Alan Pierson | Alarm Will Sound

Alan Pierson is the artistic director of new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. To mark his residency at the 2022 festival, Beethovenfest artistic director Steven Walter spoke with him. In the interview, he talks about founding the chamber orchestra in New York and his long-standing collaboration with Donnacha Dennehy, whose music the ensemble was performing at the time.

A new music ensemble like no other: Alarm Will Sound plays any exciting music of our contemporary time. Categories like art music or popular music are inconsequential to the ensemble.

Alan Pierson founded the orchestra in 1996 together with musicians from Eastman School of Music in New York. Since then, the ensemble treads independent paths in the world of new music. The musicians collaborate closely with composers and open up the concept of new music to all genres. Steven Walter comments:

»I couldn't find an ensemble with such breadth and openness in Europe. So we had to invite you here!«

The same applies to the 2026 Beethovenfest: Alan Pierson will be bringing his New York-based ensemble back to Bonn for the world premiere of a work by Fellowship artist Brittany J. Green. The programme will also feature the latest music from the USA – all works created in close collaboration with the ensemble.