June 10: International Contemporary Ensemble and The City of Tomorrow Premiere Works by Ursula Mamlok, Natasha Anderson, and Felipe Lara at Roulette

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

International Contemporary Ensemble and The City of Tomorrow Perform Works
by Ursula Mamlok, Natasha Anderson, and Felipe Lara at Roulette, June 10 

Including US Premieres by Anderson and Lara and a World Premiere by Mamlok 
 

New York, NY (May 8, 2019) — On Monday, June 10, 2019 at 8:00pm at Roulette Intermedium, International Contemporary Ensemble and woodwind quintet The City of Tomorrow present a three-part concert featuring works by Ursula Mamlok, Natasha Anderson, and Felipe Lara under the direction of Nick DeMaison. The program includes rarely heard works by Ursula Mamlok alongside two US premieres by Anderson and Lara. 

Conductor Nicholas Demaison says, “In so many ways, Ursula Mamlock prefigured the lives of composers within the current new music ecosphere. Born in Berlin, she emigrated to Ecuador before settling in New York City, and, late in life, retired back to Berlin. The music on this program, chosen for its stylistic diversity, represents small points across her entire creative life: the Four German Songs (1958) on texts by Herman Hesse (not heard in their original version for string orchestra string since their creation), are within the finest of her early lyrical dodecaphonic writing. The middle Concertino for woodwind quintet and chamber orchestra (1987) brings us to the height of her thinking in complex relationships. Her final work, Breezes (2015), demonstrates her abiding interest in miniatures, as well as her observation that her ‘music keeps getting simpler.’”

International Contemporary Ensemble Co-Artistic Director Ross Karre adds, “Composers such as Felipe Lara (Brazilian, living in the United States) and Natasha Anderson (Australia, recently living in Berlin) prioritize combinations of sounds which mask the identities of the instruments themselves. Lara's interlocking, virtuosic expressions create a teeming cluster of activity in hyper-coordination. Anderson's lush, layered harmonies constantly shift between rare nodes of unity. In both cases, understanding where a sound comes from and how it is produced is as much a part of the audience's experience as the visceral waves of energy that the totality produces. The combination of the volatile soundscapes and precisely interlocking rhythmic puzzles invite the audience not into an intricate terrain where each listener must find their own vantage and understanding. Clarity of intention, which is evident at every moment in Ursula Mamlok's music, is traded for a house of mirrors for the audience's own thoughts in Natasha Anderson's Cleave and Felipe Lara's Brutal Mirrors.”

Program Information
Monday, June 10, 2019 at 8:00pm
Roulette | 509 Atlantic Avenue | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $18
Link: http://bit.ly/SP190610 

Performers:
International Contemporary Ensemble
The City of Tomorrow
Nick DeMaison, conductor

Program:
Ursula Mamlok: Four German Songs for string orchestra (World Premiere)
Ursula Mamlok: Breezes
Ursula Mamlok: Concertino for wind quintet & chamber orchestra
Natasha Anderson: Cleave (US Premiere)
Felipe Lara: Brutal Mirrors (US Premiere)

This performance is made possible in part by the generous support of the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation. 

About The City of Tomorrow
The City of Tomorrow is a woodwind quintet with a fearless aesthetic and a commitment to 21st-century music. Gold medalists of the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the ensemble has been presented in New York at the DiMenna Center, Trinity Wall Street, Spectrum, and at IN\TER/SECT, co-presented by Bryant Park and Chamber Music America. Their U.S. tours have included prestigious festivals and series, including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan, and Red Note New Music Festival in Illinois. The quintet’s work has also been supported by residencies at the Banff Center for Arts & Creativity and the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. Their 2018-19 season includes residencies at Tufts University in Boston and the Vermont College of Fine Art.

In 2015, the quintet began exploring physical movement and spatial relationships in their concert programming. Championing 20th and 21st-century works by Luciano Berio, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Julia Wolfe, and others, the quintet uses lighting and choreography to create a seamless and immersive musical experience. From 2012 to 2014, the quintet was engaged in a musical exploration of climate change, which culminated in the commissioning of major new works from composers Hannah Lash, Nat Evans, and John Aylward. The City of Tomorrow’s first album, Nature, released on PARMA/Ravello in 2014, further wrestled with questions of human involvement in the natural world. Exploration of these natural themes resulted in a new work from Hannah Lash, Leander and Hero, which was supported by a 2014 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant.

The City of Tomorrow’s members are in demand as performers, new music specialists, curators, collaborators, and teachers. As an ensemble, they have taught master classes and composition seminars at the University of Oregon, Berklee College of Music, Indiana University, San Francisco Conservatory, and Yale University. Members of the ensemble can also be heard with some of the finest ensembles in New York and beyond, including Talea Ensemble, ICE, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. 

About the International Contemporary Ensemble
The International Contemporary Ensemble is an artist collective that is transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performer, curator, and educator, the Ensemble explores how new music intersects with communities across the world. The Ensemble’s 35 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.

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 the 2014 Musical America Ensemble of the Year. The group currently serves as artists-in-residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Mostly Mozart Festival, and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The International Contemporary Ensemble was featured at the Ojai Music Festival from 2015 to 2017, and at recent festivals abroad such as gmem-CNCM-marseille and Vértice at Cultura UNAM, Mexico City. Other performance stages have included the Park Avenue Armory, The Stone, ice floes at Greenland’s Diskotek Sessions, and boats on the Amazon River.

New initiatives include OpenICE, made possible with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which offers free concerts and related programming wherever the Ensemble performs, and enables a working process with composers to unfold in public settings. DigitICE, a free online library of over 350 streaming videos, catalogues the Ensemble’s performances. The International Contemporary Ensemble’s First Page program is a commissioning consortium that fosters close collaborations between performers, composers, and listeners as new music is developed. EntICE, a side-by-side education program, places Ensemble musicians within youth orchestras as they premiere new commissioned works together; inaugural EntICE partners include Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and The People's Music School in Chicago. Summer activities include Ensemble Evolution at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, in which young professionals perform with the Ensemble and attend workshops on topics from interpretation to concert production. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the Ensemble. Read more at www.iceorg.org.  

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