About this event
The International Contemporary Ensemble presents an artist curated evening of solos and duos with guests Chris Williams and Jessie Cox. Additionally, Fay Victor and Rebekah Heller present a new iteration of their duo project, a collaboration born from mutual admiration in 2021. Josh Modney debuts a new solo project for violin and distortion pedal. Guitarist Dan Lippel performs Diego Tedesco's Portrait #2 for guitar and electronics. Plus, the world premiere of Jessie Cox’s new bassoon piece for Rebekah Heller, Sonic Cartographies.
More about Sonic Cartographies written by Jessie Cox:
When writing Sonic Cartographies I was sitting at my desk with the window open. All of a sudden I heard this glaring sound outdoors—a shriek composite sound that covered the whole of the blue sky outside, what I vaguely remembered to be a warning signal for bombs. Slowly it dissipated but during its receding, it became evident that there were multiple sirens sounding from different directions. In its quieting down, a release of tenseness to my ears, the usual environmental sound of birds chirping faded in.
What this experience gave me is a sense of different cartographies within the sonic—that is to say that different sounds map space in unique ways. The sirens work on the one hand as a safety net marking a space in danger, while on the other they also mark a sovereign space. When birds chirp it is for me a sound that maps a space too, not just the woods and houses in Switzerland, but also a place where I grew up. In this sense different cartographies combat each other, or overlap, negotiate, co-exist, or subsist. This work is an exploration of a variety of sonic cartographic techniques itself also a sonic map.
About The International Contemporary Ensemble:
With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the International Contemporary Ensemble – as a commissioner and performer at the highest level – amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music is made and experienced. The Ensemble’s 35 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time. Works by emerging composers have anchored the Ensemble’s programming since its founding in 2001, and the group’s recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music’s present.
Described as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), the Ensemble has become a leading force in new music throughout the last 20 years, having premiered over 1,000 works and having been a vehicle for the workshop and performance of thousands of works by student composers across the U.S. The Ensemble’s composer-collaborators—many who were unknown at the time of their first Ensemble collaboration—have fundamentally shaped its creative ethos and have continued to highly visible and influential careers, including MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey; long-time Ensemble collaborator, founding member, and 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winner Du Yun; and the Ensemble’s founder, 2012 MacArthur Fellow, and first-ever flutist to win Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Prize, Claire Chase.
CREDITS
The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2021-22 concert season are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors and many individuals as well as The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., MAP Fund, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Casement Fund, BMI Foundation, as well as public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) from the U.S. Small Business Administration. The International Contemporary Ensemble was the Ensemble in Residence of the Nokia Bell Labs Experiments in Art and Technology from 2018 - 2021. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.