Dec. 9: American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) Performs Music by Gavin Bryars, Qasim Naqvi, and Clarice Jensen Presented by Strathmore

[Note: Photo by Mark Shelby Perry available at www.jensenartists.com/acme.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Maggie Stapleton, Jensen Artists
646.536.7864 x2, maggie@jensenartists.com

American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME)
Presented by Strathmore
Performing Music by Gavin Bryars, Qasim Naqvi, and Clarice Jensen

Tuesday, December 9, 2021 at 7:30pm
AMP by Strathmore | 11810 Grand Park Avenue (4th Floor) | North Bethesda, MD
Tickets and information: https://bit.ly/ACMEatStrathmore

ACME: www.acmemusic.org

North Bethesda, MD – On Tuesday, December 9, 2021 at 7:30pm, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is presented by Strathmore at AMP by Strathmore (11810 Grand Park Avenue, 4th Floor). This program, Resonance, features deeply immersive works by Gavin Bryars, Qasim Naqvi, and ACME cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, that surround listeners with a rich sound and create a captivating experience.

Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic evokes the devastating yet contemplative sounds of that tragedy inspired by the story that the ship’s band performed a beautiful hymn as it sank, and that the music continued to reverberate through the water even after the ship was gone. Naqvi’s Chukwa swells and recedes throughout, as if to hear the music breathing as a living being. In Jensen’s For this from that will be filled (b), drones, long loops, and a field recording from New York’s Grand Central Terminal interweave with acoustic and heavily processed cello, which conjures the sound of machinery. The work examines sonic repetition and solicits both meditation and disorientation.

For this from that will be filled (b) is from Jensen’s 2018 solo album. According to NPR, the work is “impressive” and the recording “delivers cavernous reverb, a rumbling drone and beams of processed cello, fanning out like a searchlight. Eventually, the music sheds its processed clothes to reveal, for the first time on the album, the voice of a single acoustic cello, in all its chestnut-colored beauty.”

ACME players for this concert include violinists Ravenna Lipchik and Laura Lutzke; violist Isabel Hagen; cellist Clarice Jensen; percussionist Chihiro Shibayama; guitarist Grey Mcmurray, and Qasim Naqvi on modular synthesizer.

Over the past fifteen years, led by cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, ACME has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. The membership of the amorphous collective includes some of the brightest young stars in the field. NPR calls them “contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings reports, “ACME’s absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy. . . Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the “virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.”

The ensemble has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts, UCLA's Royce Hall, Stanford Live, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Duke Performances, The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, Melbourne Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow's Parties in England, Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand, Summer Nostos Festival in Greece, Boston Calling, and Big Ears in Knoxville, TN.

World premieres given by ACME include Ingram Marshall’s Psalmbook, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass (commissioned by ACME in 2015; recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in 2019), Caroline Shaw's Ritornello, Phil Kline's Out Cold, William Brittelle's Loving the Chambered Nautilus, Timo Andres’ Senior and Thrive on Routine, Caleb Burhans’ Jahrzeit, and many more. In 2016 at The Kitchen, ACME premiered Clarice Jensen’s transcription of Julius Eastman’s The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc for ten cellos, the score of which had been lost since the premiere in 1981. Jensen transcribed a recording of the work to recreate the score.

ACME’s collaborators have included The Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, Gibney Dance, Satellite Ballet, Meredith Monk, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, actress Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Blonde Redhead, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, Micachu & The Shapes, Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and Theo Bleckmann.

In 2017, ACME released its first portrait album on Sono Luminus, featuring music by members Caroline Shaw, Timo Andres, and Caleb Burhans, plus John Luther Adams. The release was featured as Album of the Week on Q2 Music and The Strad raved, “Warmth and care are fully evident in the ensemble’s immaculate, considered performances – the four composers could hardly wish for more committed, convincing accounts of their music.” ACME's recordings also appear on Deutsche Grammophon, Butterscotch Records, New World Records, and New Amsterdam Records.