ICElab Workshop at BAC | Music of Patricia Alessandrini and Carla Kihlstedt

ICE at the Evolution Contemporary Music Series | Baltimore

One Hundred Names | Rebekah Heller, solo bassoon at MoCP

ICE NYC at EIGHT BRIDGES | Music for Cologne

ICElab at Atlas Performing Arts

ICElab at Reston

Georges Aperghis and the New Generation | ICElab on the MCA Stage, conducted by Ludovic Morlot

Photos from the Scene: ICElab at the CSUF New Music Festival

March 10, 2012

We had a great time last weekend at the CSUF New Music Festival! Many thanks to the CSUF Department of Music and everyone who came out to support contemporary music!

Lisa Coons Update [post ICElab workshop]

March 8, 2012

“It was the most enjoyable, most inspiring rehearsal process that I’ve ever experienced. The piece is challenging, but everyone was completely engaged, mentally, musically and physically.” - ICElab composer Lisa Coons

ICELab at the CSUF New Music Festival [Preview]

March 1, 2012

Heads up, West coasters! ICE comes to California State University Fullerton this Friday and Saturday with an impressive line-up of groundbreaking composers.

Juan Pablo Carreño [post ICElab workshop]

February 25, 2012

"I have a more clear idea about what I'm looking for in that piece, that idea of a disjunctive music, a disjunctive relation between different sonorous planes." - Juan Pablo Carreño following his ICElab workshop.

Photos from the Scene: ICElab Workshop with Lisa Coons and the Troupe

February 19, 2012

We had a great time collaborating with Lisa Coons and The Troupe last week at the Baryshnikov Arts Center! Many thanks to everyone who came out.

Today: Lisa Coons, The Troupe, BAC, 3pm

February 18, 2012

Today ICE will be showing off the progress we've made this week collaborating with 2012 ICElab composer Lisa Coons and The Troupe at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

ICElab Intro: Lisa Coons

February 16, 2012

“. . . that level of trying new things and feeling like the only failure would be to not take advantage and take chances. . . it's thrilling!”

Photos from the Scene: ICElab Workshop with Juan Pablo Carreño and Carlos Iturralde

February 12, 2012

We had a great time collaborating with Carlos and Juan Pablo last week at the Baryshnikov Arts Center! Many thanks to everyone who came out.

George Lewis & Friends on the MCA Stage [Preview]

February 2, 2012

The work's chronically unstable sonic environment, mesmerizing as it builds through the rise and fall of polyrhythms and dissonances, will shake the air and eardrums of Chicago for the first time on Sunday.

ICElab introduces Carlos Iturralde

January 24, 2012

"It is just starting, but so far it is very promising above all because I've found nothing but openness to explore ideas and to give continuity to my work in every member of the ensemble that I've gotten in touch with." - Carlos Iturralde

ICElab introduces Tyshawn Sorey

January 18, 2012

Both on the bandstand and at the writing desk, Sorey is that rare kind of musical being who not only wears his influences on his sleeve, but shapes them into something wholly other. If that spirit of originality carries through to his time at ICElab – it will – it’s going to make for some very exciting results.

ICElab Application Deadline Extended to January 22nd, 2012

January 11, 2012

ICE has extended the deadline for the 2013-14 cycle of commissions. The deadline has been moved from 1/15 to 1/22.

Æsopica Sold Out Tonight! + Critic’s Pick

December 16, 2011

The world premiere of ICElab composer Marcos Balter's Æsopica is sold out tonight! We hope to see you there. The New York Times selected this show as a Critics' Pick! They write: The restless young virtuosos known as ICE are worth hearing no matter what they undertake. Here, continuing their innovative ICElab series, they perform “Aesopica,” a brash, whimsical song cycle by Marcos Balter based on Aesop’s fables; Peter Tantsits, a tenor both skillful and brave, serves as the narrator and soloist. At 7:30 p.m., Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th Street, Manhattan, (866) 811-4111, bacnyc.org; free, with reservations required. (Smith)

Guest Post: Marcos Balter on Aesop’s Fables

December 15, 2011

In preparation for our two night run of ICElab composer Marcos Balter's Æsopica (including a FREE special children's performance tonight), we have a special guest post from the composer! Marcos discusses the selection process for the fables, and muses on the moral significance of a few of the ones he chose:

“I Want To Be Just Like You When I Grow Up”: Notes from Elementary Schoolers

December 13, 2011

Last month, ICE did one of our Listening Room workshops at Swift Elementary School in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, programmed by Tricia Von Eck of The Happiness Project. Eric Lamb, Claire Chase, Josh Rubin, and Jacob Greenberg, our Education Director, worked with students for two hours to create a graphic score, which was then rehearsed by our musicians and performed for the students' parents. Check out these adorable thank you notes from students at Swift Elementary:

Marcos Balter: Composing Aesopica (via Meet The Composer)

December 13, 2011

As we gear up to present Marcos Balter's Æsopica on Friday at the BAC, we wanted to share this video and article (originally published here) from our good friends at Meet The Composer, who supported the creation of the piece:

Nathan Davis’ “Bright and Hollow Sky” in TONY’s “Best of 2011” list!

December 12, 2011

ICE percussionist and ICElab composer Nathan Davis' recent release, "The Bright and Hollow Sky", appears in Time Out New York Music Editor Steve Smith's list of The Best Classical Albums of 2011! It's number 5, in fact. Smith writes: Long a tremendous asset to the International Contemporary Ensemble as both a brilliant percussionist and a resourceful composer, Nathan Davis finally documented five of his sonically beguiling works, with predictably rich results.

Æsopica: Bringing Fables to the BAC

December 6, 2011

We're excited to be performing ICElab composer Marcos Balter's Æsopica during a FREE show at the BAC on December 16th! Check out the video excerpt from the piece below: The Chicago Tribune praised Æsopica's "minutely crafted whimsy" after we presented the piece in Chicago on June 4th: Arnold returned for the world premiere (at least in its present form) of Marcos Balter's Aesopica (2011), another suite-like piece for singer-narrator and 10-member ensemble, this one drawn from various Aesop fables. The Brazilian-born Balter, who directs the music composition program at Columbia College Chicago, has a wickedly original sense of humor and a fiercely imaginative palette of instrumental and vocal sounds rare in today's dour, post-classical new music.

InFormation // Introducing Matt Orenstein

December 5, 2011

We're pleased to introduce Matt Orenstein, one of our new ICE interns, who you'll be hearing from periodically starting in January. He brings tidings from Chitown; read below for his account of ICElab InFormation, which took place on the MCA stage on Saturday:

Three Beats: InFormation Featured in Chicago Reader

December 2, 2011

For those of you in the Chicago area: don't miss ICElab InFormation, a FREE event tomorrow on the MCA stage. The event will include a discussion with ICE and composers George Lewis and Steve Lehman alongside live music and video in advance of their MCA premiere concert on February 5. Don't take our word for it - read the feature by Peter Margasak in the Chicago Reader:

Apply to ICElab!

November 22, 2011

We're currently accepting applications for ICElab, our new program which places teams of ICE musicians in close collaboration with six emerging composers each year to develop works that push the boundaries of musical exploration. Selected composer-collaborators will receive a commission to create a substantial new piece for ICE that will be presented in ICE's 2013 and 2014 seasons in New York, Chicago and select other cities. The ICElab program is currently open for both the 2013 and 2014 cycles until January 15, 2012. ICE will choose six composer-collaborators for the 2013 cycle, and may choose up to six collaborators for the 2014 cycle. Composers and artists of all backgrounds, styles, and approaches—Western or non-Western, traditional or nontraditional notation, jazz, classical, improvisatory, performance art, etc.—are invited to apply.

“Self-fiction, ¿a disjunctive music?”: An Interview with Juan Pablo Carreño

November 21, 2011

Colombian composer and 2012 ICElab collaborator Juan Pablo Carreño is quickly emerging as a prodigious and dynamic voice from a region rich in cultural traditions. His varied work explores the intersections between art, politics, latin-american identity, and different cultural heritages, drawing on both the violence and the cultural vivacity of his home country. He has studied composition at Javeriana University in Bogotá and at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was recently awarded first prize in composition. His work has been performed by several leading European ensembles, and featured at the Festival Musique sur Ciel. Check out this interview with Juan Pablo, in which he discusses, among other things, the concept of “disjunctive music”, how the places in which he has lived and worked have inspired his music, and what it means to be a composer in today's world:

“Chimers”: Photos from the Scene

November 17, 2011

We had a great time playing the music of Phyllis Chen last night at the MoCP in Chicago! Many thanks to everyone who came out. Click the image above to view a few more photos from our pre-show run through.

FREE ICElab: Chimers @ MoCP Tonight!

November 16, 2011

Attention all Chicagoans: we're playing another FREE ICElab show tonight! Come hear us perform Phyllis Chen's Chimers (2011) at the MoCP at 7:30pm. Although this is a free performance, the reservations list is filling up rapidly; please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your name and the number in your party if you plan to attend. Watch a video of the piece, read an interview with the composer, and delve into the intersections between tonight's performance and the current photography exhibit, Crime Unseen.

Meditations on Memory: Phyllis Chen x Crime Unseen

November 15, 2011

We're packing up our toy pianos and metal bowls for a FREE encore presentation of 2011 ICElab composer Phyllis Chen's amazing Chimers in Chicago at the MoCP on Wednesday night. The New York Times has praised Phyllis for her “delightful quirkiness matched with interpretive sensitivity,” which you can hear in this evening-length cycle. Wednesdays free performance of Chimers at the MoCP will coincide with the exhibition Crime Unseen, which also concerns memory and "reactivat[ing] historical material".

Tonight: Glass Clouds and Fallen Warriors

November 4, 2011

We're pumped for our FREE ICElab show tonight at The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC)! Featuring music by ICElab composers Phyllis Chen and Du Yun, this will be, in the words of ICE bassoonist Rebekah Heller, "an incredible night of toy pianos, metal bowls, oboe solos, video projections, and free beer lovingly provided by Brooklyn Brewery". Click the photo below to view a few snapshots from the setup (our three most recent wall photos): The show starts at 7:30pm and, although tickets are free, the reservations list is currently full. Please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to add your name to the waitlist.

Evading Authority, Russian Solfege, and the Downfall of Genres/Binaries: an Interview with Du Yun

November 3, 2011

Composer Du Yun has been a fixture on the ICE scene since our inception; in fact, she was one of the founders of the ensemble. Since then, she's gone on to garner international performances and praise for her highly original work. The New York Times has hailed her as "cutting-edge…to whom the term ‘young composer’ could hardly do justice,” and Time Out New York has classified her as “...an indie pop diva with an avant-garde edge," and mused that "[Du Yun] re-invents herself daily…so does her music”. We're excited to be playing a new work by Du Yun tomorrow night at our FREE ICElab show at The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC). Check out this interview with the composer, conducted by Brianne Galli:

Du Yun x Shahzia Sikander @ Mass College of Art

November 1, 2011

Watch ICElab composer Du Yun perform original music to accompany animations by visual artist Shahzia Sikander. The footage comes from a recent performance at Mass College of Art on October 3, 2011, which was part of an exhibition entitled The Exploding Company Man and Other Abstractions. ICE presents a brand new work by Du Yun on Friday, November 4th as part of our FREE ICElab show at The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC). We hope to see you there!

Streaming Glass Clouds

October 31, 2011

Earlier this year, we were deeply saddened to find that a performance of ours at The Southern Theater was canceled due to severe financial difficulties at the venue. We had commissioned several works that we were planning to play during that concert, including two world premieres by ICElab composer Phyllis Chen. We decided that the show needed to happen regardless: we partnered with our friends at Meerkat Media, who filmed us performing the pieces in our rehearsal space, and broadcast them to the world via WQXR.

Snapshots from BAC Load In

October 28, 2011

Here are a few snapshots from ICE's load in at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) on Friday, October 28th:

Phyllis Chen on “Chimers”

October 27, 2011

In anticipation of our upcoming performance of Phyllis Chen's Chimers during our FREE show on November 4th at The Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), we thought we'd bring back this recent interview that we conducted with the composer regarding this work. While you're at it, check out this video from the premiere of the piece. Enjoy!

Du Yun Interviewed by HuffPost

October 26, 2011

We're gearing up for Glass Clouds and Fallen Warriors, a FREE concert featuring the music of ICElab composers Du Yun and Phyllis Chen at the Baryshnikov Arts Center on November 4th. Check out this great recent interview with Du Yun by Daniel J. Kushner of The Huffington Post (view the original published version here):

Phyllis Chen - “Chimers” Video

October 25, 2011

Check out this video of ICE presenting the world premiere of ICElab composer Phyllis Chen's piece Chimers (2011) at the 2011 Mostly Mozart Festival. We're looking forward to performing it again as a part of our FREE show at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) on November 4th!

Reviews from The Kitchen

October 24, 2011

Many thanks to all who came out to The Kitchen last Thursday and Friday! We had a great time. Check out these reviews from Consequence of Sound and Thomas Deneuville: "It’s not often that I leave a show speechless, feeling a deep desire to merely contemplate what I’ve just heard. The best live music experiences have certainly done this for me, as I walk out wide-eyed into the cool night air and think, What the hell just happened?..." -Consequence of Sound

Kitchen Run Begins Tonight! + 20% Discount Tickets + More Rehearsal Shots

October 20, 2011

Our two night residency at The Kitchen starts tonight! Join us for an evening of the music of ICElab composers, presented as part of the 2011 SONiC Festival. A 20% discount is available for tickets for BOTH tonight and tomorrow night! Visit www.thekitchen.org/event/275/0/1/ to purchase and use the coupon code "icicle". See below for tonight's program details, and for more shots from the rehearsals:

Rehearsal Shots from The Kitchen

October 19, 2011

We're getting ready for our Kitchen shows tomorrow and Friday...hope to see you there!

Steve Lehman: Lenwood & Other Saints Who Roam the Earth (2011)

October 11, 2011

Watch this video from the world premiere of ICElab composer Steve Lehman's Lenwood & Other Saints Who Roam the Earth (2011), taken from one of our Mostly Mozart performances at Lincoln Center this past August. While you are at it, read this thorough guest post from Steve about the piece. We'll be performing Lenwood again during our SONiC Festival show at The Kitchen on Thursday, October 20th - get your tickets today!

Guest Post: Marcos Balter on Instability, Variation, and the Beauty of it All

October 10, 2011

Here's another ICElab guest post, this one from the phenomenal composer Marcos Balter, on instability, variation, and the beauty of it all:

Guest Post: Nathan Davis on “Dowser”

October 7, 2011

Nathan Davis's music brilliantly reflects and expands upon the peculiarities and essential characteristics of instruments and the nature of acoustic phenomena. Here, the composer and ICE percussionist speaks about his piece, Dowser, for bass clarinet and electronics. ICE performs Dowser, along with works by several other ICElab composers, on Friday, October 20th at The Kitchen as a part of the 2011 SONiC (Sounds of a New Century) Festival.

Mario Diaz de León: Portals Before Dawn Video

October 6, 2011

ICElab composer Mario Diaz de León doesn't ever seem to slow down. A few short months ago, we featured an evening of his music as the program for our inagural ICElab concert at LPR, including a staggering new ICElab-commissioned work, Portals Before Dawn. Now, we are told that MDdL plans to release an album of his electronic music in late January on Shinkoyo, the label he co-runs. The release show will be held at The Stone during the last two weeks of the month, which Mario curated for Shinkoyo. Here is some footage from that night, shot by our friends at Meerkat Media. Portals Before Dawn, the incredible ICElab-commissioned work that received it's world premiere that night, begins about 38 minutes into the video.

Webern - Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24 (Rehearsal Excerpt)

September 16, 2011

In anticipation of our upcoming Chance Encounters program at the MCA in Chicago, we are breaking out Anton Webern's Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24. This is an impressive piece of music filled with astonishing symmetries, patterns, and revolutions, all generated from a small amount of material. We'll spare you the details, but all of you curious aficionados can get the scoop from Kathryn Bailey's paper "Symmetry as Nemesis: Webern and the First Movement of the Concerto, Op. 24". Listen to a recording of ICE rehearsing the piece below. For those of you in the Chicago area, don't miss ICE's performance of this piece during our Chance Encounters performance at the MCA on October 5th!

An Interview with Patricia Alessandrini

September 7, 2011

Continuing our series profiling ICElab's 2012 collaborators, digitICE is excited to introduce Patricia Alessandrini, whose abundant musical imagination has us counting down the days until she joins us in the ICElab.

Claire Chase plays Nathan Davis’s “pneApnea”

August 25, 2011

A special treat from the archives today — a video of ICE's founder & flutist Claire Chase performing pneApnea by ICElab composer (and ICE percussionist) Nathan Davis, live from Chicago's Velvet Lounge at the release party for her debut album aliento.

Love for lovely Mount Tremper Arts!

August 2, 2011

ICE had the pleasure of visiting the fabulous artist retreat of Mount Tremper Arts in upstate New York last week; take a look at some photos from our time in the Catskills, out of cell phone range but immersed in a beautiful landscape and equally beautiful music.

Guest Post: Steve Lehman on “Lenwood & Other Saints Who Roam The Earth”

July 29, 2011

Today, we feature a guest post from composer Steve Lehman on his new piece Lenwood & Other Saints Who Roam the Earth, a new ICElab commission to be premiered at our late-night Mostly Mozart show on August 11 at the Kaplan Penthouse.

Rebekah Heller: Carving a Path for Contemporary Bassoonists Everywhere

July 28, 2011

ICE’s esteemed and totally fabulous bassoonist, Rebekah Heller, is on a mission on behalf of bassoonists everywhere. DigitICE sits down with Rebekah to talk about her exciting new project.

Meet Carla Kihlstedt

July 27, 2011

Everyone, meet violinist, singer, composer, improviser, experimentalist, and creative mastermind, Carla Kihlstedt. I, Liz Bennett, a member of ICE’s summer intern staff, couldn’t be more excited about her upcoming work with ICE as one of the 2012 ICElab collaborators, and this is why!

Interview: Phyllis Chen

July 25, 2011

Today on digitICE: an interview with 2011 ICElab composer Phyllis Chen, who shares her thoughts about the toy piano, some of her musical philosophy, and the upcoming premiere of her new piece Chimers at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Also, give a listen to Phyllis's piece Munin Raven.

From the Archive: On & Off the Page | Peter Evans

July 11, 2011

Though the ICElab program is relatively new, ICE has long championed innovative new music, as with our On & Off the Page from last season, where we partnered with composer-performers who blur the line between written and improvised music. digitICE is proud to present a recording from the On & Off the Page show at (le) Poisson Rouge in March 2010 — Peter Evans's "Eat Your Dead." What's going on with that title? Watch the video to find out (SFW, we promise).