ECCE Ensemble Performs Earle Brown's DECEMBER 1952 Tonight

Cambridge, MA (FOR RELEASE 11.18.15) - As the contemporary music ensemble-in- residence at Cambridge's Le Laboratoire, ECCE presents a one-night only performance of Earle Brown's December 1952, in conjunction with the gallery's current exhibit, BIRDLY by Max Rheiner. Featuring dispersed acoustic performances by ECCE (violinist Karen Kim, bass clarinetist Vasko Dukovski, tubaist Ben Stapp, bassoonist Sarah Schoenbeck) interspersed with recorded polyphony by sound designer Ricardo Romaneiro, this spatial rendering of December 1952 is an aural analog to BIRDLY's virtual reality experience.

"ECCE's collaboration with Le Laboratoire is an exciting way for us both to imagine new connections between artists and audiences," said John Aylward, ECCE's executive director. "December 1952 gives ECCE the freedom to reinterpret the work and propose a new set of relationships between composer, performer, and audience. We invite audiences to participate in this performance by moving through the gallery space alongside the performers and to hear the singular aspects of Brown's work." Headphones distributed throughout the space will be used so that one can also hear the entire performance in a concentrated mix.

December 1952 is one of Brown's most frequently performed and reinterpreted works-a landmark piece in the history of graphic notation of music. Inspired by the mobiles of Alexander Calder, the score is a stark, abstract series of floating rectangles bearing only a distant resemblance to a traditional musical score. Its compositional strategy intersects with a range of visual art movements and forms; it envisions the production of the score as a branch of visual art. A major force in contemporary music and a leading composer of the American avant-garde, Brown (1926-2002) was born in Lunenburg, MA, attended Northeastern University and Berklee College of Music, and remained a New Englander throughout his life.

Taking Le Laboratoire as its primary experimental workspace, ECCE crafted a season of events dedicated to the interdisciplinary and exploratory, with each event searching for ways to connect contemporary music experiences to Le Laboratoire's innovative gallery installations. The 2015- 16 ECCE residency began September 29th with a musical installation inspired by Mark Dion's The Trouble With Jellyfish gallery.

Other upcoming residency concerts include: the world premiere of John Aylward's Switch, a new opera to be performed February 3, 12-15, 19-21, with guest conductor Jean-Philippe Wurtz (Ensemble Linea) and with stage direction by Laine Rettmer (Loft Opera); and the May 6th concert of new works inspired by Random International's upcoming spring 2016 exhibit.

Through its annual residency work at the Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France, ECCE has been deeply engaged for years with the idea of linking contemporary music to larger cultural movements, both within the US and abroad. Its residency at Le Laboratoire provides ECCE a significant opportunity to reimagine how audiences understand contemporary music in the actual physical sense and within a more interdisciplinary context.

ABOUT ECCE

Founded in 2008, ECCE (John Aylward, Executive Director; Serafim Smigelskiy, cello; Artistic Director; Wei-Chieh Lin, Co-Artistic Director; Catherine Gregory, flutes; Vasko Dukovski, clarinets; Hassan Anderson, oboe; Doug Balliett, double bass; and Mike Truesdell, percussion) is a group of today's most accomplished performers who are committed to presenting captivating and visionary performances of contemporary music. Through concerts, symposia, and other community-centered events, ECCE shares new forms of engagement in modern music with a diverse international audience.

ECCE has realized personal and refined interpretations of works by composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Philippe Hurel, Lee Hyla, Helmut Lachenmann, Fabien Levy, Hanspeter Kyburz, Louis Karchin and many others. Every year, the ensemble deepens its relationships with prominent composers and brings their work to new audiences. ECCE's annual residency is the international Etchings Festival in Auvillar, France. There, the ensemble shares diverse contemporary repertoire, as well as new works by emerging international composers, with European audiences.

In addition to the Etchings Festival, ECCE continues to expand its residency and workshop programming, holding events at The Goethe-Institut Boston; The La Pietra Forum in Florence, Italy; the NEON Festival; Virginia Commonwealth University; and The University of Campinas at Sao Paulo, Brazil. These opportunities continue to connect ECCE with the most diverse cross- sections of society, sharing with them the profound aesthetic experience of contemporary music, and the joy of its creation. For more information on ECCE, visit: eccensemble.com.

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