International Contemporary Ensemble At Hear Now Festival
The Ensemble will be traveling from New York City to perform the works of Los Angeles composers in HEAR NOW 2024.
A Note from Hugh Levick, Artistic Director of HEAR NOW: “We are pleased to present the outstanding International Contemporary Ensemble from New York, and an orchestral work by George Lewis, their artistic director. As Lewis says in his opera AFTERWORD, ‘this music has a lot to do with disrupting any status quo or system…Our purpose is to awaken the psyche.’ In other words, the materiality of sound infused with Spirit becomes music, and the music of HEAR NOW offers an expression of plenitude and abundance, that is, our true nature.” Alex Ross in The New Yorker calls Lewis “one of the most formidable figures in modern music…”
PROGRAM
Concert 1: April 26, 2024
Kay Rhie: …in the dreams of another… (2023)
Jeremy Dávalos: I Reflect… Mvmt I: “A Prayer Amidst the Chaos” (2023) (Live premiere)
Mu-Xuan Lin: Double Jeopardy (2014) (World premiere, 12-instrument version)
Hugh Levick: PETRIFIED UNREST (2019 & 2021) (World premiere)
Joseph Pereira: Glimpse II, for ensemble in 5 movements (2023)
1. on the images that cannot be seen...
2. Through the veil
3. Mystical and sacred
hybrid figures embrace
4. this time and in this place
5. ....memory transforms
thoughts erased
PERFORMERS
Jerry Hou, conductor
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Emmalie Tello, clarinet
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Noah Kay, oboe
Alexander Davis, bassoon
Sam Jones, trumpet
Nicolee Kuester, horn
T.J. Robinson, trombone
Nuiko Wadden, harp
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Clara Warnaar, percussion
Wesley Sumpter, percussion
Josh Modney, violin
Yezu Woo, violin
Wendy Richman, viola
Ashley Walters, cello
Evan Runyon, bass
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble is a multidisciplinary collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to building and innovating collaborative environments in order to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. The Ensemble creates a mosaic musical ecosystem as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), honoring the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, recording, and performing the works of living artists in “a mission worth following” (I Care If You Listen).
CREDITS
The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2023-24 concert season are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors, many individuals, as well as the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Siemens Musikstiftung, New Music USA, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, 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. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.