ICE Announces Fall Concerts Across NYC, Celebrating Composer Relationships

The pioneering International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) announces its fall 2017 season in The New York area, all following the theme of celebrating composer relationships, both past and future.

Established leaders in New York's avant-garde music scene, ICE's fall brings them to Brooklyn's innovative National Sawdust and Roulette Intermedium; Manhattan's Miller Theater, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Abrons Arts Center, and New York Public Library; the lauded Peak Performances series at Montclair University in New Jersey; and at Phoenicia, New York's Mount Tremper Arts.

"As we celebrate the fifth season of OpenICE, ICE's initiative to bring free concerts to new audiences around the world, the ensemble is also exploring new collaborations with composers first encountered in the ICElab and OpenICE commissioning programs," says Artistic Director Ross Karre. "With regional and world premieres from over a dozen composers, more opportunities to participate in behind-the-scenes workshops, and partnerships with radical presenters around the world, ICE is excited to bring new sounds and creative expressions to our ever-expanding community."

On Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 8:15 p.m., ICE performs as part of the fifth annual Resonant Bodies Festival at Roulette Intermedium. With the support of Culture Ireland, the program features the wild and unpredictable composer, improviser, and vocalist Jennifer Walshe in collaboration with ICE in Walshe's The Church of Frequency and Protein (2010) for voice, trumpet, trombone, two percussion, piano, guitar, cello and DVD.

From September 7 - 10, 2017 at Abrons Arts Center, ICE celebrates the fifth anniversary of OpenICE, its initiative focused on sharing the most essential elements of ICE's working process - creation, collaboration, and performance - with a wider audience, through free concerts and activities. The three day residency includes children's programming, lunchtime composer-performer sessions, multimedia installations and screenings, and two anniversary concerts. Launched in 2015, OpenICE continues to develop, engage, and sustain diverse 21st-century listeners through an outpouring of free artist-driven programming that is open to the public. The program serves a wide range of constituencies, ranging from those with limited access to the art form to students of all ages and backgrounds.

On Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. at Mount Tremper Arts in Phoenicia, NY, ICE and composer/vocalist IONE present a workshop performance including excerpts of The Nubian Word for Flowers, a opera by Pauline Oliveros with story and libretto by IONE, in collaboration with Experiments in Opera. Praised by the LA Times for its "vastness and fearless intensity of tone," The Nubian Word for Flowers is a deep dream exploration of colonial mind and Nubian soul, in which Lord Herbert Horatio Kitchener, Britain's Secretary of State for War, is transported from a sinking WWI warship to a surreal Nubian island of flowers that he himself once cultivated under Queen Victoria. Here he must face an enigmatic Nubian Boatman and phantoms of a displaced people, as well as figures from his own life.

Peak Performances presents the world premiere of Ashley Fure's The Force of Things: An Opera for Objects at Montclair University on Friday, October 6 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, October 7 at 3:00 p.m.; Saturday, October 7 at 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday, October 8 at 3:00 p.m. This wordless drama, created with Fure's architect brother Adam Fure and International Contemporary Ensemble, "probes the animate vitality of matter." The audience sits beneath a canopy of familiar and exotic objects, while performers spur them into action and singers, like the sirens of mythology, shout and whisper warnings, luring the audience into an entirely new way of listening.

On Thursday, October 19, 2017 at 5:00 p.m., ICE performs a free concert celebrating their long-term collaboration with composer Sabrina Schroeder at Bruno Walter Auditorium, presented by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. ICE and Schroeder began their partnership during the years of ICElab and continued this past summer in the mountains of Alberta, Canada and through our OpenICE program. On this program, Sabrina discusses her work and ICE engages her in a discussion of the new collaborative work which will premiere during this concert season at National Sawdust.

As part of a season-long residency at National Sawdust, ICE performs Marcela Rodriguez Ramirez's Las cartas de Frida Opera de toilette? on Thursday, October 19 & Friday, October 20 at 8:00 p.m., 2017. Written for nine instruments, one mezzo-soprano, and an actress, this chamber opera presents an intertwining of minimalism and postmodernism, texturing the contemporary score with tunes that evoke Mexican folklore. The staging involves some of Frida's imaginary companions: her Judas and her calacas (skeletons), which appear as a near extension of the artist herself, embodying her delusions, passions and fears. On Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 4:00 p.m., ICE premieres works by Sabrina Schroeder and Monte Weber, celebrating the relationships and collaborations fostered in their ICElab and OpenICE commissioning programs

On Thursday, November 16, 2017 at 8:00 p.m., ICE performs a Marcos Balter Composer Portrait at the Miller Theater. Balter has composed many works for ICE over the last decade, including Descent from Parnassus and Codex Seraphinianus, which are on the Miller Theater program. The concert also features Balter's Violin Concerto (2016) with soloist David Bowlin, led by conductor David Fulmer. Descent from Parnassus features flutist and ICE founder Claire Chase.

November also includes two concerts celebrating the late Pauline Oliveros, frequent collaborator and close friend of ICE. On Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at 7:30 p.m., ICE pays tribute to Oliveros at Baryshnikov Arts Center in a program of excerpts from The Nubian Word for Flowers, performed by International Contemporary Ensemble under the direction of writer and sound artist IONE. This event offers a glimpse into the hybrid process of posthumous creation, and invite discussion around topics of interpretation and remembrance. ICE and IONE reprise Oliveros' The Nubian Word for Flowers at Roulette Intermedium on Thursday, November 30, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.

On Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., ICE will perform La Dolce Morte, Suzanne Farrin's monodrama for chamber ensemble and countertenor, presented by MetLive Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts' Gallery 534, Vélez Blanco Patio. Countertenor Eric Jurenas will perform the role of one of the most gifted artists who ever lived, Michelangelo, bringing to life his physically intense love poems to the young Tommaso dei Cavalieri. Commissioned by MetLiveArts, this monodrama was specifically designed for The Met's 16th-century Vélez Blanco Patio with staging by Doug Fitch.

Finally, on December 15, 2017 at 8:00 p.m., ICE presents the world premiere of Wojtek Blecharz's Music for Invisible Places, an OpenICE commission, at Abrons Art Center. Berlin-based Blecharz, who has workshopped the piece over several installations with ICE at Abrons, is a polyglot performer with long experience in intermedia. The new, transporting work, for a subset of ICE, is ideally suited to the open performance spaces at Abrons.

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Program Information:

Resonant Bodies Festival: Jennifer Walshe
Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 8:15 p.m.
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave. | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: Online $20 General/$15 Students and Seniors, At the Door $25 General /$20 Students and Seniors
Link: roulette.org/event/resonant-bodies-2017

Performers:
Cory Smythe, piano
Daniel Lippel, guitar
Katinka Kleijn, cello
Nathan Davis, percussion
Nathan Wooley, trumpet
Ross Karre, percussion
Weston Olencki, trombone

Program:
Jennifer Walshe - The Church of Frequency and Protein

Fifth Anniversary of OpenICE
September 7 - 10, 2017
Abrons Arts Center | 466 Grand St. | New York, NY
Link: www.abronsartscenter.org/on-stage/shows/international-contemporary-ensemble-ice-openice-fall-series

Mount Tremper Arts: The Nubian Word for Flowers
Saturday, September 23, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.
Mount Tremper Arts | 647 Plank Rd | Phoenicia, NY
Tickets: $15
Link: www.mounttremperarts.org/IONE

Program:
Pauline Oliveros (libretto by IONE) - The Nubian Word for Flowers

World Premiere of Ashley Fure's The Force of Things: An Opera for Objects
October 6-8, 2017
Montclair University | 1 Normal Ave | Montclair, NJ
Tickets: No charge for Montclair State undergraduates with ID. All others $20.
Link: www.peakperfs.org/event/the-force-of-things/2017-10-08

Performers:
Ashley Fure, composer
Alice Teyssier, soprano
Lucy Dhegrae, soprano
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Ryan Muncy, saxophone
Levy Lorenzo, percussion and electronics
Ross Karre, percussion
Nicholas Houfek, lights
Dustin Donahue, percussion

Program:
Ashley Fure - The Force of Things: An Opera for Objects

ICE and Sabrina Schroeder at New York Public Library
Thursday, October 19, 2017 at 5:00 p.m.
Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library | 111 Amsterdam Ave. | New York, NY
Tickets: Free
Link: iceorg.org/events/event/ice-and-sabrina-schroeder-at-nypl#.WZIZpneGPq0

Marcela Rodriguez Ramirez's Las cartas de Frida Opera de Toilette
Thursday, October 19 & Friday, October 20, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.
National Sawdust | 80 N 6th St | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $35 in Advance, $42 at the Door.
Link: October 19 - nationalsawdust.org/event/marcela-rodriguez-las-cartas-de-frida-opera-de-toilette/
October 20 - nationalsawdust.org/event/las-cartas-de-frida-opera-de-toilette/

Program:
Marcela Rodriguez Ramirez - Las cartas de Frida Opera de Toilette?

Sabrina Schroeder + Monte Weber Premieres
Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 4:00 p.m.
National Sawdust | 80 N 6th St | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $35 in Advance, $42 at the Door.
Link: nationalsawdust.org/event/classical-ice-presents-sabrina-schroeder-and-monte-weber

Performers:
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)
Monte Weber, electronics/composer
Sabrina Schroeder, electronics/composer

Marcos Balter Composer Portrait
Thursday November 16, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.
Miller Theater | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY
Tickets: $7-30
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/marcos-balter

Performers:
Marcos Balter, composer
David Bowlin, violin
Claire Chase, flute
David Fulmer conductor
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)

Program:
Marcos Balter - Violin Concerto (2016)
Marcos Balter - Landscape of Fear (2015)
Marcos Balter - Codex Seraphinianus (2014)
Marcos Balter - Descent from Parnassus (2012)

BAC Salon: Pauline Oliveros
November 28, 2017 at 8:00 p.m
Baryshnikov Arts Center | 450 W 37th St. | NYC
Tickets: $20
Link: bacnyc.org/performances/performance/bac-salon-pauline-oliveros

Program:
Pauline Oliveros (libretto by IONE) - The Nubian Word for Flowers

Pauline Oliveros: The Nubian Word for Flowers
November 30, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave. | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $20 General/$15 Students and Seniors Online; $25 General/$20 Students and Seniors At the Door
Link: roulette.org/event/the-nubian-word-for-flowers-a-phantom-opera-rainbird/

Performers:
Michael Weyandt - Bass Baritone (KofK, Herbert)
Delaram Kamareh - Coloratura Soprano (Hermione, Lily)
Peter Tantsits - Tenor (Colonel Oswald, Lord C)
Alice Teyssier - Mezzo Soprano (Orkney Woman and Sybille)
Zizo - Baritone and Oud, Flute, Duff (The Nubian Boatman)
IONE - Text and Vocals (The Interviewer)

International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE):
Nicholas DeMaison - Music Director
IONE - Direction
Rebecca Rouse - Assistant Director and Dramaturg
Monica Duncan and Ross Karre - Video Design
Nick Houfek - Lighting Design
Senem Pirler - Sound Engineer

Program:
Pauline Oliveros (libretto by IONE) - The Nubian Word for Flowers

MetLive Arts: La Dolce Morte
Friday, December 8, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Gallery 534, Vélez Blanco Patio | 1000 5th Ave | NYC
Tickets: Tickets start at $95. Bring the Kids for $1.
Link: www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/concerts/la-dolce-morte

Program:
Suzanne Farrin - La Dolce Morte

World Premiere of Wojtek Blecharz's Music for Invisible Places
December 15, 2017 at 8:00 p.m.
Abrons Arts Center | 466 Grand St. | New York, NY
Tickets: Free with reservation at link below.
Link: www.abronsartscenter.org/on-stage/shows/international-contemporary-ensemble-ice-openice-fall-series

Program:
Wojtek Blecharz - Music for Invisible Places (World Premiere)

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The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is an artist collective committed to 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 has been featured at the Ojai Music Festival since 2015, and has appeared at festivals abroad such as Acht Brücken Cologne and Musica nova Helsinki. Other recent performance stages include 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 catalogues the ensemble's performances in a free online streaming video library. 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 youth 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. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE. Read more at iceorg.org.