Tyshawn sorey by claire chase

Photo: Rob Davidson

On a wintry day in 2012, at the start of a yearlong fellowship with the International Contemporary Ensemble, the composer and percussionist Tyshawn Sorey sat down in a studio at the Baryshnikov Arts Center with me and eight other members of the ensemble to talk about what he wanted to do with our mixed group of brass, winds, strings, percussion, and piano. “I’m not interested in writing a piece that melds improvisational and notational practices,” he said. “Nor one that references jazz or contemporary or classical music as we know it. I want to make music with you guys from a place where all of those lines have already disappeared. You down?”

BOMB Magazine