who almost made the reed quintet seem the best musical format on the planet. - The Times
More about Calefax
Calefax transforms centuries of organ music into a living, breathing experience, reimagining its spiritual depth and theatrical power through the voices of a reed quintet. Featuring works from Sweelinck to Florence Price, this 40th-anniversary album reveals the organ not as a machine, but as a vital force of human imagination.
In 1985, the five reed players of Calefax formed the Reed Quintet. At the time it was a completely new genre in music history. Since then, over 80 reed quintets have been founded all over the world. With the online platform reed quintet.net, Calefax wants to unite these reed quintets. The platform serves as a place to for reed quintets to share their missions and stories. It offers a large database of arrangements and original compositions for the reed quintet.
To celebrate Calefax’s 40th anniversary, 40 reed quintets from around the world joined forces. Over the course of 40 days, they each performed a part of Link — a brand-new work specially composed for this occasion by Michel van der Aa. Be surprised by the rich variety of reed quintets across the globe – each with its own sound, each with its own stories.
Calefax tours six to eight concertprogrammes per season in the Netherlands and tours abroad to a.o. the USA, China, Japan, UK, Eastern-Europe and Germany.
| Sun 25 Jan | 15.00 | Menu de saison 2025 | De Mozart(k)ring Gelre-Niederrhein - Grote Kerk | Velp / NL | Info | |
| Sun 1 Feb | 20.00 | Un Momento Dado | Musis - with Koninklijke Harmonie Oosterbeek | Arnhem / NL | Info | Tickets |
| Wed 4 Feb | 19.30 | Menu de saison 2025 | Musikverein | Regenburg / DE | Info | Tickets |
| Sun 8 Feb | 15.00 | Menu de saison 2025 | Kolonieconcerten | Wilhelminaoord / NL | Info | Tickets |
| Thu 12 Feb | 20.00 | Calefax XL (with students of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague) | Studio 1 at the Royal Conservatoire | The Hague / NL | Info | |
| Fri 13 Feb | 12.30 | Calefax XL (with students of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague) | TivoliVredenburg | Utrecht / NL | Info | Tickets |
The new album Organisms has been released! Organisms by Calefax transforms centuries of organ music into a living, breathing experience, reimagining its spiritual depth and theatrical power through the voices of a reed quintet.
Meet the finalists of the Alba Rosa Viëtor/Calefax Composers Competition! Forty-four composers under the age of 40 from all over the world submitted new works for reed quintet. Four of these have been selected anonymously to be premiered live during the final on 20 November at the Calefax Reed Festival.
From Sunday 12 October, you can enjoy LINK, a special anniversary project by the Calefax Reed Quintet, online for 40 days. LINK is a piece written especially for Calefax's 40th anniversary by Michel van der Aa. No fewer than 40 reed quintets from around the world will perform the piece! An online concert hall has been built on reedquintet.net, the global platform for reed quintets, where you can follow this.