Ensemble Evolution is the International Contemporary Ensemble’s summer intensive designed to foster a holistic understanding of the artist as a global citizen in collaboration with The New School’s College of Performing Arts in New York City. Ensemble Evolution participants engage in music-making, community-building, and creative producing through workshops, conversations, and radical artistic collaborations with faculty and other participants. From June 26th to June 29th, the program offers unique and collaborative performance opportunities with musicians dedicated to transforming the way music is created and experienced.
This year is the first time the program is fully in-person at The New School, Arnhold Hall!
There will be an Ensemble Evolution Festival on June 26 and June 29, open to the public and via live-stream, in order to experience the work of many involved in Ensemble Evolution.
Opening Night on June 26th features: World premiere by Sandra Kluge and a Work in Progress Showing by Cleo Reed, both commissioned by the Ensemble. Plus performances by Ensemble Evolution faculty members including improvisation sets and works by Shara Lunon, and Roscoe Mitchell.
Program & Performers
Fay Victor & Rebekah Heller: Improv Duo
Sandra Kluge: Anything = Everything (World Premiere)*
Sandra Kluge, tap percussion
Fay Victor, voice
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Lesley Mok, drumset & percussion
Shara Lunon, Lesley Mok, Lester St. Louis, eddy kwon: Improv Set
Cleo Reed: Reeding Room: The Early Oeuvre (Work in Progress Showing)*
Alice Teyssier, voice & flute
Rebekah Heller, bassoon
Nathan Davis, percussion
— INTERMISSION —
Shara Lunon: Samples No. 1: Hard Conversations
Shara Lunon, voice
Alice Teyssier, flute
eddy kwon, violin
Wendy Richman, viola
Dan Lippel, guitar
Sandra Kluge: Anything = Everything — Part II
Roscoe Mitchell: Cards for ICE
Shara Lunon, voice
Alice Teyssier, flute
eddy kwon, violin
Wendy Richman, viola
Lester St. Louis, cello
Dan Lippel, guitar
Lesley Mok, drumset
*commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble’s “Call for ____” program
PROGRAM NOTES
for Sandra Kluge: Anything = Everything (World Premiere)
"I've been deeply fascinated by the Jungian concept of archetypes, specifically the 12 archetypal images that translate universally across cultures, as they comprehensively describe human existence. Every single person carries all 12 archetypes within them, but the prevalence and expression of each of them uniquely varies from person to person like a fingerprint.
My composition, "Anything = Everything", explores not only the archetypes themselves, but also how they interact with each other. It is set up like a game: Prior to performing, each of the 4 musicians draws 3 archetypes from a 12-card deck. Which means all 12 archetypes will be present, but in different combinations, creating a whole different experience - essentially, a whole different human - every time the piece is played.
I would like to thank everyone at the International Contemporary Ensemble for allowing me the opportunity to create and share this work, and of course Fay, Rebecca, and Lesley for making my composition come to life!”
–Sandra Kluge
for Cleo Reed: Reeding Room: The Early Oeuvre (Work in Progress Showing)
Reeding Room: The Early Oeuvres is a collection of short hand pieces that use the technique of imitative synthesis to explore the sounds of Cleo Reed’s own childhood while living in Washington, DC—particularly the sonic elements Reed was exposed to commuting from elementary school to rehearsal at the DC Youth Orchestra between 4th and 5th grade. As Reed’s first professional composition, Reeding Room acts as a sonic memory map that reaches back into Reed’s earliest experiences with orchestra, rebuilding and presenting them in a new, contemporary context.
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 2022-23 concert season are made possible by the generous support of 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., MAP Fund, Mid Atlantic Arts, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, New Music USA’s New Music Organizational Development Fund, 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.