March 17, 2012
Steven Schick: ICE’s first ever Artist in Residence
ICE is proud to announce that a new member will be joining our family: percussionist, educator and conductor Steven Schick. Although he has worked with ICE on many projects now, Mr. Schick has just been named ICE’s first ever Artist in Residence. The ensemble created this position specifically for Mr. Schick, and everyone is extremely excited to begin the collaboration.
“I love the musicians of the International Contemporary Ensemble not only for their extraordinary level of performances—though they are terrific!—I love them for their dedication to young composers, and I love them for their deeply held commitment to a social model that is truly admirable. ICE is mind-blowingly superb in every way!" said Mr. Schick.
His tenure with the ensemble begins immediately and continues until the end of the 2014-2015 season. His upcoming collaborations with ICE include conducting and playing with the ensemble in Cologne, Germany, for the ACHT BRÜCKEN festival, as well as several projects at Miller Theatre of Columbia University and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago next season.
March 10, 2012
Photos from the Scene: ICElab at the CSUF New Music Festival
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!
Click the image above to view a few more photos.
March 8, 2012
Lisa Coons Update [post ICElab workshop]
2012 ICElab composer Lisa Coons recently emerged from a week of intense collaboration with ICE musicians and dancers from The Troupe, developing a piece that has been in the works for almost a year now. Coons describes the seven-movement work as an exploration of the individual’s struggle to distinguish herself from society, and the isolation that often results. As for the title: it’s still under wraps (and just might factor into my next blog post).
The residency allowed performers, choreographers and composer alike to turn traditional creative hierarchies on their heads. Dancers and musicians share space according to the demands of the piece, transforming the so-called barrier between movement and sound into a medium in its own right. Reflecting this fluidity, the current score-in-progress indicates what Coons calls “spaces of alignment” between dancers and musicians. Over the coming months, she and choreographers Zach Winokur and Michelle Mola will continue working together to develop a fully notated score that integrates both music and dance.
Says Coons from the other side of the collaborative whirlwind: “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.” Reflecting on the week, dancers, musicians and choreographers shared her sentiments. As the project enters a new stage in its development, I have a feeling I’m not alone in sensing that something great is afoot . . .
March 6, 2012
ICE at the ACF | Music of Klaus Lang [Preview]
Tonight at the Austrian Cultural Forum, ICE performs the music of composer, organist, and improviser Klaus Lang. Lang's music invites us to an expansive and meditative sonic world influenced by American Experimentalism, most prominently Cage, Feldman, and Alvin Lucier. Lang's six short praeludium for solo piano will be performed by ICElab 2011 composer Phyllis Chen. Interspersed throughout praeludium are recent chamber works by the young Austrian composer, including the New York premiere of origami, for flute, cello and accordion, with a special appearance by accordion virtuoso William Schimmel.
Want a little warm-up for tonight? Check out The Sea of Despair:
March 1, 2012
ICELab at the CSUF New Music Festival [Preview]
Heads up, West coasters! ICE comes to California State University Fullerton this Friday and Saturday with an impressive line-up of groundbreaking composers. The March 2nd performance (for which ICE will be paired with the CSUF New Music Ensemble) will include pieces by 2011 ICELab collaborator, Steve Lehman, and guest composer, Pauline Oliveros. The March 3rd performance will also feature Lehman and Oliveros, alongside another 2011 ICELab composer, Nathan Davis, as well as the works of Elliot Carter, George Lewis, and Cory Smythe.
The stars of Friday night—Lehman and Oliveros—have both proven themselves innovators in the field of electro-acoustic and extra-classical music. Lehman’s ICELab commission, Lenwood and Other Saints Who Roam The Earth (see the post about his inspiration for this piece here) will be among the acoustic treats of the evening, as will Oliveros’ Thirteen Changes. Someone who isn’t already excited enough about hearing from the founding mother of “Deep Listening” (learn more) only need hear that Oliveros’ piece includes the headings “Rollicking monkeys landing on mars” and “Tiny mites circling one hair in the coat of a polar bear”.
ICE percussionist, Nathan Davis, will open Saturday night with his piece, Bells, originally premiered by ICE as the opening piece of Lincoln Center’s Tully Scope Festival in 2011.
Joining the lineup next is a piece by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Elliott Carter (now over 100 years old). ICE will be performing his Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux for flute and clarinet.
Next up will be George Lewis’ Artificial Life 2007, an improvisational piece. Lewis is well known for his computer program, Voyager, which has pushed the boundaries of electro-acoustic music by actually hearing and reacting to live performances!
Next will be Cory Smythe, ICE pianist. His pluripotent for solo piano is an experimental piece in 13 parts that is sure to please any patron of jazz.
The concert will close with additional pieces by Steve Lehman and Pauline Oliveros. The two-day event is sure to be a learning experience and auditory delicacy for everyone, from the casual music appreciator to the most trained listener.
February 25, 2012
Juan Pablo Carreño [post ICElab workshop]
Colombian born composer Juan Pablo Carreño has been working with ICE for the past few weeks as an ICElab composer in residence. He was recently appointed a residency at the Acadèmie de France in Rome (Villa Medici) where he is based as he also works with ICE in New York. Juan Pablo took a moment to speak with us about his reason for joining ICElab, his experiences so far with the group and where he plans to go from here.
Carreño sums up his early attraction to ICE as being drawn to their energy. He describes ICE as, “a group of musicians sensitive to the idea of creation, and ready to create landmarks in today's artistic world.” The force of this energy and dynamism resonates with him deeply and are hallmarks in his music. Being a Colombian composer who splits his time between Paris and Rome, he “belongs to a generation that does not close its ears to the culture of its time.”
When asked about what it was like to work with ICE, Juan Pablo could only express excitement and enthusiasm. He was able to workshop some fragments he had composed for clarinet and ensemble and was excited to hear them performed by musicians who “know everything about today's music, giving that music to me as a reflex of who I am, for me to go back to Rome with that experience to continue in the construction of an artistic identity.” Carreño sees eye to eye with ICE regarding the fact that there is not a singular type of contemporary music and embraces the large world of sound we are experiencing today.
Going forward, Carreño feels empowered by his experiences with Joshua Rubin and the rest of the ensemble. He will finish his piece Self-fiction which will premiere in Paris with Le Balcon in May, followed by a performance by ICE in Chicago. He describes the new work elegantly:
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. Two different musical actions, placed in parallel, where one serves as a catalyst for the other one to take to the trance. The amplified clarinet, in the middle of the acoustic space filled by the organ, the electric guitar and the electronics, a musical action inside a box of circuits: the clarinet unfolded by the amplification in a sort of self discovery, inside a world that cries.
What an exciting project! We look forward to hearing the Chicago premiere of Self-fiction by Juan Pablo Carreño for clarinet and ensemble next season.
February 20, 2012
ICE at MCA: Composers, Composers, and More Composers
Impressions from Row G
ICE at MCA: Composers, Composers, and More Composers
by Arlene and Larry Dunn (@ICEfansArleneLD)
There is a special buzz in the air at the premiere performance of a musical work. The excitement vibrates even stronger if the composer is in the house. Imagine the tingling rush we felt at MCA on February 5 when ICE with “George Lewis and Friends” presented two World Premiers and three Chicago Premiers. All four composers were present, and three of them played as well. How could we push the excitement even higher? With the help of Chicago-based composer Marcos Balter, we parlayed some extra tickets into our own “young composers forum” with his current students Riley Hughes and Danny Hinds and former student Christiaan Dageforde.
The program opened and closed with works by George, with pieces in between by his proteges Steve Lehman, Nicole Mitchell, and Tyshawn Sorey. The mix epitomized contemporary music-making, at turns raucous (George’s The Will to Adorn) and ethereal (Nicole’s Cave of Self-Indulgence), uncertain (George's Artificial Life 2007) and precise (Tyshawn’s Ode to Gust Burns and Steve’s Impossible Flow).
Artificial Life 2007 is uniquely designed for pure improvisation with a score containing no musical notes, only a graphical set of improvising strategies for the players. It was a highlight for all of us. Christiaan, who attended last year’s ICE InFormation workshop with George (as did we) was eagerly anticipating hearing it unfold. Danny and Riley heard it with no preconceptions. We had just heard ICE play it in Oberlin, and were amazed at how radically different it could be while following the same “score.” The MCA performance included more groupings of more musicians, including Nicole on flute, Tyshawn on trombone, and Steve on alto sax. We were treated to a menagerie of sounds -- angry birds darting in from the flutes, small animals scurrying on the forest floor from the percussion, a rumble in the jungle from the bass register horns.
The closing work was The Will to Adorn, inspired by the 1934 Zora Neale Hurston essay “Characteristics of Negro Expression.” As George and conductor Steve Schick noted in a setup discussion from the stage, the piece was boisterous, loud (George said maybe not yet loud enough), and full of “jump cuts” in tempo, texture, and color. It was loud, but we’d say it could get louder still. It was a fitting musical evocation of Hurston’s observation of the stylistic bent towards heaping embellishment upon embellishment.
Cave of Self-Indulgence was our favorite of the other pieces. The flutes, played by Eric Lamb and Claire Chase, tossed nascent ideas back and forth, sparks bouncing off the walls. Ross Karre further conjured the cave milieu with rumblings on the bass drum and tom-toms and tingling of bells and cymbal as water dripping from stalactites.
Each of these works on the program incited spirited discussion in our “composers forum” following the concert. Larry struggled to find a handle on Ode to Gust Burns, but it was Danny’s overall favorite. Arlene got lost somewhere in Impossible Flow, while Larry loved it’s M. C. Escher-like inconceivabilites. Though hardly of one consistent opinion, we did all enthusiastically agree on one thing -- we want to hear every one of these pieces again.
Arlene (acornarlene [at] gmail [dot] com) and Larry (acornled [at] gmail [dot] com)
Listening Tips:
• George Lewis: Les Exercices Spirituels on Tzadick Records
• Tyshawn Sorey: “oblique-I” on Pi Recordings
• Steve Lehman with his octet, including Tyshwan on drums: “Travail, Transformation, and Flow” on Pi Recordings
• Nicole Mitchell with her Black Earth Ensemble: “Xenogenesis Suite: A Tribute to Octavia Butler” on Firehouse 12 Records
February 19, 2012
Photos from the Scene: ICElab Workshop with Lisa Coons and the Troupe
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.
Click the image above to view a few more photos.
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