October 15, 2009 – 3:54 pm
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 7PM, ICE and Miller Theatre are co-hosting a panel discussion, focusing on Xenakis as an interdisciplinary innovator.
Steve Schick will perform Psappha, and then a diverse and distinguished panel will discuss the music.
Click HERE to meet the panel.
October 7, 2009 – 12:00 pm
Madame Françoise Xenakis, in conversation with Andreas Waldburg-Wolfegg, looks back on the fraught relationship between Iannis Xenakis and fellow composer Pierre Boulez, and recounts French President Georges Pompidou’s failed attempts to bring the two of them together. Listen to excerpts from the interview in the latest podcast from Tracing Xenakis.
Andreas: What fascinates me, speaking of [...]
October 2, 2009 – 12:55 pm
On Saturday, October 17 at 8 PM, ICE’s X-fueled Aural Assault will take on the Fashion Capital of the World. We’ll be ready.
International Contemporary Ensemble: Xenakis
International Contemporary Ensemble, Photo: Alejandro Lorenzo, Courtesy MCA
The MCA’s retrospective for multidisciplinary visionary Buckminster Fuller has been extended into next month; in its theater, the work of another brilliant theorist with roots in architecture is getting play. Although composed for live performance, the larger works of Iannis Xenakis are so intricate and complex they’re rarely experienced. In absentia death [...]
Preview: Steven Schick & the International Contemporary Ensemble/Xenakis
Chamber Music, Chicago Artists, Classical, Experimental, Vocal Music, World Music
RECOMMENDED
A unique twentieth-century presence, Greek visionary, composer, engineer, architect, philosopher and mathematician Iannis Xenakis’ influence remains uniquely felt across various disciplines eight years after his death. His extreme use of angles in buildings have become signature sights of modernism, an angularity that often characterizes [...]
Excerpted from this week’s Chicago Reader
*Critic’s Choice
International Contemporary Ensemble
When: Thu., June 4, 7:30 p.m.
Phone: 312-280-2660
Price: $25, $20 members
Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, who died at 78 in 2001, remains one of the most original and intimidating voices in contemporary classical music. His often radical music is a tough sell for orchestras, though, who can be reluctant [...]
ICE Board Chair Andreas Waldburg-Wolfegg in conversation with Madame Françoise Xenakis, widow of Iannis Xenakis. Andreas and Françoise met in March, 2009 in Paris at the same apartment where she and Iannis had lived for nearly fifty years, until his death in 2001. Stay tuned for portions of the audio recording of this interview in [...]
by Doug Laustsen
When I first sought out Xenakis’ music, I made a trek to my favorite new music record shop. I discovered that the few albums present in the racks lacked the details I hoped would give me an idea of which album to pick. So, naturally I picked the album with the coolest artwork. [...]
by Steve Schick
I have had the great privilege to play the music of Iannis Xenakis many hundreds of times over the last 35 years. The collaboration with ICE on Palimpsest, Echange, Akanthos and Omega has been one of the most satisfying and exciting of any of those performances. The group is superb, dynamic and passionate. [...]
by Jennifer Swanson and Eliza Bangert, Chicago Street Team Captains
About a month ago, we got together with ICE flutist/founder Claire Chase for a “brief” meeting that became an outline for the next month of our lives. Claire’s excitement was contagious and we left with a plan for ICE’s takeover of Chicago. The first step [...]
By Bruce Hodges
For many years the sole Xenakis I had on recording was Tetras by the Arditti String Quartet. Its hyperactive spasms completely captivated me; I had never heard a quartet like it. And in live performance, here and there some of the chamber music had crossed my path, like Okho (1989) for three djembes [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged Aïs, Anastenaria, Arditti, Bruce Hodges, Claire Chase, Erikhthon, glissando, heavy metal, Jack String Quartet, Monotonous Forest, Okho, Oresteia, Schotzko, Tetras, Troorkh, Xenakis
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Francisco Lopez, a giant in sound art and ambient music, is far from a typical Xenakis protege. His soundscapes evolve slowly and patiently, and he is as allergic to rhythm as he is to any other delimiter of musical time. But that didn’t stop him from creating a fascinating remix of one of Xenakis’ most [...]
Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ambient, asphodel, contemporary music, francisco lopez, iran, metal, noise, persepolis, popular music, remix, shah, Xenakis
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“Xenakis‘ music falls into 2 categories; somewhat interesting, or so utterly and violently grating and loathsome that it makes you want to drive a stake through the heart of the person located most conveniently nearby.”
- ICE violinist David Bowlin
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Excerpt: Bohor (1962), one of Xenakis’ earliest electronic works
A blitzkrieg for bass clarinet and large ensemble. This sneak-preview recording by ICE’s team-X features clarinetist and X-o-phile Joshua Rubin. Steve Schick conducts.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
When I first heard Xenakis, I didn’t like it very much. It took repeated listenings over a number of years coupled with an accumulated exposure to strange music before I came to appreciate and eventually enjoy Iannis Xenakis’ music. His vision is incredibly strong, and I agree with Steve Schick’s comment that Xenakis “hits you where it counts.” However, this [...]
