The more diverse the perspectives, the more possibilities. This seemingly simple core idea forms the starting point of the international concert series “Polyaspora” by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). The title is borrowed from the novel “ The Shards of the Earth ” by the British science fiction author Adrian Tchaikovsky, published in 2021. Polyaspora describes a state of dispersal of human life throughout the galaxy. Unlike in the diaspora, there is no longer a fixed place that could be called home. Everything is constantly in flux. According to ICE’s Artistic Director, George Lewis, our lives and our perception of the world are already shaped like this today. This is particularly true of the ensemble, founded in 2001, whose practice has always expressed a planetary perspective, which Lewis himself describes as intercultural, intermedial and interdisciplinary. In this sense, ICE will also bring the “previously unheard” to life as part of MaerzMusik. The program includes pieces by Aida Shirazi, Laure M. Hiendl, Raven Chacon and Samir Odeh Tamimi, among others. They will be rehearsed and performed over the course of a five-day residency by six musicians from ICE who work with Berlin artists. The aim is to create a polyaspora of compositions and performances: a complex artistic flow.
PROGRAM
Aida Shirazi: Crystalline Trees (2020)
Raven Chacon: (Bury Me) Where The Lightning [Will] Never Find Me (2019)
Samir Odeh-Tamimi: Philaki (2009)
Jessie Cox: Existence Lies In-Between (2017)
Laure M. Hiendl: String Quartet No. 1 (Tubular—Mondo) (2018)
Charles Uzor: Go (Ballet imaginaire) (1999, rev 2019-2021)
PERFORMERS
Kazem Abdullah, conductor
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flutes
Campbell MacDonald, clarinets
Clara Warnaar, percussion
Jacob Greenberg, piano
Josh Modney, violin
Kyle Armbrust, viola
Katinka Kleijn, cello
Zafraan ensemble:
Emmanuelle Bernard, violin
Caleb Salgado, double bass
Anna Viechtl, harp
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, The 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.