International Contemporary Ensemble Joins the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians for PERFORMING WHILE BLACK

International Contemporary Ensemble will perform works by and with four composer-performers from the New York Chapter of the renowned experimental music collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), in Composing While Black: ICE collaborates with AACM members Thurman Barker, Adegoke Steve Colson, Iqua Colson and Reggie Nicholson on Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at NYU Skirball.

Composer-pianist Adegoke Steve Colson and composer-vocalist Iqua Colson join ICE for a performance of their works that focus on facets of the human experience and illuminate social issues, including Adegoke's Counterpoints 1 & 2 and Instant Death of the City, and Iqua's Days Go By and Atrocities. In 2023, ICE premiered Adegoke Steve Colson's Mirrors, for baritone voice and ensemble.

Percussionist-composer Thurman Barker, recipient of a 2022 NYSCA award for composition and an original member of the AACM, joins ICE for a performance of his South Side Suite and Pandemic Fever. Barker composes music for ensembles large and small, moving beyond genre to reflect the human experience itself.

A member of the AACM since 1979, percussionist-composer Reggie Nicholson joins ICE for a performance of his Variations of a Thought. Nicholson has twice been nominated for the Alpert Award in the Arts, and his compositions exhibit a keen awareness of sound, space, and timbre.

Since its founding in 1965, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) has exercised an internationally celebrated influence on the development of experimental music.

Now in its 60th year, with chapters in Chicago and New York, the composite output of AACM members has explored new and influential ideas about timbre, sound, collectivity, extended technique, instrumentation, intermedia, computer music technologies, installations, and kinetic sculptures.

Concert Information

Composing While Black: ICE meets The Colsons, Thurman Barker, Reggie Nicholson

Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Pre-concert discussion with the composers TBC
NYU Skirball | 566 LaGuardia Pl | New York, NY 10012
Tickets: $50
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2025/skirball-march

Concert Program:

Adegoke Steve Colson - Counterpoints 1&2 (2017)
Thurman Barker - Pandemic Fever (2019)
Iqua Colson - Days Go By (2015)
Thurman Barker - South Side Suite (2017)
Adegoke Steve Colson - Instant Death of the City (1974)
Reggie Nicholson - Variations of a Thought (2024)
Iqua Colson - Atrocities (2022)

Artists:

Adegoke Steve Colson, piano
Iqua Colson, voice
Reggie Nicholson, percussion
Thurman Barker, percussion