The Ives Ensemble was founded in 1986 by the Dutch pianist John Snijders and consists of a steady pool of 14 musicians. The ensemble concentrates on performances of non-conducted 20th century chamber music, in which, ever since the founding of the ensemble, the music of Charles Ives, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Stefan Wolpe has been serving as its base. Various composers have written especially for the Ives Ensemble, such as John Cage, Aldo Clementi, Walter Zimmermann, Gerald Barry, Andrew Culver, Christopher Fox, Fabio Nieder, Ron Ford, Jan van de Putte, James Rolfe, Ivo van Emmerik, Allison Cameron, Richard Rijnvos, Richard Ayres, Micha Hamel, Magnus Robb and Michel van der Aa. The Ives Ensemble performed during several international festivals, such as the Gaudeamus Music Week, the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, the Biennale Zagreb, the Aterforum Festival Ferrara, Evenings of New Music (Bratislava), Klang-Aktionen '95 (München), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Festival d'Automne (Paris), Festival Spaziomusica (Cagliari) and Holland Festival. It also presented programmes in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Bratislava, Prague, Gütersloh, Köln, Essen and Berlin.