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MISSION
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a uniquely structured chamber music ensemble comprised of emerging performers and composers who are dedicated to advancing the music of our time. Through innovative programming, multimedia collaborations, commissions by young composers, and performances in nontraditional venues, ICE brings together new music and new audiences.
ABOUT ICE
“In recent years the International Contemporary Ensemble has proved itself one of the most adventurous and accomplished groups in new music.” Steve Smith, New York Times
“vivid, high-energy performances…” Allan Kozinn, New York Times
“It would be hard to overpraise the prodigiously talented, bracingly idealistic and indefatigable ICE.” – Michael Cameron, Chicago Tribune
“crackling virtuosity and palpable commitment…their music grabs the listener by the lapels and refuses to let go.” – John Von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
“The group deserves the attention.” Allan Kozinn, New York Times
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a uniquely structured chamber music ensemble comprised of thirty dynamic and versatile young performers who are dedicated to advancing the music of our time. Through innovative programming, multimedia collaborations, commissions by young composers, and performances in nontraditional venues, ICE brings together new music and new audiences.
ICE was founded in 2001, and has rapidly established itself as one of the leading new-music ensembles of its generation, winning first prize in the 2005 CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, and performing over sixty concerts a year in the US and abroad. Recent engagements include performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival of Lincoln Center, the Bang on a Can Marathon at the World Financial Center, the Composer Portraits Series the Miller Theatre, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, CAL Performances in Berkeley, CA, the Gardner Museum in Boston, and on tour in Latin America and Eastern Europe. The ensemble will release three CDs in 2007, on the Bridge Records, Focus Recordings and Naxos Records labels.
ICE has collaborated closely with many leading composers of our time. A champion of music by emerging composers, ICE has also given over 300 world premieres to date. In 2004, ICE launched the 21st Century Young Composers Project, a worldwide call-for-entries by composers under the age of 35, which has culminated in the world premieres of works by young composers in 25 different countries. ICE currently serves as Ensemble-in-Residence at both New York University and Columbia College Chicago, and regularly conducts outreach activities throughout the US and Mexico.
HISTORY
The International Contemporary Ensemble came into being in April 2000 when a grant from the Theodore Presser Foundation enabled the future founding members, then students at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, to launch a year-long project to commission and premiere five new works of chamber music in celebration of the new millennium. As a result of a grassroots marketing campaign, the concert of world premieres attracted a standing-room crowd at Oberlin’s 750-seat concert hall. This experience – the integration of groundbreaking new work, new talent, and the beginning of a new and diverse following – became the touchstone for the creation of ICE.
