For 20 years, the International Contemporary Ensemble has been a home for experimental new music, the artists who make it, and the community that supports it. In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we continue the 2022-23 season with performances and programs highlighting the artists who have shaped the past two decades, and those who will shape the third. Renowned composer, musicologist, computer-installation artist, and trombonist George Lewis joins the Ensemble as Artistic Director at a crucial moment in the organization's trajectory. This, our 20th anniversary, is marked by a recommitment to our vision of a musical ecosystem that fosters new identities and recognizes aesthetic, historical, and cultural cross-connections, pursuing a new complexity that promises far greater creative depth as well as strengthening artist agency around the world.

As the International Contemporary Ensemble enters its third decade, we re-commit to being a home for artists to develop their authentic practice with adventurous collaborators, realize their work at the highest level, and take part in the co-creation of a musical ecosystem that honors the diversity of human expression and experience.

You can view our webpage from our Gala in 2023 here.

Looking back

Over the past 20 years, we’ve performed over 2,300 concerts, commissioned and premiered over 950 works. Artists championed by the Ensemble over the last two decades include Rome Prize-winner Ash Fure, MacArthur Foundation Fellow Tyshawn Sorey, Nordic Council Music Prize-winner Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Rome Prize-winner Suzanne Farrin, MacArthur Foundation Fellow George E. Lewis, and many more. 

Artist Testimonials