about icelab (2011-2014)

Developing new works collaboratively is one of our key activities. We have commissioned or premiered more than 950 works since our founding in 2011, and our in-house programs have supported their development, presentation, and documentation.

icelab was a groundbreaking effort in creating a new model for in-house commissioning, yielded 75 new works by 24 composers which have been performed around the world in 285 concerts in spaces ranging from neighborhood venues to major concert halls and festivals. icelab participants have continued onward to highly visible and influential composition careers, including Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun (Brooklyn, NY), MacArthur Foundation Fellow Tyshawn Sorey (Brooklyn, NY), Nordic Council Music Prize winner Anna Thorvaldsdottir (Reykjavik, Iceland, and London, UK); and Rome Prize winner Suzanne Farrin (New York, NY).

Read more about our icelab below. For more info about our current commissioning program click here.

Over the last twenty years, since the beginning of the icelab program, these residencies have not only been the genesis of a new work but an entire system of advocacy for these composers.

Tyshawn Sorey’s earliest workshop at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2011 not only sparked his quartet for guitar, bassoon, percussion, and piano but was the building block for the collaboration that created Perle Noire featuring Peter Sellars and Julia Bullock. A creative session with a broken speaker cone and some aquarium gravel became Ash Fure’s first large-scale opera, The Force of Things. Anna Thorvaldsdottir asked Levy Lorenzo and Nicholas Houfek if a lightbulb could be controlled like an instrument; and her In the Light of Air was born.

The icelab program itself has been sunset, but its guiding principles have become core to how we create new work:

To break down barriers in the development of a new work, to unleash something new in both composer and performer.
To propel music forward through deep collaboration and generative, non-hierarchical conversation amongst creators.

ICELAB COMMISSIONS & DOCUMENTATION

2011

Marcos Balter
Æsopica (2011), Premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center on December 16, 2011 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: May 2011 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/34451616

...and also a fountain (2012) at Itau Cultural, Sãu Paulo, Brazil on June 24, 2012
https://vimeo.com/49419326

Codex Seraphianus (2014), Premiered at Preston Bardley Hall of Chicago Cultural Center on May 4, 2014

Nathan Davis
On the Nature of Thingness (2011) Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival [Major icelab commission]
Workshop Period: April 2011 at ICEhaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/75217328

Bells (2011), Premiered at TullyScope Festival on February 22, 2011
https://vimeo.com/24538498

Hollow Skies cycle (2011) Premiered in full at Le Poisson Rouge on May 31, 2011
https://vimeo.com/25603175

Ghostlight (2013), Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival on August 19, 2013
https://vimeo.com/75140401

Cipher (2013) at Mount Tremper Arts (2014), Premiered at Constellation, Chicago on April 27, 2013
https://vimeo.com/101578582

Phyllis Chen
Chimers (2011) Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater on August 11, 2011 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: February 2011 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/29850009

Hush (2011) Premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center on November 4, 2011
https://vimeo.com/36571697

Glass Clouds We Have Known (2011), Premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center on November 4, 2011
https://vimeo.com/36584004

Steve Lehman
Lenwood & Other Saints who Roam the Earth (2011), Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater on August 11, 2011 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: March 2011 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/29844969

Impossible Flow (2011) Chicago Premiere performance at MCA Chicago on February 5, 2012 (World Premiere at Le Poisson Rouge on April 19, 2011)
https://vimeo.com/23712824

Du Yun
Angel’s Bone (2011), Premiered at Mann Center, Philadelphia on September 22, 2011 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop Period: 5/4/11-5/6/11 at Mann Center, Philadelphia, PA and March 2011 at ICEhaus, Brooklyn, NY

Vicissitudes Alone (2011), Premiered at Evolution Music Series, Baltimore, MD on February 8, 2011

Mario Diaz de León
Portals Before Dawn (2011), (begins at 38:09) Premiered at Le Poisson Rouge on March 30, 2011 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: February 2011 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY

Prism Path (full cycle) (2011), Premiered at Le Poisson Rouge on March 30, 2011
https://vimeo.com/23448495

2012

Patricia Alessandrini (b. 1970)
Gurre-Klänge (2012) World Premiere at Baryshnikov Arts Center on December 15, 2012 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop Period: 3/26/12-3/31/12 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY
https://vimeo.com/57269088

Omaggio a Berio (2012) Performance at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago on May 26, 2012
https://vimeo.com/46120393

Juan Pablo Carreño (b. 1978)
Self-Fiction I & II (2012) Premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center on December 15, 2012 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop Period: 2/6/12-2/11/12 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY
https://vimeo.com/57428423

Lisa Coons (b. 1979)
MESH (2012), Premiered at on February 20, 2013 at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota [Major icelab commission] Workshop period: 3/26/12-3/31/12 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY (Performance at Mt. Tremper Arts, NY on June 21, 2013)
https://vimeo.com/38253065

Carlos Iturralde
Cupid’s Deeds: Outermost + Innermost (2012), Premiered at Roulette on November 18, 2012 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 2/6/12-2/11/12 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY
https://vimeo.com/55904098

Fata Morgana (2013), Premiered at New Voices, New Music at Carnegie Hall on November 20, 2013

Tyshawn Sorey
Ode to Gust Burns (2012) Premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago on February 5, 2012 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 1/27/12-1/29/12 at Baryshnikov Arts Center
https://vimeo.com/38952110

Quartet for Butch Morris (2012), Premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY on November 18, 2012
https://vimeo.com/54611945

New York/Copenhagen (2013), Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater, New York, NY
https://vimeo.com/75790393

Carla Kihlstedt
At Night We Walk in Circles and Are Consumed by Fire (2012), Premiered at Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY on January 26, 2013 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 3/26/12-3/31/12 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY

I. Factual Boy - https://vimeo.com/58753360

II. One Story Motel - https://vimeo.com/58753361

III. Rocks and Concrete - https://vimeo.com/58754565

IX. Gæst - https://vimeo.com/58793144

V. Against Dreaming - https://vimeo.com/58777585

VI. Adonified Sky - https://vimeo.com/58777586

VII. Grand and Tiny World - https://vimeo.com/58793145

VIII. Addressing a Dream - https://vimeo.com/58793146

2013

Laure M. Hiendl and Monica Duncan
Offshore (2013) at Roulette [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 2/15/13-3/2/13 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/77254553

Sasha Siem
Bird Burning (2013), Premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY on December 3, 2013 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 3/4/13-3/9/13 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/84529397

Felipe Lara
Tran(scribe) (2013), Premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY on December 17, 2013 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 4/29/13-5/3/13 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY

Tiento (2013), Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater, New York, NY on August 18, 2013
https://vimeo.com/75790394

Som(bra) (2013), Premiered at Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater, New York, NY on August 18, 2013
https://vimeo.com/75779764

Anna Thorvaldsdottir
In the Light of Air (2014) Premiered at Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik, Iceland on May 25, 2014 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 3/11/13-3/15/13 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
(video from Atlas Performing Arts Center, Washington DC on May 29, 2014)
https://vimeo.com/100181606

Luminance (2014) Premiered at Sweet Thunder Festival, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA on April 25, 2014
https://vimeo.com/96026868

Daniel Dehaan
Trompe l’Corps (2013), Premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY on December 17, 2013 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 1/28/13-1/30/13 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/84998803

Maria Stankova
afaint afar away over there what (2013), Premiered Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater, New York, NY on August 19, 2013 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 1/28/13-2/2/13 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/75143409

Rapana (2013), Premiered Mostly Mozart Festival, Clark Studio Theater, New York, NY on August 19, 2013
https://vimeo.com/75143410

La bouche (2013), Premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY on December 3, 2013
https://vimeo.com/84531175

2014

Juan Camilo Hernández Sánchez
Songs Beyond the Margin (2014), Premiered at Jack, Brooklyn, NY on October 5, 2014 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 2/5/14-2/7/14 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/110248000

Rick Burkhardt
Warka Vase and Lamassu (2014), Premiered at Jack, Brooklyn, NY on October 6, 2014 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 2/14/14-2/16/14 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/110248003

Sam Pluta and Jeff Snyder
MODULES (2014), Premiered at the Stone on March 8, 2014 [Major ICElab commission]
Workshop Period: 2/26/14-3/1/14 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/128520097

Sabrina Schroeder
icelab workshop at Mt. Tremper Arts, June 2014
Workshop Period: 6/2/14-6/5/14 at Mt. Tremper Arts, Mt. Tremper, NY
https://vimeo.com/98682076

Flatspin (Stircrazer IV) (2015), Premiered at National Sawdust, Brooklyn, NY on November 2015
https://vimeo.com/147859511

Suzanne Farrin
Dolce la morte (2014), icelab workshop at Mt. Tremper Arts, June 2014, premiered at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY on April 3, 2016 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 6/11/14-6/14/14 at Mt. Tremper Arts, Mt. Tremper, NY
https://vimeo.com/101258839

Zosha Di Castri and David Adamcyk
Phonobellow (2015) Work-in-progress preview at Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY on March 1, 2015, World premiere at Montreal New Music Festival, Agora Hydro-Québec, Montreal, QC, Canada on March 5, 2015 [Major icelab commission]
Workshop period: 1/1314-1/16/14 at icehaus, Brooklyn, NY
https://vimeo.com/124065527