The Netherlands Wind Ensemble (Dutch: Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, NBE) comprises musicians from all the major Dutch symphony orchestras. Playing together for the sheer joy of it, the NBE’s twenty or so members (winds, horns, percussion and double bass) meet up around eighty times per year to perform special programmes both in the Netherlands and abroad. The ensemble is famous for its high level of performance and its unique and adventurous programming. Categorisations such as ‘classical’ or ‘contemporary’ are too narrow for their programmes, but one element they all share is a sense of the theatrical.

The NBE is regularly featured in special concert series at Amsterdam’s main venues: the Concertgebouw, Paradiso and the new Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. The NBE also tours abroad, twice per season on average. Artistic leader of the ensemble is oboist Bart Schneemann.