Composer Camila Agosto has been one of the nicest surprises to come to ICE in a long while. When ICE chose her to be represented on a November OpenICE concert at the Abrons Arts Center, we had no idea she was only twenty-one! Camila describes her experience here, and video of the concert will follow soon on DigitICE. Based in Baltimore, Camila brought family, co-workers, and fans to the November 12 concert, many of whom were having their first experience with new music.
I first found out about ICEcommons when I participated in an open forum hosted by ICE in late October of this year. The forum was a presentation and large group discussion about ICE’s archive metafields.org. It’s a free archive for performers and composers to use to find and share new works. After the forum, I had the chance to speak one-on-one with both Ryan Muncy and Alice Teyssier about this new initiative and my own works, and they suggested that I post some of work on the archive. I chose to post a trio I recently composed, Listen to me as one listens to the rain, a piece that explores the process a person goes through as they slowly lose their ability to communicate with the world around them. This piece is near to my heart and was inspired by someone close to me; I chose to post it because I felt that it represented a different aspect of myself and my work that I hadn’t yet explored. It is written for flute, soprano saxophone, and a percussion instrument I designed, and I thought that since I met Ryan, Alice, and Ross, this would be a good piece to post. A few weeks later, I received an email from Ryan expressing his interest in my work, as well as a possible performance of this piece in their OpenICE season. I was floored when I read this email. I had no expectations when I posted my work, so getting a response from members of ICE was absolutely incredible.
Working with Ross, Alice, and Ryan has been amazing! They all took such great care to keep me informed of the logistical details for this concert, and to capture all of the nuances within this piece. When I sat in the audience during the dress rehearsal/sound check, it was an unbelievable experience to hear this piece come to life in a new way. Being able to use an archive like Metafields, and having such a positive experience come out of one post is incredible. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to continue to share my music with others, and I hope that more people will take advantage of this archive and get to know the ICEcommons initiative!