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Press Releases
International Contemporary Ensemble Announces Spring 2019 Concerts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE ANNOUNCES SPRING 2019 CONCERTS
“the new gold standard for new music” – The New Yorker
New York, NY (December 12, 2018) — The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) announces their spring 2019 season concerts. Engagements this spring include performances of Tyshawn Sorey’s Perle Noire: Meditations For Joséphine featuring rising soprano Julia Bullock at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Miller Theatre Composer Portraits of Wang Lu and Tyshawn Sorey, three performances at the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, and Silent Voices: Lovestate with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at The New Victory Theater in NYC. The Ensemble also continues its partnerships with the New York Public Library and Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology throughout the spring.
The International Contemporary Ensemble opens its 2019 spring season with two performances of Perle Noire: Meditations for Joséphine on Wednesday, January 16 and Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 8:00pm at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Described by The New York Times as "one of the most important works of art yet to emerge from the era of Black Lives Matter," the work is composed by Tyshawn Sorey with texts by poet Claudia Rankine, both MacArthur Fellows. Soprano Julia Bullock, MetLiveArts 2018-19 Artist in Residence, inhabits the body of a reimagined Joséphine Baker on the steps of The Met's Great Hall in this darker, more intimate consideration of the life and legacy of the famous singer, activist, and cultural icon. Perle Noire was funded through First Page, ICE's Commissioning Program, with lead support provided by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting. The production is conceived by Peter Sellars and directed by Zack Winokur with choreography by Michael Schumacher.
On Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 8:00pm, ICE joins Yarn/Wire for a Miller Theatre Composer Portrait of composer and pianist Wang Lu. Brought up in a musical family with strong Chinese opera and folk music traditions, Wang Lu’s works reflect a very natural identification with those influences, through the prism of contemporary instrumental techniques and new sonic possibilities. Musicians of ICE and Yarn/Wire, both long-standing champions of Wang Lu, perform the world premiere of a new work commissioned by Miller Theatre as well as her Childhood Amnesia (2017), Rates of Extinction (2016), Urban Inventory (2015), and Siren Song (2008).
ICE returns to the 2019 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN on Thursday, March 21, 2019 at 10:00am and Sunday, March 24, 2019 at 11:00am. ICE’s programs include works by Carla Kihlstedt, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Ellen Reid, and Ashley Fure.
ICE returns to the lauded Miller Theatre Composer Portrait series for a portrait of composer Tyshawn Sorey on Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 8:00pm. Joined by the JACK Quartet and the composer himself, ICE’s program includes the world premiere of Sorey’s Autoschediasms for Creative Chamber Orchestra (2019), commissioned by Miller Theatre; the New York premiere of a new string quartet for JACK; and Sorey’s Violin and Glockenspiel, in Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams (2018); Bertha’s Lair (2016); and Ornations (2014).
In five performances from May 2-5, 2019, ICE partners with the acclaimed Brooklyn Youth Chorus for Silent Voices: Lovestate at The New Victory Theater in New York City. Featuring commissions by Pulitzer Prize winners David Lang and Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Paola Prestini, Toshi Reagon, and others, Silent Voices: Lovestate explores a young generation's vision of a more inclusive and compassionate future. Driven by their own personal stories and struggles, the remarkable young singers of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus harness the power of their voices to confront the challenges of racism and sexism, as well as their own identities, orientations, boundaries and belonging.
In Spring 2019, ICE performs in Reich Richter Pärt at The Shed, an exploration of a shared language between painting and music and the ways each medium affects our sensory experience of the other. The Shed’s Level 2 Gallery will be divided into two spaces: one will house a collaboration between composer Steve Reich and painter Gerhard Richter, the other between Richter and composer Arvo Pärt. The Reich Richter collaboration expands on both Richter’s formula for his “Patterns” series (which divides, mirrors, and repeats a single painting) and Reich’s systematic mid-century compositions, reimagined in relation to Richter’s structure. The music and paintings join in a new, shared structure, creating an immersive experience. The world premiere of Reich’s newly commissioned score will be performed by musicians from Ensemble Signal and International Contemporary Ensemble. The Richter Pärt partnership builds on a concept developed by Alex Poots and Hans Ulrich Obrist for the Manchester International Festival. Members of Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Brooklyn Youth Chorus will perform Pärt’s music in the other half of the gallery.
Program Information
Perle Noire: Meditations For Joséphine
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at 8:00pm
Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 8:00pm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art | 1000 5th Ave. | New York, NY
Tickets: $125. Tickets to this event include Museum admission during open hours.
Link: https://www.metmuseum.org/
Performers:
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Julia Bullock, soprano
Tyshawn Sorey, composer, percussion, and piano
Conceived by Peter Sellars
Directed by Zack Winokur
Texts by Claudia Rankine
Choreography by Michael Schumacher
Program:
Tyshawn Sorey: Perle Noire: Meditations for Josephine
Wang Lu Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre
Thursday, February 21, 2019 at 8:00pm
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY
Tickets: $20-30
Link: https://www.millertheatre.com/
Performers:
Wang Lu, composer
International Contemporary Ensemble
Yarn/Wire
Program:
Wang Lu: New Work for Yarn/Wire (2019) [World Premiere, Miller Theatre co-commission]
Wang Lu: Childhood Amnesia (2017)
Wang Lu: Rates of Extinction (2016)
Wang Lu: Urban Inventory (2015)
Wang Lu: Siren Song (2008)
Big Ears Festival 2019
Thursday, March 21, 2019 at 10:00am
Sunday, March 24, 2019 at 11:00am
Various Venues, Knoxville, TN
Tickets: $225-650 for Weekend Pass
Link: https://bigearsfestival.org/
Tyshawn Sorey Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre
Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 8:00pm
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY
Tickets: $20-30
Link: https://www.millertheatre.com/
Performers:
Tyshawn Sorey, composer
JACK Quartet
International Contemporary Ensemble
Program:
Tyshawn Sorey: Autoschediasms for Creative Chamber Orchestra (2019) [World Premiere, Miller Theatre commission]
Tyshawn Sorey: New Quartet for JACK (2018) [New York Premiere]
Tyshawn Sorey: Violin and Glockenspiel, in Memoriam Muhal Richard Abrams (2018)
Tyshawn Sorey: Bertha’s Lair (2016)
Tyshawn Sorey: Ornations (2014)
Silent Voices: Lovestate with Brooklyn Youth Chorus at The New Victory Theater
Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 7:00pm
Saturday, May 4, 2019 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm
Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 12:00pm and 4:00pm
The New Victory Theater | 209 W 42nd St. | New York, NY
Tickets: Tickets start at $17.
Link: https://www.newvictory.org/
About the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is an artist collective that is transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performer, curator, and educator, ICE 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 ICE’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, ICE 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. ICE 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 ICE 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. ICE'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 ICE 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 ICE and attend workshops on topics from interpretation to concert production. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE. Read more at www.iceorg.org.
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