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Press Releases
International Contemporary Ensemble Announces 20th Anniversary Season in 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214
International Contemporary Ensemble
Announces 20th Anniversary Season in 2022
Celebrating the Artists Who Have Shaped the First Two Decades,
and Those Who Will Shape the Third Decade
March 3: Felipe Lara Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre at Columbia University,
Led by Artist-in-Residence Vimbayi Kaziboni
April 7: Matana Roberts Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre at Columbia University
April 29-30: Du Yun's Zolle and A Cockroach’s Tarantella at NYU Skirball
May 4-7: MATA Festival at Roulette Intermedium and National Sawdust
May 26: New Works by Kate Gentile and Fay Victor at Roulette Intermedium
Developing 8 New Works with the “Call For __” Commissioned Artists
Summer 2022: The Sixth Year of Ensemble Evolution, the
Third Consecutive Year at The New School’s College of Performing Arts
“One of the most accomplished and adventurous groups in new music.”
— The New York Times
New York, NY (February 8, 2022) — For 20 years, the International Contemporary Ensemble has been a home for experimental new music, the artists who make it, and the community that supports it. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Ensemble announces a season of performances and programs highlighting the artists who have shaped the past two decades, many of them skyrocketing to individual prominence, and those who will shape the third. Highlights of the season include new Ensemble members Matana Roberts and Fay Victor presenting their work at Miller Theatre and Roulette Intermedium respectively; Artist-in-Residence Vimbayi Kaziboni conducting a portrait concert of composer Felipe Lara; and a NYU Skirball presentation of two works by founding Ensemble member and Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun.
As the International Contemporary Ensemble enters its third decade, it re-commits to being a home for artists to develop their authentic practice with adventurous collaborators, realize their work at the highest level, and take part in the co-creation of a musical ecosystem that honors the diversity of human expression and experience. Other artists championed by the Ensemble over the last two decades include Rome Prize-winner Ash Fure, MacArthur Foundation Fellow Tyshawn Sorey, Nordic Council Music Prize-winner Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Rome Prize-winner Suzanne Farrin, MacArthur Foundation Fellow George E. Lewis, and many more.
Composer Marcos Balter, one of the Ensemble's first iceLAB-commissions in 2011 and Board Member, comments, “To act boldly requires courage. To exist boldly, however, requires much more than that. For two decades, the International Contemporary Ensemble has always chosen the uncharted and the unearthed not as destinations but as home. The trust and dedication of its musicians, and their advocacy towards new voices in contemporary music have changed the trajectories of so many artists around the globe, myself included.”
Felipe Lara, composer and longtime collaborator, agrees, “I consider the International Contemporary Ensemble my musical family. I started working with [the Ensemble] sixteen years ago, in 2006. Our collaborations have been central to my musical journey over the years and remain as fertile as ever to this day. It is hard to imagine myself as an artist, as well as the new music community in New York, and the US as a whole, without [the Ensemble’s] presence, their vision, commitment, courage, and excitement. Here’s to the next twenty years of brilliance, innovation, and activism!”
Mixed media composer and sound experimentalist Matana Roberts adds, “The International Contemporary Ensemble operates in a manner that puts community, arts care, and mutual creative respect above all else. Their impact on me as an arts person has been somewhat vital and immense during such uncertain times. They move as an malleable organism that creates a creative interdependence that I have seen spread in so many hopeful directions, since my short time with them. I deeply admire their continued courage and fortitude.”
In line with the Ensemble's commitment to intergenerational collaboration and opportunities for shared learning, the yearly Ensemble Evolution program, in partnership with The New School’s College of Performing Arts (CoPA), will engage over 30 pre-professional artists in a tuition-free intensive. Now in its 6th year since its founding by Claire Chase and Steven Shick, Ensemble Evolution invites creative artists into a collaborative environment that fosters social consciousness and new modes of community-building through music, imagining pathways forward for the future of collective music making.
Beginning in March 2022, the Ensemble will also develop new work with the 8 composers of its "Call for ___'' commissioning program: Lesley Mok, Kevin Ramsay, Mazz Swift, Chris Ryan Williams, Sandra Kluge, Bonita Oliver, Cleo Reed, and Sylvain Souklaye. These workshops and world premieres, representing mostly first-time collaborations with the Ensemble, will take place in the spring and fall. Additionally, the Ensemble will work alongside graduate Columbia University composers – Dani Dobkin, Nina Fukuoka, Louis Goldford, Saad Haddad, Uri Kochavi, and Bethany Younge – resulting in six world premieres in April 2022.
The International Contemporary Ensemble, a longtime advocate of Brazilian-American composer Felipe Lara, performs two of his substantial recent works for a Miller Theatre Composer Portrait on Thursday, March 3, 2022 at 8:00pm. Ensemble Artist-in-Residence Vimbayi Kaziboni conducts. The program features Chambered Spirals (2020) and Metafagote (2015), a work for solo bassoon and six pre-recorded spatialized bassoons that results in the creation of an astonishing soundworld, developed with and performed by Ensemble bassoonist Rebekah Heller, who released a recording of Metafagote to critical acclaim in 2017.
The Ensemble returns to Miller Theatre for a Composer Portrait of American mixed media composer, sound experimentalist, and new Ensemble member Matana Roberts on Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 8:00pm. Roberts performs alongside the Ensemble, bass clarinet and pocket trumpeter Matt Lavelle, wordspeak artist Geng/King Vision Ultra, and percussionist Tomas Fujiwara for the world premiere commission of a new iteration of I call america: Sandy Speaks, a multimedia work for 13 improvising musicians written in reflection of the life and death of Sandra Bland.
At the heart of the 20th anniversary season is a revisiting of Du Yun's opera Zolle at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, April 29, 2022 and Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 7:30pm. The work, which centers around themes of belonging, migration, and identity, will be the inspiration for a series of community-engaged events featuring the artists of Zolle, as well as emerging diasporic artists such as artist and Ensemble Director of Individual Giving, Eddy Kwon. A Cockroach’s Tarantella explores religion and belonging as the essential quest, as well as the existential dread that all sentient beings experience, cockroach or not. Scored for ensemble, electronics, and spoken word, with Du Yun as the narrator and Satomi Matsuzaki as Deerhoof, the two works together explore humankind’s ubiquitous fascination with movement and alienation, amidst the hope of belonging. Du Yun's personal story – a founding member in 2001, a Pulitzer Prize-winner among many other awards and accolades, and now a leader on the board of directors and of her own initiatives – is one way the Ensemble's vision of artistic homebuilding has been realized and propelled by its members.
From May 4-6, 2022, the Ensemble performs concerts at Roulette Intermedium and National Sawdust as ensemble-in-residence of the 2022 MATA Festival, performing three concerts curated by MATA artist-in-residence, Darius Jones. 30 artists and collaborators will perform more than 20 works over the three days, including composers Michele Cheng, Fernanda Navarro, Nyokabi Kariuki, Laura Brackney, Shara Lunon, Nina Fukuoka, Christopher Williams, Hakan Ulus, Vicente Hansen, Cameron Graham, Jess Rowland, Naftali Schindler, Mengmeng Wang, June Young Will Kim, Christian Dimpker, Francisco del Pino, Shuyu Lin, John Aulich, Travis LaPlante, Piyawat Louilarpprasert, and Wajdi Abou Diab.
On Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 8:00pm, the International Contemporary Ensemble, NYC Winter Jazzfest, and Roulette Intermedium co-present Fay Victor’s SIRENS AND SILENCES and the world premiere of Kate Gentile’s biome ii at Roulette. SIRENS AND SILENCES (2020) was commissioned by the Jazz Coalition and is a “memory document” composition created to encapsulate “the moments when NYC was the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic and the sonic experience of living through that,” according to Victor. biome ii (2021), Kate Gentile’s 13-movement composition for septet, was commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble. It consists of musical abstractions that twist and connect in “dream logic”-like ways, as if representing aspects of unfamiliar but interconnected systems, such as the balance of alien ecologies on a distant moon orbiting a gas giant.
Looking ahead, the Ensemble’s season culminates in a 20th Anniversary Winter Gala (2023, Date TBA) that will celebrate the community of musicians, staff, and supporters that have made the Ensemble a vital home for new music and adventurous artists for over two decades. The gala will also share the Ensemble's expanded vision for its third decade and beyond, highlighting the artists, programs, and values that will be at the core of this exciting period of the Ensemble's evolution.
Program Information
Felipe Lara Composer Portrait
Thursday, March 3, 2022 at 8:00pm
Miller Theatre, Columbia University | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY, 10027
Tickets: $20-30
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/
Program:
Felipe Lara – Chambered Spirals (2020)
Felipe Lara – Metafagote (2015)
International Contemporary Ensemble
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor
Matana Roberts Composer Portrait
Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 8:00pm
Miller Theatre, Columbia University | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY, 10027
Tickets: $20-30
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/
Program:
Matana Roberts – I call america: Sandy Speaks (2019, rev. 2022) [World Premiere]*
Matana Roberts, composer/performer
International Contemporary Ensemble
Matt Lavelle, bass clarinet and pocket trumpet
Geng/King Vision Ultra, wordspeak/sampler
Tomas Fujiwara, drumset
*Miller Theatre Commission. This work was originally commissioned by the Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust for TIME:SPANS 2019
Du Yun's Zolle and A Cockroach’s Tarantella
Friday, April 29, 2022 at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 30, 2022 at 7:30pm
NYU Skirball | 566 LaGuardia Pl | New York, NY 10012
Tickets: https://nyuskirball.org/
2022 MATA Festival
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at 7:30pm
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: TBA
Link: www.matafestival.org/2022-
Program:
Michele Cheng – Doyennes Diaries
Fernanda Navarro – New Work [World Premiere]
Nyokabi Kariuki – The Colour of Home
Laura Brackney – Knots
Shara Lunon – Why I Believe Womyn
Nina Fukuoka – Sugar, Spice, and All Things Nice
Christopher Williams – Of Yours
Hakan Ulus – Auslöschung II*
International Contemporary Ensemble
*This work will be presented as a sound installation in the Roulette lobby
2022 MATA Festival
Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 7:30pm
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: TBA
Link: www.matafestival.org/2022-
Program:
Vicente Hansen – Beauchamp-Feuillet N.2
Cameron Graham – Life in Pink
Jess Rowland – Music for Cell Phone and Piano
Naftali Schindler – Chants, Pastorals, and Antiphons of the New Moon
Mengmeng Wang – The sounds I can hear when I miss you
June Young Will Kim – Black, Emerald
Hakan Ulus – Auslöschung II*
International Contemporary Ensemble
*This work will be presented as a sound installation in the Roulette lobby
2022 MATA Festival
Friday, May 6, 2022 at 7:30pm
National Sawdust | 80 N 6th St | Brooklyn, NY 11249
Tickets: $29.50 General Admission
Link: www.matafestival.org/2022-
Program:
Christian Dimpker – N. 11 (String Quartet 1)
Francisco del Pino – Un pez dorado
Shuyu Lin – In a Station of the Metro
John Aulich – Green, or Beautiful in Green
Travis LaPlante – The Obvious Place
Piyawat Louilarpprasert – Double Shuttering Sprinters
Wajdi Abou Diab – A Tune for Amer’s Horn
International Contemporary Ensemble
Travis LaPlante, saxophone
New Works by Kate Gentile and Fay Victor
Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 8:00PM
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: $20
Link: https://roulette.org/event/
Fay Victor: Sirens and Silences (2020)
International Contemporary Ensemble
Patrick Holmes, clarinet
Kalia Vandever, trombone
Mazz Swift, violin
Marika Hughes, cello
Kate Gentile: biome ii (2021) [World Premiere]
International Contemporary Ensemble
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Ross Karre, percussion
Kate Gentile, drumset
Matt Mitchell, piano
Jennifer Curtis, violin
Ensemble Evolution at The New School
June 25 - July 3, 2022
20th Anniversary Winter Gala
Dates TBA
About the 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 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.
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.
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