International Contemporary Ensemble to Perform at TIME:SPANS Festival in August

International Contemporary Ensemble will showcase the works of composer and newly named ICEensemble Artistic Director George Lewis at the 2022 TIME:SPANS Festival at Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 7:30pm. The program, the Ensemble's first under George Lewis's leadership, includes the world premiere performance of Lewis's Melodies for Miles along with his Thistledown and Creative Construction SetTM. Additional works on the program include Black as a Hack for Cyborgification by Jessie Cox, Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity by Nicole Mitchell, and Delta Blues by Wadada Leo Smith.

Melodies for Miles is dedicated to George Lewis's college roommate, Miles Hoffman, who introduced Lewis to the tradition of Western classical violin, including musicians like Jascha Heifetz and Zino Francescatti. That in turn led to an introduction to the music of Alvin Singleton, where Lewis discovered the existence of the Afrodiasporic classical composer when he first heard a Singleton orchestral work in 1970. Lewis and Singleton have remained friends ever since.

"The musical material in Melodies for Miles," said Lewis, "isn't depictive of that era in our lives. Rather, each and every time the work is performed, its aim is to reconnect the three of us in the real time of listening."

Melodies for Miles is followed by two additional works by Lewis. Thistledown is inspired by Greg Bear's novel Eon (1985), in which a team sent to investigate the sudden appearance of an enormous asteroid in Earth's skies discovers that the asteroid is in fact a human-built starship from their own future. Creative Construction SetTM pays homage to the "Creative Construction Company," an early ensemble from the experimental African American composer-performer collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. The work, set for an ensemble of eight or more musicians, has the performers use a set of instruction cards to create and explore sonic environments.

Jessie Cox's Black as a Hack for Cyborgification is envisaged as a cosmic neural network, as sound is telecommunicated from one planet to another in different ways and speeds. As the music emerges, sound coming from small devices on stage moves the listener faster than the speed of light into another space.

Nicole Mitchell's Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity imagines electromagnetic radiation from digital technology exciting a frenzied dance within invisible creatures that begin to redesign our physical reality for better or worse.

Wadada Leo Smith's Delta Blues represents his experience of seeing the sunrise as it flows up and over the delta flatlands, the sun's rays "appear to come from underneath the earth." The "sonic field that is created by the performers is understood to be symbolic of the energy force released through the morning sunrise."

"Science fiction, Afrofuturism, energy, and the environment become entwined with personal narrative and posthuman possibility in this exciting collection of works," George Lewis said. "This concert demonstrates how heterogeneity, a prime characteristic of Afrodiasporic contemporary music, becomes expressed in sound and musical method."

TIME:SPANS is dedicated primarily to the presentation of twenty-first century music. The festival is produced and presented by The Earle Brown Music Foundation (EBMF). Artistic Director for TIME:SPANS is Thomas Fichter. The name TIME:SPANS is taken from the title of an orchestra piece by the American composer Earle Brown. To find out more, please visit https://timespans.org.

Concert Information

TIME:SPANS
International Contemporary Ensemble
Saturday, August 20, 2022 at 7:30pm
Mary Flagler Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W 37th Street | New York, NY
Tickets: $20
Ticket Link: https://timespans.org/concert/international-contemporary-ensemble-2/

Please note: Proof of vaccination will be required to attend all TIME:SPANS concerts at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. All attendees must show CDC, WHO, Excelsior Pass, or similar official documentation of vaccination and booster status plus matching photo ID to a TIME:SPANS representative on entering the building.

Masks must be worn at all times inside the building. Masks must be worn properly covering the nose and mouth inside the building. TIME:SPANS can provide KN95s.

Program:
George Lewis - Melodies for Miles (2022)
Jessie Cox - Black as a Hack for Cyborgification (2020)
Nicole Mitchell - Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity (2021)
George Lewis - Thistledown (2012)
Wadada Leo Smith - Delta Blues (2021)
George Lewis - Creative Construction SetTM (2015)

Artists:
Gabriela Diaz, violin
Josh Modney, violin
eddy kwon, violin and voice
Chris Gross, cello
Michael Nicolas, cello
Nicole Mitchell, flute
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Ross Karre, percussion
Levy Lorenzo, percussion
Lesley Mok, percussion
Dan Lippel, guitar
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Fay Victor, voice

About 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.

A recipient of the American Music Center's Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the International Contemporary Ensemble was also named Musical America's Ensemble of the Year in 2014. The group has served as artists-in-residence at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival (2008-2020), Ojai Music Festival (2015-17), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2010-2015). In addition, the Ensemble has presented and performed at festivals in the U.S. such as Big Ears Festival and Opera Omaha's ONE Festival, as well as abroad, including GMEM-Centre National de Création Musicale (CNCM) de Marseille, Vértice at Cultura UNAM, Warsaw Autumn, International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, and Cité de la Musique in Paris. Other performance stages have included the Park Avenue Armory, ice floes at Greenland's Diskotek Sessions, Brooklyn warehouses, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and boats on the Amazon River.

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.

Photo Credit: William Matczynski, Amanda E Friedman, Tadashi Lewis, Gaya Feldheim Schorr