Ecce Ensemble Ends Season with KINETICS, Today

Cambridge, MA (FOR RELEASE 4.11.16) - As the 2015-16 contemporary music ensemble-in-residence at Cambridge's Le Laboratoire, the Ecce Ensemble completes its season with a diverse program of new chamber works by six emerging compositional voices. Inspired by Le Lab's current Random International installation, 150 Milliseconds, the concert's repertoire evokes a panoply of physical and psychological states both human and seemingly otherworldly. Performed by seven-member Ecce Ensemble and special guest vocalist Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, the program includes the world premiere of Already Root by Maxwell Dulaney, New England premieres by Erin Gee, Hillary Zipper, and Anna-Louise Walton, as well as works by Ecce's executive director John Aylward, and the winner of Ecce's 2016 International Call for Scores, Nuno Costa. (Program details are below.)

According to Aylward, each concert piece reflects different parallels with 150 Milliseconds. "Working on a program in conjunction with Random International's exhibit has challenged Ecce to expand its own musical vocabulary to embrace the same compelling topics they bring to their work, especially the issue of the limits of human perception. The British studio's fascination with reduced ways of representing complex information and the basic issues of sensory perception are front and center in this concert."

The evening kicks off with two pieces culled from Ecce's 2016 Tulane University residency. Maxwell Dulaney, Assistant Professor of Music Composition at Tulane, is known for his timbrally adventuresome music. Already Root, a new work written for Ecce, evokes ghostly palettes and harmonies that push instrumental possibilities. Anna-Louise Walton, graduate student and teaching fellow at Tulane, composed The Rapids especially for Ecce's residency. Her work, based on the poetry of Mary Barnard, incorporates brilliantly economic accompaniments to a taught and expressive musical line.

Continuing to spotlight the fearless, ebullient soprano Amanda DeBoer Bartlett are two more pieces for voice. Bone Lace (2009) by Harvard alumnus Hillary Zipper is a short ethereal duet for flute and voice that highlights the virtuosic lines of both instruments. MouthpieceXIXc by Erin Gee, one of "the most influential composer-vocalists of the 21st century" (critic Alex Ross), is one of over 25 works in a series of compositions entitled Mouthpieces. By using non-traditional vocal techniques, devoid of semantic language, Mouthpieces constructs intricate and subtle patterns of a diverse array of vocal sounds that are "original, powerful, and haunting" (American Academy of Arts and Letters).

Bookending the program are two works without voice. John Aylward's Mercury describes a vision of the fleet-footed God through darting counterpoint across flute, clarinet, violin and cello. Nuno Costa's Anémona blends an eclectic assortment of percussion with novel instrumental playing techniques that create a curious, mystifying sound world.

Taking Le Lab as its primary experimental workspace, Ecce "reimagines salon interactivity (Boston Globe)" by crafting a season of events dedicated to the interdisciplinary and exploratory. Each event searches for ways to connect contemporary music experiences to Le Lab's innovative gallery installations. The 2015-16 Ecce residency began September 29, 2015, with a musical installation inspired by Mark Dion's The Trouble With Jellyfish gallery, followed by a December 4th multidimensional performance of Earle Brown's December 1952 inspired by Max Rheiner's BIRDLY exhibit. According to the Boston Globe, it was "far-out...a cornucopia of unusual, extended-technique sounds." In February, Ecce premiered Switch, an opera written and composed by John Aylward, "that in many ways...was [is] a masterpiece...from creative and intricate staging to fantastic blocking to lovely musical nuance" (Harvard Crimson).

ABOUT ECCE ENSEMBLE

Founded in 2008, the Ecce Ensemble (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.

PROGRAM DETAILS

*world premiere **New England premiere

Jean-Philippe Wurtz, Conductor

Already Root*
Composer: Maxwell Dulaney
Performers: Roberta Michel (flute), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Hassan Anderson (oboe), Jennifer Choi (violin), Sofia Nowik (cello), Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (voice), (piano), and Mike Trusedell (percussion)

The Rapids **
Composer: Anna-Louise Walton
Performers: Roberta Michel (flute), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Hassan Anderson (oboe), Jennifer Choi (violin), Sofia Nowik (cello), and Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (voice)

MouthpieceXIXc**
Composer: Erin Gee
Performers: Roberta Michel (flute), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Hassan Anderson (oboe), Jennifer Choi (violin), Sofia Nowik (cello), Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (voice), and Mike Trusedell (percussion)

Bone Lace (2009)
Composer: Hillary Zipper
Performers: Roberta Michel (flute) and Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (voice)

Mercury (2014)**
Composer: John Aylward
Performers: Roberta Michel (flute), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Jennifer Choi (violin), and Sofia Nowik (cello)

Anémona**

Composer: Nuno Costa
Performers: Roberta Michel (flute), Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Jennifer Choi (violin), Sofia Nowik (cello), and Mike Trusedell (percussion)

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