Het Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (Outside the Netherlands known as The Netherlands Wind Ensemble) was founded in 1959 by students at the Amsterdam Conservatory and was directed initially by Thom de Klerk, principal bassoonist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

After de Klerk's death in 1966, conductor Edo de Waart (himself a former principal oboist in the Concertgebouw Orchestra) became music director and helped establish the international reputation of the emsemble through tours and recordings. Although the core repertoire was music for woodwind octet (pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns), the ensemble regularly expanded to larger dimensions.

The Netherlands Wind Ensemble is currently comprised of leading members from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the radio orchestras, and the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. They perform the classical repertoire, as well as music by the major composers of the 20th and 21st century.

The ensemble is known for its adventurous programming. They are always looking for new composers and new ideas and regularly launch adventurous collaborations with children, jazz musicians, world music artists, dancers, and producers. The ensemble has its own concert series in Amsterdam, in the Concertgebouw and in the ‘rock venue’ Paradiso. An annual high point is the spectacular New Year's concert in the main hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, which is transmitted live on radio and television.

The Netherlands Wind Ensemble has performed all around the world and undertakes two international tours a year. They have recorded extensively for Philips and Chandos. In 1999 they started their own label NBELIVE. Through this label every year two or three live registrations of one of their programmes are released.

Official website: www.nbe.nl Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.