The Ensemble "die reihe" was formed in 1958 by Friedrich Cerha and Kurt Schwertsik with the aim of creating a permanent forum for New Music within the traditional musical life of Vienna.

With the International Society for New Music, the Austrian JEUNESSE Musicale and the Wiener Konzerthaus, the first concert was able to go ahead in its Schubert Saal in March 1959. This was received as a sensational success by the enlightened sections of the Press which hailed it a 'serial dream'. Public acclaim was so great that "die reihe" was able to relocate to the larger Mozart Saal in 1959/60 and was there granted its own cycle by the Concert House management. With the inauguration of the Museum of the 20th Century, the Ensemble also played there; later - during an interregnum at the Wiener Konzerthaus - it also appeared at the ORF and the Wiener Musikverein. In 1978 „die reihe" was reinstated in its former home by the General Secretary, Hans Landesmann. A cycle called "Journeys to our own Time" conceived in collaboration with F. Cerha which ran until 1983, was so successful that the Mozart Saal could not contain all those interested and individual concerts had to be held for schools. This cycle symbolised quite clearly what had lain at the heart of the ensemble's direction since its formation: a desire to bring together a combination of the essential chamber works of the modern pioneers (Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, etc.) with all the significant works of the younger generation (Boulez, Stockhausen etc.) which are characteristic of current cultural thought. Both the quality of the concert programmes and the ensemble's interpretational skill attracted the attention and recognition of the international arena and led to countless invitations abroad.

In 1983, after two complete representations of the chamber works of Webern at the Venice Biennale and a Webern Festival in Vienna, Cerha was able to handed over the direction of the Ensemble to his colleagues and friends, Schwertsik and HK Gruber, who was to eventually occupy the position on his own. From 2010 on, the international renown artists HK Gruber and Christian Muthspiel are "Artistic Partners" of the Ensemble. Apart from its concert engagements, radio and CD recordings, "die reihe" is regularly invited to perform at all leading festivals and institutions throughout Europe and the USA.

Conductors like Friedrich Cerha, HK Gruber, Arturo Tamayo, Dennis Russell Davies, Maria Bonaventura, John Cage, Nicholas Cleobury, Mathias Rüegg, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Stefan Soltesz, Erich Urbanner, Johannes Kalitzke, Kasper de Roo, Ernst Theis, Henry Brant, Peter Keuschnig, Peter Rundel, Erwin Ortner and soloists like Edita Gruberova, Thomas Larcher, Benkamin Schmid, Roland Batik, Marjana Lipovsek, Alexander Jenner, Thomas Christian, Robert Lehrbaumer, Alfons & Aloys Kontarsky, Marie-Thérèse Escribano, Timna Brauer, Ernst Kovacic, Julie Moffat, Maurizio Pollini, Wolfgang Schulz, Ludwig Streicher, HK Gruber, Mia Zabelka and Heinrich Schiff have worked with "die reihe".