International Contemporary Ensemble and Wet Ink Ensemble Combine at Target Margin Theater; Wet Ink Performs Premieres at the DiMenna Center

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

International Contemporary Ensemble and Wet Ink Ensemble
Combine at Target Margin Theater, December 8
Featuring Works on Themes of Text, Language, and Syntax by
Rebecka Ahvenniemi, Linda Catlin Smith, Anthony Braxton, and Eric Wubbels

Wet Ink Ensemble Performs the World Premiere of Kate Soper’s
Missing Scenes at the DiMenna Center, December 19
Plus NYC Premieres by Alex Mincek, Tonia Ko, and Sam Pluta

www.wetink.org | www.iceorg.org

New York, NY (November 30, 2021) — On Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 7:00pm, the International Contemporary Ensemble combines with the Wet Ink Ensemble at Target Margin Theater to present new works on themes of text, language, and syntax by Rebecka Ahvenniemi, Linda Catlin Smith, Anthony Braxton, and Eric Wubbels. Performers include Lesley Mok, Cory Smythe, Eric Wubbels, Dan Lippel, Mariel Roberts, Josh Modney, and Alice Teyssier. A livestream is available on the day of the performance at www.iceorg.org.

The event begins with a lecture by Rebecka Ahvenniemi about Pippi Longstocking, titled “Who Would Pippi Be as a Composer?” followed by a performance of her Sonata in Pippi Form (2020) for violin and piano. The program also features Linda Catlin Smith’s Dreamer Murmuring (2016), Ahvenniemi’s Dada-Aria (2019), Eric Wubbels’ If and Only If Mvt III (2018), and Anthony Braxton’s Quartet and Syntactic Ghost Trance Music Works.

On Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 8:00pm the Wet Ink Large Ensemble will appear at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music for a program that includes the world premiere of Kate Soper’s Missing Scenes and the NYC-premieres of point, point, point, point by Alex Mincek; Simple Fuel by Tonia Ko; and Actuate/Resonate by Sam Pluta.

Both Tonia Ko’s Simple Fuel (2018) and Sam Pluta’s Actuate/Resonate (2019) were commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. Simple Fuel is a 13-minute piece exploring concepts of movement: people’s emotional motivations, physical momentum, and the repetition of gestures. Watch a video of the Grossman Ensemble performing Simple Fuel at the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. Actuate/Resonate begins with an attack of synthesized drum sounds and instrumental orchestrations of those same drum sounds. It was written to take advantage of the specific acoustic qualities of the performance hall, where even the quietest sound on the stage is heard as if it were right in front of the listener. Watch a video of the Grossman Ensemble performing Actuate/Resonate at the University of Chicago.

Concert Information
Target Margin @ 7 Feat. the International Contemporary Ensemble and Wet Ink Ensemble
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 7:00pm
Target Margin Theater | 232 52nd St | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: Free, RSVP Required. Livestream available on www.iceorg.org  
Link: www.iceorg.org/events/2021/12/8/targetmargin7-december-8

Lecture by Rebecka Ahvenniemi: “Who Would Pippi Longstocking Be as a Composer?”
Rebecka Ahvenniemi – Sonata in Pippi Form (2020) for violin and piano 
Linda Catlin Smith – Dreamer Murmuring (2016) 
Rebecka Ahvenniemi – Dada-Aria (2019)
Eric Wubbels – If and Only If Mvt III (2018) 
Anthony Braxton – Quartet and Syntactic Ghost Trance Music Works

International Contemporary Ensemble:
     Dan Lippel, guitar
     Alice Teyssier, voice
     Cory Smythe, piano
     Josh Modney, violin
Special Guest: Lesley Mok, percussion

Wet Ink Ensemble:
     Josh Modney, violin
     Mariel Roberts, cello
     Eric Wubbels, piano

Wet Ink Large Ensemble
Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 8:00pm
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY
Tickets: $10 general admission, free for students
Link: www.wetink.org/events/season-23/wet-ink-large-ensemble

Kate Soper – Missing Scenes (2019-21) [World Premiere]
Alex Mincek – point, point, point, point (2020) [NYC Premiere]
Tonia Ko – Simple Fuel (2018) [NYC Premiere]
Sam Pluta – Actuate/Resonate (2019) [NYC Premiere]

Wet Ink Large Ensemble:
     Erin Lesser, flutes
     Karisa Antonio, oboe
     Rane Moore, clarinet
     Yuma Uesaka, bass clarinet
     Nanci Belmont, bassoon
     Geoff Diebel, saxophones
     Laura Weiner, horn
     Gareth Flowers, trumpet
     Ian Antonio, percussion
     Russell Greenberg, percussion
     Jacqui Kerrod, harp
     Julia den Boer, piano
     Josh Modney, violin
     Pala Garcia, violin
     Carrie Frey, viola
     Mariel Roberts, cello
     Greg Chudzik, bass
     Kate Soper, voice
     Sam Pluta, electronics
     Eric Wubbels, conductor
     Alex Mincek, conductor

About Wet Ink Ensemble
The Wet Ink Ensemble is a collective of composers, performers, and improvisers dedicated to adventurous music-making. Named “The Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018” by The New York Times, Wet Ink’s work is rooted in an ethos of innovation through collaboration, extending from the music and the unique performance practice developed in the “band” atmosphere of Wet Ink’s core ensemble of composer-performers, to projects with a broad range of renowned creators, from Evan Parker to George Lewis to Peter Ablinger, and committed performances of music by young and underrepresented composers, from today’s most promising emerging voices to the next generation of artists.

Hailed for “sublimely exploratory” (The Chicago Reader) and “dense, wild, yet artfully controlled” (The New York Times) performances and “uncompromisingly original music by its members, and unflagging belief in the power of collaboration” (The New Yorker), Wet Ink has been presenting concerts of new music at the highest level in New York City and around the world for over 20 years. Wet Ink’s programming celebrates the nexus of composition, improvisation and interpretation, from early collaborations with Christian Wolff and ZS to pioneering portrait concerts of Peter Ablinger, Mathias Spahlinger, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM composers, work with renowned creative musicians such as Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Darius Jones, and Katherine Young, and long-term collaborative projects with Wet Ink’s four acclaimed composer-members (Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels). In May 2020, the ensemble launched Wet Ink Archive, an online journal of adventurous music featuring writings and recordings by a wide range of artists (please visit at archive.wetink.org).

Wet Ink has been in residence at institutions including Duke University, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), Columbia University, the Royal Academy of Music (UK), and The Walden School, among many others, and has been featured on numerous recordings. Highlights include Katharina Rosenberger’s TEXTUREN, which was awarded a German Record Critics Prize, and solo records by Alex Mincek (Torrent), Kate Soper (IPSA DIXIT), Sam Pluta (Broken Symmetries), Eric Wubbels (Duos with Piano, Book 1), and Josh Modney (Engage), all of which were celebrated on various “Best of” lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bandcamp Daily, Sequenza 21, and The Nation. Wet Ink has released four acclaimed solo albums (Wet Ink Ensemble; Relay; Wet Ink: 20, which features the Wet Ink Large Ensemble; and Glossolalia/Lines on Black).

Wet Ink is co-directed by an octet of world class composers, improvisers, and interpreters that collaborate in band-like fashion, writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time. These directors are Erin Lesser (flutes), Alex Mincek (saxophone), Ian Antonio (percussion), Eric Wubbels (piano), Josh Modney (violin), Mariel Roberts (cello), Kate Soper (voice), and Sam Pluta (electronics). The Wet Ink Large Ensemble is a group of extraordinary New York City musicians that come together to play the world's most exciting and innovative music. Learn more at www.wetink.org.

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 39 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.

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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