With Dionysos Now!, Tore Tom Denys would like to show you that vocal polyphony of the Renaissance is very captivating music, and deserves to be heard by a wider audience.

Dionysos Now! wants to create cathedrals from sounds, in which you perceive the music as if you were flattering the cathedrals with a drone from far above. The brick stones are overall but they seem to merge into the whole, into the 'gestalt', where the radiant music generates much more effervescent energy than the sum of the tones, the contagious flow in the music is sought and captured, like a surfer who seems to have found the perfect wave and seizes his chance to float on it before it goes away again.

With the wise words of Winston Churchill in mind "Never waste a good crisis", Denys started studying the scores of his fellow townsman Adriaen Willaert during the lockdown and so he rediscovered the wonderful music of this Venetian chapel master over the past few months. A new initiative was born: Dionysos Now! Vienna is a brand new project that aims to spread the magnificent heritage of Adriaen Willaert. With Dionysos Now!, Tore would like to demonstrate that Renaissance vocal polyphony is very captivating music that deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience.

Anyone who reads the name Dionysos Now! correctly will discover the reference to Denys: Tore Tom Denys is the founder and artistic director of the ensemble.

Dionysos Now! is also in Greek mythology the growth force of the earth and human civilisation, zeal and enthusiasm, god of wine (construction) and fruit growing, poetry, theatre and music. As god of peace he brings people together and as victor over death he is god of the underworld. In various ways he had an important influence on the life, thought and work of the Greeks and Romans.

An ideal figurehead, therefore, from a great recognition for Willaert's work, to want to share this oeuvre with a large audience in the most diverse forms with great enthusiasm. It is Tore Tom Denys' ambition to map out the work of his "fellow townsman" by means of concerts and original CD recordings and to give him the fame he deserves.

The ensemble works and rehearses from Vienna but has an international base and unites top soloists in polyphony. Tore Tom Denys has his own clear vision on how he wants to perform Willaert's oeuvre with care for the original manuscripts and scores.

Ensemble Dionysos Now! is a flexible project in which the basis consists of 6 voices which, depending on the programme, can be extended to polyphonic or supplemented with an instrumental ensemble. To this end, a permanent collaboration will be set up with various internationally renowned ensembles.