution.

For the composers of the New Consonant Music movement, the debate over the “right” kind of musical language is irrelevant. What truly matters is that music must resonate with both performers and listeners. This is the essence of New Consonant Music: if you have something meaningful to express, simply express it!

Who are these composers? Among the trailblazers are Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, Steve Reich, Michael Nyman, John Adams, and Philip Glass. But our mission is to introduce you to a wealth of other voices, including Frédéric Devreese, Dominique Dupraz, Piotr Lachert, Michel Lysight, Gilberto Mendes or Georgs Pelecis to name just a few.