• Ignore any definitions of New Music Ensembles and start collecting. “I’ll know it when I see it”-approach
• Ask for suggestions online
• Sort by concert numbers to establish a working order
• Have a realistic cut-off for the first round. 20 ensembles max. maybe, then go on to next stage. Preliminary inclusion criteria could be: 40+ concerts a year (edit: needs reconsideration – ca. 30? see changelog), 60%+ repertoire after 1980, 6-26 (edit: instrumental) members (edit – maybe exclude groups of all the same instruments for the first round?  (I intentionally made these up without checking against ensembles I’d think should be / should not be included, thus checking the criteria themselves, confronting myself with their results first. Please note that the resulting cut-off is not intended to define what a New Music Ensemble is, but merely how much I can handle initially.)
• Evaluate the results of this preliminary approach and decide if  it’s a basis for further work
• Include feedback from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter and improve criteria, revise on the fly
• Don’t get stuck in detail questions!
• Avoid qualitative criteria on all costs. Stay with a quantitative approach.

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2. & 3. – attack these later.

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Anyone is invited to weigh in:

• Twitter: #newmusens
• Google+
• Facebook

I’ll summarize any reasoning from there here below.

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Here we go – collecting suggestions and start checking soon:

1965 Asko (how to handle Schönberg merger?)

1968 @Ldn_Sinfonietta

1976 @Ensemble_inter

1980 @nieuwensemble

1980 @ensemblemodern

1985 @KlangforumWien

1985 Ensemble Recherche

1986 @ElisionEnsemble

1987 @bangonacan

1987 @bcmg

1988 KNM Berlin

1990 @musikFabrik

1992 @fEARnoMUSIC

1994? @IctusEnsemble

1994 Ensemble Resonanz

1996 @eighthblackbird

2000 @RemixEnsemble

2001 @AlarmWillSound

2001 @ICEensemble

2004 @dalniente

2004 ACME

2005 @newspeakmusic

2006 @TaleaEnsemble

2006 yMusicNYC

2008 @EnsembleSignal

2008 @ncpmusic

2011 @HotelElefant

Outside the preliminary set of criteria for inclusion:

• less than 6 members: @YarnWire iktusPercussion, 1999 @sopercussion, 2005 @thirdcoastperc Janus Trio Trio Kavak The Living Earth Show @kronosquartet @CALEFAX, any string quartet, trio, duo…
• all members play the same instrument: @MantraPercNYC Les Percussions de Strasbourg Schlagquartett @SlagwerkDenHaag
• more than 26 members: @AmerCompOrch 
• less than 30 concerts / year: @Citywater_Music @RiotEns @artoftime @neweuropean @HEB_Ensemble @NewMusicRaleigh, 1971 exxj
• Choirs and vocal ensembles like @C4Ensemble @EXAUDIensemble

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Listing all additions & corrections in a changelog gets too complicated. I’ll republish as a new article once the first series of editions is done.

Minimum no. of concerts for inclusion seems to be too low (@bcmg seems to be around 30/year). Criterium suspended for now, awaiting later reconsideration.

Exclude ensembles consisting of x musicians of the same instruments first? Example: @MantraPercNYC - there are a lot of them, and they’re clearly New Music Ensembles, but a special branch. Les Percussions de Strasbourg & Schlagquartett come to mind, too.

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Suggestions received which are not implemented / discussed yet:

@bcmg: perhaps should consider no of commissions and premieres per year on average?! (maybe av size of pieces for context?) #newmusens

@bcmg: a map of new music created across ensembles over X time could be interesting!

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Thanks for their contributions to:  @CBCarey @BCMG @tonalfreak @CSharp_minor @gordonkerry @baldinic @rjphawley @Citywater_music @mikebreneis @AlarmWillSound @SOpercussion