Making a Flute Do Tricks in Pieces Old and New By STEVE SMITH Published: April 23, 2010 New York Times original link New York is full of talented musicians, as well as artistic entrepreneurs who busily create their own opportunities … Continue reading →

Calling your new-music festival Darmstadt Essential Repertoire is a conscious provocation on multiple levels, as the New York composers Zach Layton and Nick Hallett surely realized when they chose the name. It alludes to the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, a venerable and formidable German laboratory for avant-garde innovation, known for dogmatic (and sometimes rancorous) adherence to modernist severity. Continue reading →

Beyond Cozy Fare: Calling Birds and Conga LinesInternational Contempory Ensemble at Rose Theater By STEVE SMITH Published: August 6, 2012 New York Times original link It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed since the International Contemporary Ensemble, a … Continue reading →

Celebrating a composer’s color, timbre, and texture By David Weininger Published: May 05, 2012 Boston Globe original link Few composers write music that is as painterly as Kaija Saariaho’s. The Finnish composer is a master of color, timbre, and texture, … Continue reading →

Back to a Favored Finnish Composer International Contemporary Ensemble at Roulette By ALLAN KOZINN Published: May 3, 2012 New York Times original link FNew-music groups often seem to storm through stacks of new scores as if they were airport novels, … Continue reading →

An Intrepid Group Surveys an Idiosyncratic Composer By STEVE SMITH New York Times original link For the International Contemporary Ensemble, an intrepid and adventurous new-music group based in Brooklyn and Chicago, presenting brash sounds and fresh discoveries is all in … Continue reading →