About the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)

Mission
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), described recently in the New York Times as “one of the most adventurous and accomplished groups in new music” and by the New Yorker as “a powerhouse of new-music programming on a Chicago-New York axis…brilliant and unexpected” is a uniquely structured organization dedicated to reshaping the way music is heard and experienced in the United States and around the world. With a roster of 30 of the United States’ most accomplished young musicians and a staff of visionary arts entrepreneurs, ICE functions as performer, presenter, and educator, advancing the music of our time by commissioning and performing new works and by developing groundbreaking strategies for audience engagement. ICE emphasizes inter-disciplinary collaborations and commissions by both unheard and established composers, and prioritizes performances in non-traditional venues. In an era of increasingly diverse audiences, changes in arts education, new patronage models, and rapidly shifting musical genres, ICE redefines concert music as it brings together new music and new listeners.

Profile
ICE was founded in 2001, and over the past nine years has established itself as one of the leading musical ensembles of its generation as well as one of the most innovative young arts organizations in the US. ICE was awarded the 2010 Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center for its revolutionary organizational model, which combines the traditional roles of performer, presenter, and artist management into a unified whole with a single creative and social vision, setting a bold new standard for the future of music in the 21st century.

Recent engagements include headline performances at the Musica Nova Festival (Helsinki, Finland), the Mostly Mozart Festival of Lincoln Center, the opening ceremonies of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, and multiple engagements at Miller Theatre, including the US Premiere of Iannis Xenakis’ Oresteia. In addition to ICE’s performances at major venues throughout the world, the ensemble has self-produced eight large-scale contemporary music festivals in venues as wide-ranging as nightclubs, galleries and public spaces, many of which are free and open to the public. ICE has released critically acclaimed recordings on the Bridge, Naxos, Tzadik and New Focus labels.

A champion of music by emerging composers, ICE has given over 400 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 27 different countries.

Outreach
Meanwhile, ICE maintains a commitment to reaching the broadest possible audience, through a variety of unique outreach initiatives. The organization maintains a substantial digital presence through its online outreach arm, digitICE, a collection of blogs, podcasts, and streaming media custom-tailored to major commissioning and performance projects. Last year alone, ICE reached over 30,000 unique visitors through this game-changing digital initiative, allowing audiences all over the world to experience and interact with our creative projects.

Collaborations
An interest in multimedia productions has led to collaborations with Ridge Theater, with the New York City ballet choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, with director Luca Vegetti on the US Premiere of Iannis Xenakis’ opera Oresteia, and with director Lydia Steier on the co-production of a touring version of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King. As a recipient of a MAP Fund award last, ICE commissioned the Brooklyn-based songwriter Corey Dargel for an evening-length art-pop song cycle tailor-made for the ensemble, which premiered at Performance Space 122 in May 2009. The 2009-10 season also brought exciting collaborations with the John Jasperse Dance Company and DJ Hahn Rowe, as well as Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky.

2009-10 Season
Additional highlights of the 2009-10 season have included Composer Portraits of Iannis Xenakis and Kaija Saariaho at Miller Theatre and Chicago's MCA; the world premiere of Dai Fujikura's ICE, commissioned by the ensemble, under the baton of Matthias Pintscher; and ICE-produced series at The Tank, (le) Poisson Rouge, Chicago's Velvet Lounge and Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP).

Upcoming performances include an evening-length program of the chamber music of Edgard Varèse in Alice Tully Hall for the Lincoln Center Festival, a joint-residency with Ensemble Recherche at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in Germany, and a performance with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Mostly Mozart Festival under the baton of Ludovic Morlot.