International Contemporary Ensemble Announces Two Landmark Events this November

For Immediate Release
Contact: Leah Rankin | Morahan Arts & Media
leah@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646-378-9386

International Contemporary
Ensemble Announces Two
Landmark Events this November

World Premiere by Stephen Prina
on November 6 & 8 at MoMA; 
Plus a Tribute to Anthony Braxton on
November 12 at Roulette

www.iceorg.org

October 1, 2025 (New York, NY) — The International Contemporary Ensemble is proud to announce two landmark events this November, showcasing the Ensemble’s commitment to presenting pioneering work at the intersection of new music and interdisciplinary art. 

On Thursday, November 6 and Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 7:00 p.m., the Ensemble joins forces with Either/Or and the Museum of Modern Art to present the world premiere of A Lick and a Promise by Stephen Prina. The immersive performances mark the culmination of MoMA’s groundbreaking exhibition—the first in-depth survey of Stephen Prina’s performance work. Known for his singular blend of conceptual art and music, Prina’s A Lick and a Promise expands on decades of exploratory practice. This new work considers the concept of time and the way it shifts cultural values.

The collaboration between International Contemporary Ensemble, Either/Or, and MoMA underscores Prina’s longstanding commitment to recontextualization and appropriation as intimate reflection. With an international exhibition history and works housed in major museum collections including MoMA, the Tate, and the Whitney, Prina is widely celebrated as one of the most intellectually provocative and musically daring artists of his generation.

The following week, on Wednesday, November 12 at 8:00 p.m. at Roulette Intermedium the Ensemble takes the stage for The Music of Anthony Braxton: Concert and Reflections. Together with Braxton’s former collaborator, MacArthur Fellow Mary Halvorson, and the Ensemble’s Artistic Director George Lewis, the concert is a highlight of Roulette’s 2025 season-long tribute to the legendary composer’s 80th birthday. The concert features works by Braxton and Halvorson, performed by a ten-piece ensemble.

A pre-concert conversation between Mary Halvorson and George Lewis will offer rare insight into Braxton’s legacy and the evolution of experimental music across generations. Their mutual interview format invites reflection on the personal, artistic, and political resonances of Braxton’s music.

Braxton’s expansive oeuvre blends influences from jazz and classical avant-garde traditions, creating unique musical systems such as Ghost Trance Music and ZIM Music. His vision of "global creativity" has shaped generations of artists and thinkers. This performance is part of Roulette’s monthlong celebration, following their gala earlier this year and culminating in a four-part series throughout November.

Whether collaborating with visual artists like Stephen Prina or celebrating giants of experimental music like Anthony Braxton, the Ensemble remains dedicated to fostering dialogue, exploration, and discovery in contemporary music.

Concert Information
World Premiere of Stephen Prina’s A Lick and a Promise
Thursday, November 6 & 8, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
MoMA, Kravis Studio | 11 West 53rd Street | New York, NY, 10019
Tickets: $30
Link: https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/10796 

Program:
Stephen Prina: The Way He Always Wanted It XI (2008)
Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise (2025, World Premiere)

Artists:
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, piccolo
Alice Teyssier, flute
Alexander Davis, bassoon
Dan Peck, tuba
Katinka Kleijn, cello
Eddie Kass, double bass
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Nathan Davis, percussion
________________________________________

The Music of Anthony Braxton: Concert and Reflections, with Mary Halvorson and George Lewis
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: FREE RSVP
Link: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36368/performance/11684486?performanceId=11684486 

Program:
Anthony Braxton: Selections from Ghost Trance Music and Diamond Curtain Wall Music
Mary Halvorson: Belladonna
Mary Halvorson: Verdant Glitters

Artists: 
Josh Modney, violin
Johnna Wu, violin
Kyle Armbrust, viola
Mariel Roberts, cello
Dan Lippel, guitar
Fay Victor, voice
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet
Erika Dohi, piano
Rebekah Heller, bassoon

About Either/Or
Praised by The New York Times as "an ensemble that plays by its own rules" and "a trustworthy purveyor of new sounds,” Either/Or has been at the forefront of New York's contemporary music scene since 2004. Winner of the 2015 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, Either/Or focuses on new, recently composed, and rare works for various and often times unconventional instrumentations. Programmed by Director Richard Carrick and Curator Christopher McIntyre, the group’s projects are brought to life by its roster of 17 world-class musicians and special guests.

Either/Or has performed throughout the Northeast at venues including Philadelphia Museum of Art, ICA Boston, Miller Theatre, The Kitchen, as well as California and Swedish tours and frequent appearances at local experimental music venues such as The Stone, Roulette, and ISSUE Project Room.

Either/Or’s programming is aesthetically inclusive, ranging from the American Experimental tradition (Cage, Feldman, Lucier, Ashley) to the historical and contemporary European avant-garde, with a special emphasis on composers working outside the institutional mainstream. The group has premiered more than 200 works since its inception, not including dozens of student compositions. They have worked closely with many leaders in contemporary composition including George Lewis, Zeena Parkins, Beat Furrer, John Zorn, Miya Masaoka, Elliott Sharp, Helmut Lachenmann, Anthony Coleman, and Thomas Meadowcroft. Either/Or has received great acclaim for its numerous career-spanning portrait concerts, all of which were firsts in the US. Portrait composers include Iancu Dumitrescu, Ana Maria Avram, Chaya Czernowin, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Horatiu Radulescu, Karin Rehnqvist, Rebecca Saunders, Hans Thomalla, and Raphae¨l Cendo. The group brought many of these composers to New York City for public lectures and teaching engagements. 

Either/Or has released ten full-length recordings of works commissioned or premiered by them on New World Records, Edition Moderne, Starkland, and Sterling labels. www.eitherormusic.org 

About the International Contemporary Ensemble
Described as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), the International Contemporary Ensemble is dedicated to supporting living composers through commissioning, developing, and premiering new works. Now in its third decade, the Ensemble has premiered over 1,000 works and plays a pivotal role in launching and shaping the careers of today’s most influential composers. Through its bold programming and innovative curation, the Ensemble continues to redefine the possibilities of contemporary music.

The International Contemporary Ensemble has brought its vision of a mosaic musical ecosystem to festivals and venues all over the world including Carnegie Hall, Maerzmusik/Berliner Festspiele, Warsaw Autumn, Miller Theatre Composer Portraits, Museum of Modern Art New York, Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, HEAR NOW Los Angeles, Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, NYU Skirball, Pioneer Works, Oberlin College, House of World Cultures, Ojai Music Festival, Peabody Conservatory, TIME:SPANS Festival, Big Ears Festival, Adelaide Festival, the Dutch National Opera, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Japan Society.

Through trailblazing initiatives such as the Call for ____ Commission Program and Ensemble Evolution (in partnership with The New School’s College of Performing Arts), the Ensemble has had a major impact on the contemporary performance ecosystem in New York City, nationally, and internationally, supporting the creativity of its composer-collaborators and presenting workshops and performances for hundreds of student composers. Many of the Ensemble’s composer-collaborators have developed highly influential careers, such as Du Yun, who won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for the opera Angel’s Bone, which the Ensemble developed and premiered, and MacArthur Fellows Courtney Bryan and Tyshawn Sorey, winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize.

The Ensemble’s Digitice platform provides high-quality video documentation for artist-collaborators, as well as public access to an archive of composers’ workshops and performances. In addition, the Ensemble continues to build space for dialogue on equity, and has facilitated New Music Virtual Town Hall meetings for peer organizations and individual musicians to share resources, processes, and initiatives around equity and inclusion.

Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the Ensemble. Read more at www.iceorg.org 

The Tribute to Anthony Braxton at Roulette Intermedium is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound.org.

??The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2025-26 concert season are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors, 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., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music, Fromm Music Foundation, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Siemens Musikstiftung, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Legislature. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Photo credit: Carolyn Wachnick

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