International Contemporary Ensemble Presents World Premiere of Josh Modney's 'Firelight' Dec. 9

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Leah Rankin | Morahan Arts and Media
leah@morahanartsandmedia.com | (646) 378-9386

International Contemporary Ensemble Presents
World Premiere Performance of Josh Modney’s Firelight
at Target Margin Theater on December 9

Firelight Part of Modney’s “Ascending Primes” Project,
To Be Recorded and Released in 2023

www.iceorg.org

New York, NY (December 1, 2022) — International Contemporary Ensemble presents a free world premiere performance of violinist and composer Josh Modney’s Firelight in the Ensemble’s last concert of the year on Friday, December 9, 2022 at 7:30pm at Target Margin Theater. Featuring Modney on violin, alongside Gabby Diaz (violin), Kyle Armbrust (viola), Mariel Roberts (cello), and Cory Smythe (piano), the piece is an adventurous take on the classical piano quintet instrumentation.

Written at Millay Arts during Modney's residency in September 2022, Firelight incorporates improvisation, extended Just Intonation, and a "holistic approach to sound'' ranging from sonorously resonant harmony to noise. The work is the third in a series of five compositions that comprise Modney's ongoing "Ascending Primes" project, which will be recorded and released in 2023. The evening’s program also includes improvisatory explorations with David Byrd-Marrow (horn), eddy kwon (violin), and Anna Webber (saxophone).

The Ensemble’s December programming also includes a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill and his band Zooid for the NY premiere performance of his recent work Pathways on Saturday, December 3, 2022 at 7:30pm at NYU Skirball.

Concert Information
Firelight (World Premiere)
International Contemporary Ensemble
Friday, December 9, 2022 at 7:30pm
Target Margin Theater | 232 52nd Street | Brooklyn, NY 11220
Tickets: Free
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dec-9-target-margin-tickets-463899183947

Program to Include:
Josh Modney - Firelight (2022, World Premiere) for piano quintet
Cory Smythe & eddy kwon - Duo Set
Josh Modney, eddy kwon, Mariel Roberts, Anna Webber, David Byrd-Marrow - Improvisation Set
Gabby Diaz - Solo Performance

Artists
International Contemporary Ensemble
     Josh Modney, violin
     Gabby Diaz, violin
     Kyle Armbrust, viola
     Cory Smythe, piano
     David Byrd-Marrow, french horn
Anna Webber, saxophone
eddy kwon, violin
Mariel Roberts, cello

About International Contemporary Ensemble
With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the International Contemporary Ensemble – as a commissioner and performer at the highest level – amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music is made and experienced. The Ensemble’s 39 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time. Works by emerging composers have anchored the Ensemble’s programming since its founding in 2001, and the group’s recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music’s present.

Described as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), the Ensemble has become a leading force in new music throughout the last 20 years, having premiered over 1,000 works and having been a vehicle for the workshop and performance of thousands of works by student composers across the U.S. The Ensemble’s composer-collaborators—many who were unknown at the time of their first Ensemble collaboration—have fundamentally shaped its creative ethos and have continued to highly visible and influential careers, including MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey; long-time Ensemble collaborator, founding member, and 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun; and the Ensemble’s founder, 2012 MacArthur Fellow, and first-ever flutist to win Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Prize, Claire Chase.

A recipient of the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the International Contemporary Ensemble was also named Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year in 2014. The group has served as artists-in-residence at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival (2008-2020), Ojai Music Festival (2015-17), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2010-2015). In addition, the Ensemble has presented and performed at festivals in the U.S. such as Big Ears Festival and Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival, as well as abroad, including GMEM-Centre National de Création Musicale (CNCM) de Marseille, Vértice at Cultura UNAM, Warsaw Autumn, International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, and Cité de la Musique in Paris. Other performance stages have included the Park Avenue Armory, ice floes at Greenland’s Diskotek Sessions, Brooklyn warehouses, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and boats on the Amazon River.

The International Contemporary Ensemble advances music technology and digital communications as an empowering tool for artists from all backgrounds. Digitice provides high-quality video documentation for artist-collaborators and provides access to an in-depth archive of composers’ workshops and performances. The Ensemble regularly engages new listeners through free concerts and interactive, educational programming with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Curricular activities include a partnership at The New School’s College of Performing Arts (CoPA), along with a summer intensive program, called Ensemble Evolution, where topics of equity, diversity, and inclusion build new bridges and pathways for the future of creative sound practices. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the Ensemble. Read more at www.iceorg.org and watch over 350 videos of live performances and documentaries at www.digitice.org.

The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2022-23 concert season are made possible by the generous support of many individuals as well as the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., MAP Fund, Mid Atlantic Arts, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, The Cheswatyr Foundation, Amphion Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, New Music USA’s Organizational Development Fund, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The International Contemporary Ensemble was the Ensemble in Residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology from 2018-2021. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Photo credits: Josh Modney (pc: Fabio Blaser), Kyle Armbrust (pc: Digitice Media Team), David Byrd-Marrow (pc: Peter Gannushkin), Gabby Díaz (pc: Kate Lemmon), eddy kwon (Steven Pisano), Mariel Roberts (pc: Jessica Hallock), Cory Smythe (pc: Moritz Bichler), Anna Webber (pc: TJ Huff)

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