New York-city based electronics duo exclusiveOr (Jeff Snyder, analog synthesizer and Sam Pluta, laptop) team up with ICE's brass and percussion battery in a concert-length barrage of notes, sounds, and noises. Based on a modular score with interlocking segments that can be rearranged and reordered in each performance, this new work fuses notated composition and improvisation in the tradition of pioneers like Anthony Braxton and George Lewis.

exclusiveOr is a collaborative project between composer/performers Jeff Snyder and Sam Pluta. They released an album on QuietDesign Records in 2008. Sam Pluta performs on laptop in Wet Ink Ensemble and the Peter Evans Quintet. Jeff Snyder is an instrument designer and improvisor on analog synthesizer who often performs in the electronic ensemble Sideband, or in a duo with drummer Federico Ughi, or on pen-plotters with Victor Adan as the Draftmasters, and currently co-leads the Princeton Laptop Orchestra. They also co-run the record label Carrier Records, along with David Franzson.

Performers:

David Byrd-Marrow (horn), an Atlanta, Georgia native, received his Bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with the late Jerome Ashby. For his Master's degree, David went on to study with William Purvis at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was then selected for fellowship in the Juilliard-Carnegie Hall Academy Ensemble ACJW. David has also played with groups such as Carnegie Hall's "Zankel Band," The Orchestra of St. Luke's, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Tokyo Symphony, The New York and Atlanta Operas and The New York Philharmonic.

Gareth Flowers (trumpet), of Arlington, Virginia, is an electro-acoustic trumpeter, know for "shimmering vibrato" and "wide-ranging lines" (The New York Times, June 2010). He has performed with ICE since 2003.
Although his musical journey has included performances with the major orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seoul, he relishes making music on an intimate scale, and performs with ICE, the TILT Creative Brass band, the Argento New Music Project, and the Tri-Centric Foundation’s (Anthony Braxton) orchestra. He often performs in theatrical productions on Broadway, and has recorded for many fine musicians including Gabriel Kahane, Anthony Coleman, and duYun.

Peter Evans (trumpet) has been a member of the New York musical community since 2003, when he moved to the city after graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory with a degree in classical trumpet performance. Peter currently works in a wide variety of areas, including solo performance, chamber orchestras, performance art, free improvised settings, electro-acoustic music and composition.
Evans has been steadily working to expand the expressive capabilities of his instrument, and enjoys collaborating with steady configurations of players and composers. Current groupings include the Peter Evans Quartet, Moppa Elliott's terrorist bebop band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the hyperactive improvisation duo Sparks (with Tom Blancarte), a duo with trumpeter Nate Wooley, as well as a sustained interest in solo performance.

Dan Peck (tuba) is a tubist, multi-instrumentalist, and creative artist currently living and working in New York City. Since his move there in 2005, Dan has been active as a soloist, improviser, creative performer, composer, and artistic collaborator in a wide variety of settings. He has premiered solo tuba works by Robert Sirota, Craig Woodward, and Ignacio Baca-Lobra, and has played solo works/recitals at St. Bartholomew's Church, Merkin Hall, and the Stone. In group settings, Dan has worked with conductors such as James Levine and Herbert Blomstedt, composers such as Anthony Braxton and Bruce Neely, and New York luminaries such as Dave Taylor and Dave Liebman. In addition to playing with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Dan has also played with Alarm Will Sound, Second Instrumental Unit, New World Symphony, and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, among others.

Ross Karre (percussion) is an experimental percussionist and intermedia artist who collaborates with a variety of performers, composers, and artists throughout the world. Ross has presented his own works and interpreted the works of countless composers in Taiwan, Korea, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Canada, and throughout the United States.

Jeff Snyder (electronics) is a composer, improviser and instrument-designer living in Princeton, New Jersey, and active in the New York City area. He performs on his analog modular synthesizer he designed and built himself in duos and with Sam Pluta, Federico Ughi, and Cenk Ergün, and also leads a band as his electro-country alter ego Owen Lake. He is also a member of avant jazz group the Federico Ughi Quartet, noise trio The Mizries, and laptop ensemble Sideband. He is currently an Associate Research Scholar in the Music Department at Princeton University, and the Associate Director of PLOrk, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra. In 2011, he received a doctorate with distinction in Music Composition from Columbia University.

Sam Pluta (electronics) is a New York City-based composer, laptop improviser, electronics performer, and sound artist. Though his work has a wide breadth, his central focus is on the laptop as a performance instrument capable of sharing the stage with groups ranging from new music ensembles to world-class instrumental improvisers. By creating unique interactions of electronics, instruments, and sonic spaces, Pluta's vibrant musical universe fuses the traditionally separate sound worlds of acoustic instruments and electronics, creating sonic spaces which envelop the audience and resulting in a music focused on visceral interaction of instrumental performers with reactive computerized sound worlds.