With the support of a generous grant from the Nexus Awards, Dr. Felipe Lara, Pulitzer Prize Finalist for 2024 and Associate Professor and Chair of Composition at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, will lead Polyaspora, a five-day contemporary music festival, at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. in fall 2024. Hosted by the Peabody Institute and curated by Professor Lara and George Lewis of Columbia University, Polyaspora centers Black and Brazilian perspectives in contemporary music alongside a showcase of new musical works by Peabody Conservatory students. The globally renowned and New York City-based International Contemporary Ensemble will serve as guest performers and educators for the festival. The festival includes three concerts with pre-concert talks at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center’s state-of-the-art Theatre, and one concert on the Peabody Institute’s Baltimore campus. All four concerts will be free and open to the public. Additional workshops and open rehearsals at Peabody will be open to JHU and Peabody students to attend and participate in.
PROGRAMS INCLUDE:
THE FUTURE IS NOW I & II / September 24, 25
Each of these programs features seven newly composed premieres by Peabody Conservatory students, scored for solo instruments and chamber ensembles.
COMPOSING WHILE BLACK – Afrodiasporic New Music Today / September 26
In tandem with the publication of the bilingual English/German edited volume bearing the same name, edited by Harald Kisiedu and George E. Lewis, this program presents sonically audacious new music by Nicole Mitchell, Jeffrey Mumford, Allison Loggins-Hull, Andile Khumalo, Leila Adu-Gilmore, and Tebogo Monnakgotla.
ANTROPOFAGIA – Brazilian Perspectives / September 27
This program features today’s leading musical voices of the Brazilian diaspora and explores the complexities and intersections of identity, race, history and cultural ethos from within a Brazilian framing. Includes works by Felipe Lara, Jocy de Oliveira, Igor Santos, Marcos Balter, Arthur Kampela, and Michelle Agnes. Pre-Concert Talk with Dr. Alejandro L. Madrid from Harvard University.
Additional activities include two workshops on open scores led by ICE members and open rehearsals for Peabody students.
THE FUTURE IS NOW II (STUDENT WORKS) PROGRAM
Xinglan Deng: That’s the end of winter (2024)
for oboe, alto saxophone, bassoon, harp, piano, and violin
Christopher Thompson: Precipice (2024)
for soprano saxophone, bassoon, horn, piano, and violin
Rodrigo Valente Pascale: escritura (2024)
for oboe, alto saxophone, bassoon, harp, electric guitar, and violin
Alexander Wu: Measure of the wound (2024)
for oboe, alto saxophone, bassoon, horn, and electric guitar
Elena Winell: Avec la Gomme (2024)
for alto saxophone, bassoon, piano, harp, electric guitar, and violin
Jia Yi Lee: Rotations (2024)
for oboe, soprano saxophone, bassoon, horn, electric guitar, and harp
Emma Tucker: Crudely Gilded, Brutally Adorned (2024)
for conductor, oboe, alto saxophone, bassoon, harp, electric guitar, and violin
PERFORMERS
Rebekah Heller, conductor
Nick Masterson, oboe
Erin Rogers, saxophone
Alexander Davis, bassoon
Kyra Sims, horn
Josh Modney, violin
Nuiko Wadden, harp
Daniel Lippel, guitar
Jacob Greenberg, piano
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ENSEMBLE
Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) 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. Co-founded in 2001 by flutist and MacArthur “genius” Fellow Claire Chase, the Ensemble has premiered over 1,000 works. The Ensemble has given performances at Warsaw Autumn, TIME:SPANS, Berliner Festspiele, HEAR NOW Los Angeles, Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, Ojai Music Festival, and Big Ears Festival as well as in venues such as the Dutch National Opera, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, Japan Society, Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center, Fridman Gallery, Chelsea Factory, NYU Skirball and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
CREDITS
The International Contemporary Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2024-25 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, Robert D. Bielecki Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music, Fromm Music 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.