International Contemporary Ensemble Unveils 2024-2025 Season

International Contemporary Ensemble is celebrating its 22nd season in 2024-25 with world premiere performances and national and international residencies. The season kicks off with the world premiere of Earl Howard's Boson1 for electronic performer and ten musicians at Pioneer Works (September 5, 2024); a Composer Portrait of MacArthur "genius" Fellow Courtney Bryan at Columbia University's Miller Theatre in New York (September 12, 2024); Polyaspora, a five-day contemporary music festival, at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. featuring Black and Brazilian new music (September 23-27, 2024); Afromodernism in New Music presented by the New York Philharmonic (October 25, 2024); Always, Already There: An Afrodiasporic Incubator, a week-long residency at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Germany (November 4-10, 2024); the world premiere performance of Zosha Di Castri's TOUCH:TRACE at Roulette Intermedium (November 21, 2024); GIOFest, a collaboration between ICE, Douglas R. Ewart, and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, Scotland (November 27-30, 2024); Boulez Rebooted, a program at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall around the music and legacy of Pierre Boulez, including the world premiere of a work for AI and ICE musicians (January 30, 2025); a Composer Portrait of Miya Masaoka at Miller Theatre (March 6, 2025); a week-long residency at Oberlin Conservatory of Music (March 10-14, 2025); and more.

ICE's Artistic Director George Lewis remarks, "Diverse perspectives promise unlimited possibilities: this is the core idea behind our new season. ICE will present a humanistic model of the "yet unheard" that is collaborative, creolized, and connected, even extending to the ever-expanding world of artificial intelligence. With works by composers from all over the world, this season is more intercultural, intermedial and interdisciplinary than ever. Audiences will discover that our new season enthusiastically affirms the ideal of our Polyaspora."

On Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 9:00 p.m. International Contemporary Ensemble presents the world premiere of Earl Howard's Boson1, at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. Commissioned by ICE, Boson1 is written for flexible instrumentation with structured improvisation for ten musicians and a performer of live sound processing. The work, performed by Howard together with ICE, is the outcome of a series of workshops at the composer's home, where the performers learned to become conversant with Howard's unique compositional and improvisatory languages. At 8:00 p.m., musicians of ICE perform contrasting works by Fay Victor, Nicole Mitchell, Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, Ingrid Laubrock, and Rick Burkhardt.

A week later, International Contemporary Ensemble joins Quince Ensemble to perform a program of recent works by composer and 2023 MacArthur Fellow, Courtney Bryan, on Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Composer Portraits series at Columbia University's Miller Theatre. Works include Bryan's Blessed, Dreaming (Freedom Sounds), and Requiem, a powerful five-movement work bridging end-of-life rituals from a spectrum of traditions.

At the end of September, ICE travels to Washington, D.C. to participate as guest performers in Polyaspora, a five-day contemporary music festival with performances at the Peabody Institute and the state-of-the-art Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, hosted by the Peabody Institute and curated by 2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Associate Professor and Chair of Composition at The Peabody Institute, Dr. Felipe Lara, and ICE's Artistic Director, George Lewis. From September 23-27, Polyaspora focuses on Black and Brazilian perspectives in contemporary music alongside a showcase of new musical works by Peabody Conservatory students with four concerts: The Future is Now I & II, featuring seven newly composed premieres by Peabody Conservatory students; Composing While Black, presenting sonically audacious new music by Nicole Mitchell, Jeffrey Mumford, Andile Khumalo, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson, and Tebogo Monnakgotla with a pre-concert talk with Leila Adu-Gilmore; and Antropofagia, showcasing leading musical voices of the Brazilian diaspora with a pre-concert talk with Dr. Alejandro L. Madrid and Felipe Lara.

The following month, ICE performs as part of Afromodernism in New Music presented by the New York Philharmonic on Friday, October 25, 2024. The program presents unique and exciting new perspectives on the work of Afrodiasporic experimental composers that academic inquiry, concert programming, and journalistic accounts have often ignored. This concert includes works by composers from Nigeria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and the USA, revealing Afrodiasporic new music as an intercultural, multigenerational, and cosmopolitan space of innovation that offers new subjects, histories, and identities.

Later that month, ICE gives the world premiere performance of Zosha Di Castri's TOUCH:TRACE on Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. at Roulette Intermedium. Together with solo percussionist and conductor Steven Schick, ICE explores the importance of intimacy and human contact in an increasingly isolated world in this new work commissioned by the ensemble. Approaching "touch" in musical terms as the space between a conductor's gesture and the sounds the ensemble procures; as the physical contact between the artist and the materiality of their instrument; as the communication between performers; and in the connection between performers and the audience, Di Castri investigates the organic and theatrical space of tactile engagement that is at the core of the creation of music.

From November 28-30, 2024, members of ICE travel with composer and interdisciplinary artist Douglas R. Ewart to Glasgow, Scotland for a performance with Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra as part of GIOfest. The program includes improvisations as well as works by Ewart, whose wide-ranging practice has always been inextricably associated with Jamaican culture, history, politics, and the land itself.

In the new year, ICE celebrates the centenary of Pierre Boulez's birth with Boulez Rebooted on Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall Center Stage. The cutting-edge concert showcases the latest breakthroughs in responsive music-performance technology with a world premiere that incorporates the machine-learning advancements of SOMAX 2, developed with researchers at IRCAM (Boulez's world-renowned institute for computer and electro-acoustic music and innovation). The program also includes works by Boulez and leading composers inspired by his legacy, including longtime IRCAM researcher and visionary composer Philippe Manoury; genre-defying American multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey; and the late Kaija Saariaho, whose composition Sombre will be performed with celebrated American operatic baritone Will Liverman.

ICE returns to Miller Theatre for another concert as part of the Composer Portraits series on Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. Focusing on the work of Guggenheim and Rome Prize-winning composer, performer, and installation artist Miya Masaoka, this Portrait concert showcases the composer's exploration of the natural world and the bodily perception of vibration, movement, and time, with a world-premiere of a new work commissioned by Miller Theatre for ICE alongside three recent works that illuminate her consistently innovative artistic practice.

ICE returns to Oberlin Conservatory of Music from March 10-14, 2025 for a week-long residency, Composing While Black, Volume I. Hosted by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and curated by ICE's Artistic Director, George Lewis, Composing While Black is conceived as a pair of residencies spanning two years. This first installment includes rehearsals, workshops, and panel discussions for Oberlin students and culminates in a concert in which members of ICE perform alongside Oberlin students in a program featuring works by Oberlin alumna Courtney Bryan and others. Oberlin Conservatory has played a key role in the creation of International Contemporary Ensemble, with founding members of the Ensemble meeting as students. This collaboration celebrates Oberlin & ICE's shared history as well as the rich musical connections fostered at Oberlin.

Concert Information

International Contemporary Ensemble & Earl Howard

Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
Pioneer Works | 159 Pioneer St | Brooklyn, NY 11231
Tickets: $25
Link: https://iceorg.org/events

Program:
8:00 p.m.
Fay Victor - SafeHarbor Shade (2021)
Nicole Mitchell - Birdsongs for Equitable Togetherness
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher - Del Lago
Ingrid Laubrock - Koans (selections)
Rick Burkhardt - Prologue (2013)

9:00 p.m.
Earl Howard - Boson1, for electronic performer and ten musicians (2024, World Premiere)

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Earl Howard, electronic performer
____________________________________________

Composer Portraits: Courtney Bryan

Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Miller Theatre | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY 10027
Tickets: $48 - $140
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2024/courtney-bryan-composer-portrait

Program:
Courtney Bryan - Requiem
Courtney Bryan - Blessed
Courtney Bryan - Dreaming (Freedom Sounds)

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Campbell MacDonald, clarinet
Alexander Davis, bassoon
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Gareth Flowers, trumpet
Michael Lormand, trombone
Clara Warnaar, percussion
Alice Teyssier, voice
Damian Norfleet, voice
Josh Modney, violin
Kyle Armbrust, viola
Randall Zigler, acoustic bass
Courtney Bryan, piano
Nicholas Houfek, lighting
Quince Ensemble
____________________________________________

Polyaspora Festival

Tuesday, September 24, 2024 at 5:30 p.m.
The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University | 1 E Mt Vernon Pl | Baltimore, MD 21202
Program: The Future is Now I (Solo Works)
Tickets: Free
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2024/polyaspora-festival-peabody

Wednesday, September 25, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Hopkins Bloomberg Center | 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20001
Program: The Future Is Now II (Ensemble Works)
Tickets: Free
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2024/polyaspora-festival-peabody

Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Hopkins Bloomberg Center | 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20001
Program: Composing While Black with a 6:00 p.m. pre-concert talk with Leila Adu-Gilmore
Tickets: Free
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2024/polyaspora-festival-peabody

Friday, September 27, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Hopkins Bloomberg Center | 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20001
Program: Antropofagia with a 6:00 p.m. pre-concert talk with Dr. Alejandro L. Madrid and Felipe Lara
Tickets: Free
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2024/polyaspora-festival-peabody
____________________________________________

Afromodernism in New Music presented by the New York Philharmonic

Friday, October 25, 2024
Link: https://www.nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/explore/afromodernism/

Program:
Daniel Kidane - Foreign Tongues (2015), for string quartet
Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson - Prelude #1 (2020), for cello
Joshua Uzoigwe - Talking Drums: Egwu Amala, for piano
Tebogo Monnakgotla - Wooden Bodies (2020), for string quartet
Hannah Kendall - Tuxedo: Diving Bell (2021), for harp
Leila Adu-Gilmore - Alyssum (2014), for string quartet and harp

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Michael Nicolas, cello
Josh Modney, violin
Nuiko Wadden, harp
Cory Smythe, piano

____________________________________________

Always, Already There: An Incubator for Afrodiasporic New Music

November 4-10, 2024
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW, House of World Cultures) | Berlin, Germany
Link: https://iceorg.org/events

Program:
A residency with concerts, lectures, panels, and workshops

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Fay Victor, voice
Levy Lorenzo, percussion & electronics
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Damian Norfleet, voice
Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet
Rebekah Heller, bassoon, conductor
____________________________________________

ICE and Steven Schick premiere TOUCH:TRACE by Zosha Di Castri

Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 8:00 p.m.
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: $25 advance, $30 door, $20 student/senior 65+ (w/ ID, advance and at door)
Link: https://iceorg.org/events

Program:
Zosha Di Castri - TOUCH:TRACE (world premiere)
Additional Works TBA

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Steven Schick, solo percussionist and conductor
____________________________________________

GIOfest with Douglas R. Ewart

November 28- 30, 2024
Glasgow, Scotland
Link: https://iceorg.org/events

Program:
Improvisations as well as works by Ewart TBA

Artists:
Douglas R. Ewart
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
International Contemporary Ensemble
Clara Warnaar, percussion
Kyle Armbrust, viola
____________________________________________

Boulez Rebooted

Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall Center Stage | 881 7th Ave | New York, NY, 10019
Tickets: On sale August 12, 2024
Link: https://iceorg.org/events/2024/boulez-rebooted

Program:
Kaija Saariaho - Sombre (2012)
Philippe Manoury - Hypothèse du Sextuor (2011)
Tyshawn Sorey - Sentimental Shards (2014)
Pierre Boulez - Anthèmes II (1997)
ICEensemble + Somax AI - IRCAM Variations (world premiere)

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Alice Teyssier, flute
Campbell MacDonald, clarinet
Gabriela Diaz, violin
Josh Modney, violin
Wendy Richman, viola|
Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello
Cory Smythe, piano
Nuiko Wadden, harp
Randall Zigler, bass
Nathan Davis, percussion
Ross Karre, percussion
Levy Lorenzo, electronics
Will Liverman, baritone
____________________________________________

Composer Portraits: Miya Masaoka

Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Miller Theatre | 2960 Broadway | New York, NY 10027
Tickets: $48 - $140
Link: https://www.millertheatre.com/events/miya-masaoka

Program:
Miya Masaoka - new work for ICE (2024/25) (world premiere, Miller Theatre commission)
Miya Masaoka - The Horizon Leans Forward (2023)
Miya Masaoka - Mapping a Joyful Noise (2023)
Miya Masaoka - The Dust and the Noise (2013, rev. 2021)

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble
___________________________________________

International Contemporary Ensemble in Residence at Oberlin Conservatory of Music

March 10-14, 2025
Oberlin Conservatory of Music | 77 W College St | Oberlin, OH 44074
Link: https://iceorg.org/events

Program:
Composing While Black, Volume I

Artists:
International Contemporary Ensemble

About International Contemporary Ensemble
Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a multidisciplinary collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to building and innovating collaborative environments in order to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. The Ensemble creates a mosaic musical ecosystem as "America's foremost new-music group" (New Yorker), honoring the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, recording, and performing the works of living artists in "a mission worth following" (I Care If You Listen).

Co-founded in 2001 by flutist and MacArthur "genius" Fellow Claire Chase, the Ensemble has premiered over 1,000 works and is the recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, as well as Musical America's Ensemble of the Year Award. Past artistic leadership includes co-founder Claire Chase and Ensemble members Joshua Rubin, Rebekah Heller, and Ross Karre. Notable presenting partners have included Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, TIME:SPANS Festival, Roulette, and Miller Theatre. The Ensemble has given performances at Warsaw Autumn, Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Park Avenue Armory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ojai Music Festival, and Big Ears Festival as well as in venues such as the Dutch National Opera, Carnegie Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

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, by supporting the creativity of their composer-collaborators, as well as 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 Tyshawn Sorey and Courtney Bryan.

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 International Contemporary Ensemble's performances and commissioning activities during the 2024-25 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, Robert D. Bielecki Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Siemens Musikstiftung, New Music USA, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Photo credit: Digitice Media Team