International Contemporary Ensemble Foundation

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 to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. ICE has been invited by the performance space Roulette to participate in its season-long celebration of the experimental instrumentalist, composer, author, and MacArthur Fellow Anthony Braxton (1994).  This event features an ensemble of musicians performing works by Braxton and includes guitarist and MacArthur Fellow Mary Halvorson (2019).  There will be a pre-concert conversation between Halvorson and the evening’s moderator, MacArthur Fellow George Lewis (2002) both of whom have performed with Braxton in separate generations.    

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 to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. The collective was co-founded by  MacArthur Fellow, Claire Chase, in 2001. 

This program is curated by the current Artistic Director, George Lewis, and is presented in partnership with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of the concert series, Composing While Black, part of Lewis’s vision of “Polyaspora,” a new identity for new music. 

Talib Rasul Hakim (1940-1988) gained recognition in the New York City avant-garde community, especially after his music was included on the Music of Our Time series at Town Hall in 1964.  Hakim was a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers based in New York City.  The concert will include five of Hakim’s chamber works written in the 1960s and 1970s.  Lewis, Bryan, and Sorey will engage in a post-concert discussion of Hakim’s music and of the Society of Black Composers, an organization that was comprised of over fifty African American composers from diverse musical backgrounds. 

In support of a musical exchange with Japan. As part of the grant a new concerto written for the visiting artists will be performed and workshops for students will be held.

International Contemporary Ensemble Foundation, Inc. (ICE) is dedicated to reshaping the way concert music is created and experienced through performance, presentation, and education. This grant will support a June 2012 exchange between ICE musicians, Chicago-based composer Marcos Balter, four emerging Brazilian composers, and selected Brazilian educational programs. The goal is to commission new work from the four participating Brazilian composers, develop and test the pieces in Brazil, bring the music to audiences in programs that explore the synergy between American and Brazilian composition, and engage in on-site research and networking with local musicians, musicologists, and composers. MacArthur funding will support artists’ fees and production costs in Brazil.