About the Performers
Fay Victor
Fay Victor is a sound artist that uses performance, improvisation and composition to examine representations of modern life and blackness while honing a unique vision for the vocal role in jazz and improvised music. Victor has an ‘everything is everything’ aesthetic, using the freedom in the moment to inform the appropriate musical response, viewing the vocal instrument as full of possibilities for sound exploration. The voice, a vocal conduit for direct messages in an improvising context. Victor embraces all of these ideas in real time, aiming to push the vocal envelope to forge greater expression. On Victor’s 11 critically acclaimed albums as a leader one can hear the through line of this expansive expression including Victor’s current release, WE’VE HAD ENOUGH on the ESP-Disk label is the 2nd outing from Victor’s improvising quartet, SoundNoiseFUNK.
Victor’s work has found light in media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone Magazine & The Huffington Post; Victor’s performed with luminaries such as William Parker, Roswell Rudd, Dr. Randy Weston, Nicole Mitchell, Misha Mengelberg, Myra Melford, Archie Shepp, Marc Ribot & Tyshawn Sorey to name but a few; Performance highlights include The Museum of Modern Art & The Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), The Hammer Museum (LA), The Kolner Philharmonie (Germany), De Young Museum (SF), Symphony Space (NY), The Earshot Jazz Festival (Seattle), The Winter Jazz Festival (NYC) and the Bimhuis (Netherlands). As a composer, Victor has been awarded prizes such as the 2017 Herb Albert/Yaddo Fellow in Music Composition and a 2018 AIR in Composition for the Headlands Center for the Arts in the Marine Headlands in Northern California. As an educator, Victor is currently on the Faculty at the New School of Jazz & Contemporary Music, chairs the Advisory Board for the Jazz Leaders Fellowship via the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music a new initiative to fund and support black female and non-binary jazz artists. Fay continues to give talks, lectures and masterclasses on Jazz, Creative Improvisation, Political engagement through artistic expression and more at institutions around the world.
Alice Teyssier
Flutist and vocalist Alice Teyssier brings “something new, something fresh, but also something uncommonly beautiful” to her performances. She has appeared as a soloist with the San Diego Symphony, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Bach Collegium San Diego, Talea Ensemble, La Jolla Symphony, Ensemble Echappé, Cantata Profana, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and is regularly featured on Los Angeles’ renowned Monday Evening Concerts series. A uniquely gifted advocate for new music, Alice has given residencies for composers and performers of new music at such universities as Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Huddersfield, Oberlin and University of Michigan. She has premiered hundreds of works and appeared at the Ojai, Mostly Mozart, June in Buffalo, Resonant Bodies and Huddersfield Contemporary Music festivals. Equally devoted to historically-informed yet inventive performances of early music, she is co-founder of the chamber ensemble La Perla Bizzarra. She has earned degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Conservatoire de Strasbourg and the University of California-San Diego. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she is a core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble and founding member of the interdisciplinary troupe The Atelier. Alice serves as Clinical Assistant Professor of Performance in the Music Department at New York University.
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher
Flutist Isabel Lepanto Gleicher is a soloist, chamber musician and educator. Enjoying an international career, Isabel performs throughout Europe, China, Japan, Canada and the United States. The New York Times has called her “excellent” and John Zorn writes “Isabel’s display of virtuosity and her beautiful attitude and stunning musicality inspired me”. Isabel is an artist member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICEensemble), new music sinfonietta Ensemble Echappe, the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival, and hip-hop band ShoutHouse. She is a founding member of woodwind quintet SoundMind. Her project Song Sessions, alongside clarinetist Eric Umble, and composer Barry Sharp received a 2019 New Music USA grant. Isabel performs with ensembles such as wild Up, Talea Ensemble, the Argento New Music Project, Contemporaneous, Imani Winds and Friends of MATA Ensemble. As part of these and other groups, Isabel has had the opportunity to premiere works by Steve Reich, Missy Mazzoli, John Zorn, Beat Furrer, Augusta Read Thomas, and Dai Fujikura among others. She also performs at festivals such as Mostly Mozart, Big Ears, Opera Omaha’s One Festival, Sacrum Profanum Festival, MATA, Prototype Festival, Resonant Bodies, New Haven Arts and Ideas, Lake George Summer Music Festival and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Isabel has appeared on the Guggenheim Museum Works and Process Series, Music of the Americas Society Composer Portrait Series, Park Avenue Armory Martin Creed The Back Door exhibit, the Clark Institute of Art Celebration of Helen Frankenthaler and the American Academy of Arts and Letters annual event An Afternoon of Music and Art.
As a soloist, Isabel has been called a “rising talent and stand out performer in the new music scene” by Miller Theatre. She was featured in a solo recital on Miller Theatre’s Pop Up series. Isabel has also collaborated with So Percussion on a performance of Lou Harrison’s Flute Concerto at the Kennedy Center and with the Aizuri Quartet on a portrait recording of music by composer Ilari Kaila. Isabel won first prize at the Myrna Brown Young Artist Competition at the Texas Flute Festival in 2015 as well as placing second prize at both the South Carolina and Kentucky Flute Festival Young Artist Competitions in 2012. You can hear Isabel featured on several recordings ranging a variety of genres: composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Aequa, Augusta Read Thomas The Auditions, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up original cast album, Indie rock band San Fermin’s The Cormorant and Jackrabbit, and hip-hop band ShoutHouse’s CityScapes. In 2020 while in quarantine, Isabel presented a solo recital on the Recital Stream platform, as well as a solo set on ChamberQUEERantine’s virtual festival that featured projections by Paige Seber.
Active as a teaching artist Isabel has worked with the Bridge Arts Ensemble in the Adirondacks and the American Composers Orchestra at Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton High School. She held a one year position with New York Philharmonic Education as a teaching artist apprentice, teaching 3rd grade. Isabel has conducted flute and chamber music master classes, and workshops in experimental music at the University of Nebraska, SUNY Purchase, DePauw University, University of Massachusetts and at the Texas Flute Festival. She has also collaborated with many composition departments, performing young student composers’ pieces from the Third Street Music School Settlement, Face the Music, Luna Composition Lab, the Music Advancement Program at the Juilliard School and the Very Young Composers program at the New York Philharmonic. Isabel, alongside her colleagues in ICE, is guest faculty at the Walden School Music Camp. Isabel holds an MM in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, an MM from the Yale School of Music, and a BM from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers have included Tara Helen O’Connor, Ransom Wilson and Tanya Dusevic Witek.
Isabel believes that classical music is an open ended canon and the commissioning of new work is crucial to the continued evolution of the art form. Isabel is a queer woman who has spent her entire life butting heads with the stereotypes and expectations of a female flute player, both in her appearance and musical aesthetic. She strives to create a home for artists who have been othered by the music community. By commissioning and collaborating with female identifying artists and artists of color as well as celebrating the underrepresented history of POC artists in classical music, she hopes to be a part of changing the expectation of what a classical musician looks like. This representation is the next step in our continued evolution as musicians and members of a larger community. For more information please visit isabellepantogleicher.com
Joshua Rubin
Joshua Nathan Rubin is a founding clarinetist, board member, and served as the co-Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICEensemble) from 2014-2018, where he oversaw the creative direction of more than one hundred concerts per season in the United States and abroad. As a clarinetist, the New York Times has praised him as, "incapable of playing an inexpressive note."
Joshua has worked closely with many of the prominent composers of our time, including George Crumb, Matana Roberts, Alvin Lucier, David Lang, Chaya Czernowin, Du Yun, Christian Wolff, George Lewis, Steven Schick, Kaija Saariaho, Craig Taborn, Pauline Oliveros, Okkyung Lee, Nathan Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, and Mario Davidovsky. His interest in electronic music throughout his career has led him work on making these technologies easier to use for both composers and performers. Joshua can be heard on recordings from the Nonesuch, Kairos, New Focus, Mode, Cedille, Naxos, Bridge, New Amsterdam, and Tzadik labels. His album There Never is No Light, available on the Tundra label, highlights music that uses technology to capture the human engagement of the performer and the listener.
This season he will perform in New York with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Teatro Nuovo, and the American Composers Orchestra, in Los Angeles with Wild Up and Monday Evening Concerts, and on tour in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Miami, Houston, Kansas City, San Diego, and Eugene, Oregon.
His clarinet studies were mentored by Lawrence McDonald, Mark Nuccio, and Steven Cohen. He served on the faculty of the Banff Music Centre's Ensemble Evolution summer program from 2016-2019. Rubin is on the faculty of soundSCAPE Festival and Ensemble Evolution. He is also on the faculty of the College of the Performing Arts at The New School.
Joshua holds degrees in Biology and Clarinet from Oberlin College and Conservatory, and a Master's degree from the Mannes School of Music.
His passion for technology in arts led Joshua to develop LUIGI, management software that is available to ensembles and other arts organizations who value transparency and collective management, as well as his ongoing work to make electronic music technologies easier to use for performers and composers. He maintains an artistic presence in New York and Los Angeles.
Rebekah Heller
Praised for her “flair” and “deftly illuminated” performances by The New York Times, bassoonist Rebekah Heller is a uniquely dynamic soloist, collaborative artist, improviser, curator, and educator. Called "an impressive solo bassoonist" by The New Yorker, she is fiercely committed to expanding the modern repertoire for the bassoon. Heller’s professional journey epitomizes a hybrid career path that celebrates robust and diverse interests. Her passion for commissioning and performing new music, coupled with her expertise as a pedagogue, organizational dreamer, fundraiser, and conscientious curator, makes her uniquely positioned to guide early-career artists and arts organizations that seek to forge their own way.
As Artist Director Emeritus and current Member of the Board of Directors of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Rebekah collaboratively steers the evolving long term vision and mission of the organization. Over her decade of service on the staff, Rebekah revolutionized the organization’s individual fundraising program, and helped focus the group’s artistic season planning around key partnerships and initiatives that would center socially engaged programming and on working policies and practices that maximized performer agency.
As Bassoonist of the Ensemble since 2008, Rebekah has premiered hundreds of new works by an incredibly diverse group of creators on stages the world over. She has been an unceasing advocate for the bassoon as a solo instrument, and is fiercely committed to expanding the modern repertoire for the instrument.
Rebekah made her solo debut with the New York Philharmonic in September 2018, playing the music of longtime ICEensemble collaborator Ash Fure, and has been a soloist with the Seattle Symphony, the Nagoya Philharmonic, and the New World Symphony, among others.
Rebekah joined the faculty of the College of Performing Arts (CoPA) and The Mannes School of Music at The New School in the fall of 2019. She leads a bassoon studio, coaches chamber music, and teaches classes in creative producing and socially engaged artistry at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She recently led a week-long intensive online program for young artists called “Finding Your Path” and served as part of the team that developed a new core curriculum for The New School’s CoPA.
Rebekah is passionate about speaking with young artists and organizations about how to create a robust and fulfilling career and has partnered with many organizations around the country including The New World Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra, Ensemble Connect, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and serves on the advisory board of Sound American.
Before joining ICEensemble, Rebekah served as Principal Bassoonist of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in the 2008-2009 season, and was a member of The New World Symphony and the Chicago Civic Orchestra.
She studied at the University of Texas at Austin and the Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, and lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Josh Modney
Josh Modney is a violinist and creative musician working at the nexus of composition, improvisation, and interpretation. A “new-music luminary” (The New York Times) hailed as "one of today's most intrepid experimentalists" (Bandcamp Daily), Modney is a foremost interpreter of adventurous contemporary music, and has cultivated a holistic artistic practice as a composer, solo improviser, bandleader, writer, arts administrator, and collaborator. Modney is the violinist and Executive Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, and a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Modney has composed music for violin solo, chamber ensemble, and film ("Dreamland", Paramount Pictures), and has a forthcoming album of quartet music written for acclaimed creative musicians Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones), Mariel Roberts (cello), and Cory Smythe (piano). Modney's triple-disc debut solo release, Engage (New Focus Recordings, 2018), featuring works written for Modney by Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, and Sam Pluta alongside music by Anthony Braxton, J.S. Bach, and Modney’s own solo violin music, was lauded by The New York Times as “one of the most intriguing programs of the year”. Modney's writing on Just Intonation and collaborative musical practices has been published on Sound American and New Music Box, and he is the co-founder and editor of Wet Ink Archive, an online journal of adventurous music.
Gabriela (Gabby) Díaz
Georgia native Gabriela Diaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father.
As a childhood cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to supporting cancer research and treatment in her capacity as a musician. In 2004, Gabriela was a recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation, an award that enabled Gabriela to create and direct the Boston Hope Ensemble. This program is now part of Winsor Music. A firm believer in the healing properties of music, Gabriela and her colleagues have performed in cancer units in Boston hospitals and presented benefit concerts for cancer research organizations in numerous venues throughout the United States.
A fierce champion of contemporary music, Gabriela has been fortunate to work closely with many significant composers on their own compositions, namely Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Lucier, Unsuk Chin, Jessie Montgomery, Joan Tower, Roger Reynolds, Chaya Czernowin, Steve Reich, Tania León, Brian Ferneyhough, and Helmut Lachenmann. Gabriela is a member of several Boston-area ensembles, including Winsor Music, Sound Icon, A Far Cry, BMOP, and Castle of our Skins.
Kyle Armbrust
Kyle Armbrust started playing the viola at age three. Since giving his New York solo debut with Kurt Masur and the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, he has created a multi-dimensional career performing and recording a wide range of music. The New York Times has described him as “assured, brilliant, and stylish…” and the New York Post called him “musically mature, technically sound...”
As soloist, Kyle has performed with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Lake George Chamber Orchestra, Maple City Chamber Orchestra, and Woodstock Festival Orchestra.
An active proponent of contemporary music, Kyle has worked with Elliot Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Osvaldo Golijov, Steve Reich, Charles Wuorinen, and others. He first performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2011 as part of the Tully SCOPE Festival, then again in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and he participated in the Carlos Iturralde ICElab in February 2012. Kyle also performs with Argento Ensemble and the Orchestra of the League of Composers. In addition to his other activities, Kyle is currently the assistant principal viola of the New Jersey Symphony, principal viola of the Westchester Philharmonic, and a founding member of the Knights Chamber Orchestra. He is a substitute member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra.
Kyle’s dedication to chamber music has led to festival appearances at Aix en Provence, Caramoor, Charlottesville, La Jolla Summerfest, Marlboro, Monadnock, Moritzburg, Ravinia, Schleswig Holstein, Stillwater, and Verbier. He has performed at Bargemusic, the Gardner Museum, Freer Gallery, New York Yacht Club, Neue Gallerie, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Kyle has also worked with Herbie Hancock, Lauryn Hill, Mya, Sufjan Stevens, Sting, and made an appearance on the show "30 Rock."
Dan Lippel
Guitarist Daniel Lippel, called an “exciting soloist” (New York Times) and “precise and sensitive” (Boston Globe) has a multi-faceted career as a performer and recording artist. He has premiered more than fifty solo and chamber works, many written for him, recording several on his label, New Focus Recordings. Recent performance highlights include recitals at Le Poisson Rouge (NY), Sinus Ton Festival (Germany), National University of Colombia (Bogota), Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, and the New York and Triangle Classical Guitar Societies, and chamber performances on the Mostly Mozart Festival, Ojai Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Aspekte Festival (Salzburg), and Kunst Universitaet Graz (Austria). He has worked closely with many prominent composers including Mario Davidovsky, Nils Vigeland, Ken Ueno, Dai Fujikura, Tyshawn Sorey, Wang Lu, and Du Yun. In addition to New Focus, he appears on recordings on several other labels including Kairos, Bridge, Innova, Sono Luminus, Albany, Tzadik, Wergo, and New World. In improvised and original music settings, he has collaborated with pianist Cory Smythe, guitarist Alejandro Florez, guitarist Dan Bruce and Aidan Plank as Collage Project, as well as being a member of the eclectic indie group Mice Parade on several albums and international tours. As an educator, Lippel has given guitar masterclasses and presentations at institutions including the Hanns Eisler Hochschule (Berlin), Curtis Institute, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), San Francisco Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Peabody Institute, University of Texas at Austin, and New York University. He received his DMA from the Manhattan School of Music studying with David Starobin.
https://danlippel.com/
https://danlippel.bandcamp.com/
Jacob Greenberg
Pianist Jacob Greenberg's work as a soloist and chamber musician has received worldwide acclaim. A longtime member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, he has performed throughout the Americas and Europe. His solo concert series, Music at Close Range, shows his equal commitment to classics of the repertoire.
Recent highlights include a guest performance of works of György Kurtág at the International Summer Courses in Darmstadt, Germany, under the composer's guidance; concerts at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; Boulez’s Sur Incises with the Seattle Symphony; and solo and concerto appearances with the International Contemporary Ensemble at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Live performances have been heard on WQXR New York, BBC Radio 3, WFMT Chicago and Radio Netherlands.
As an orchestral player, Mr. Greenberg has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Australian Chamber Orchestra. A leading pianist of modern song, he has toured extensively with soprano Tony Arnold; their 2013 recording of Olivier Messiaen's Harawi has been singled out by critics. Mr. Greenberg is also recognized as a coach for contemporary opera.
In addition to his solo albums for New Focus Recordings, which feature works from the Baroque to many new commissions, he has recorded for the Nonesuch, Sony, Bridge, Naxos, Mode, Kairos, Centaur, Tzadik, and New Amsterdam labels. Mr. Greenberg is an award-winning record producer, and has completed discs for major domestic and international labels. He is the director of the International Contemporary Ensemble's in-house TUNDRA imprint. As a composer, he makes recorded pieces with spoken and sung texts. His podcast, Intégrales, explores meaningful intersections of music and daily city life.
Mr. Greenberg is on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center, and has taught at Hunter College, City University of New York, The Juilliard School, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, where he earned degrees in music and religion, and he completed his master's and doctoral degrees at Northwestern University, where he studied with Ursula Oppens.
Clara Warnaar
Clara Warnaar (b. 1991, Los Angeles) is a percussionist, drummer and composer living in New York. A member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Clara tends towards collaborative, devised and interdisciplinary projects. As the drummer for the band Infinity Shred, Clara thrives at the intersection of rock, electronic, improvised, and composed music. She is sought out as a drummer and collaborator for having this particular versatile blend of skills. In 2019, Clara founded the series “A New Age for New Age”, which aims to reimagine New Age music by commissioning artists to offer fresh interpretations of the confusing genre. The series has released 5 volumes featuring over 50 artists.
In addition to the International Contemporary Ensemble, Clara has appeared as a guest artist with So Percussion, Yarn/Wire, the Bang on a Can Orchestra, Ensemble Signal, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the American Modern Ensemble. Recent projects include: “The Force of Things” by Ash Fure and Adam Fure, “PLACE” by Ted Hearne and Saul Williams (BAM), “Proving Up” by Missy Mazzoli (Opera Omaha), “Reich/Richter” by Steve Reich (The Shed), “Playground/Run” by Ellen Reid, and “The Back Door” by Martin Creed (Park Avenue Armory).
Clara can be heard on the Grammy-nominated recordings of music by Missy Mazzoli and Ted Hearne, and many others. She has performed on and written music for the three most recent Infinity Shred albums, and has recorded drums with antiphonal chamber metal band, “Real Loud”. She has also appeared on major film soundtracks, including “The Fate of the Furious” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.
As a solo act, Clara releases ambient electronic music, and has released two albums and a soundtrack (Claire Christerson’s video work “Through Angel’s Eyes”). Clara’s compositional style merges field recordings, classical music and electronics, to create surreal and poetic environments.
Nathan Davis
Percussionist and composer Nathan Davis "writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (NYTimes). He has premiered hundreds of works by luminaries and by emerging composers, and has appeared as a concerto soloist on hammered dulcimer with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and Nagoya Philharmonic. The BAM Next Wave Festival and American Opera Projects presented the world premiere of Davis’s “Hagoromo”, a chamber dance-opera featuring the International Contemporary Ensemble, soloists Katalin Karolyi and Peter Tantsits, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and featuring dancers Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto.
Lincoln Center presented the premiere of “Bells” and other works written for International Contemporary Ensemble. He has also received commissions from Donaueschinger Musiktage, GMEM and Ensemble CBarré, Claire Chase, Steven Schick, Miller Theatre, the Calder Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, and Yarn/Wire, with premieres at Tanglewood, Park Avenue Armory, and Carnegie Hall. The 2018 Aaron Copland Fellow at the Bogliasco Foundation, Davis received awards from Camargo, PEW, Fromm, and Jerome Foundations, MATA, and ASCAP. Recordings of his music include “On the Nature of Thingness” on Starkland, and others on New Focus, and Bridge, and he can be heard as a percussionist on dozens of albums. Davis holds degrees in composition and in percussion from Rice, Yale, and the Rotterdams Conservatorium on a Fulbright Fellowship.He taught percussion at Dartmouth College for eight years and currently teaches composition and electronic music at The New School.
Ross Karre
Ross Karre (b. 1983 in Battle Creek, MI) is a percussionist and temporal artist based in New York City. His primary focus is on combining media, including classical percussion performance, electronics, theater, moving image, visual art, and lighting design. Ross is a percussionist and the artistic director for the International Contemporary Ensemble.