"Concert Itinerary That Includes Dreamland"
The New York Times, September 2, 2007

An article about the International Contemporary Ensemble, an ambitious, adventurous new-music group that has set up shop in Chicago and New York during the past few years. Each season, ICE has presented an increasing number of exceptional concerts here, culminating in the first local ICEfest, a nine-concert burst of activity in late April and early May.

Around the same time, the group set up shop in a gorgeous loft at the top of a commercial building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Establishing a local base has enabled ICE to mount its most sweeping local season to date this year, starting on Tuesday with a concert of works by Philippe Manoury in the Spiegeltent at South Street Seaport.

The mind frankly reels at what the group will be undertaking after that. There’s a new monthly series at the Tank in Tribeca, a slate of premieres by young composers at the Tenri Cultural Institute, an electroacoustic evening at Issue Project Room, concerts of music by Philippe Hurel at Mo Pitkin’s and Miller Theatre, Xenakis and Ligeti with dancers at the Whitney Museum, this year’s installment of Pocket Concertos at Miller, two concerts of Stravinsky at the Morgan Library and a festival of contemporary Mexican music at a location to be determined.

And that’s just New York; ICE will be just as active in Chicago, and will take a Magnus Lindberg program developed at Miller Theatre to Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in January. The group’s full itinerary for 2007-08 — at least what’s confirmed right this minute — can be found on its website.

The article squeezes a lot of information into a limited amount of space, but I wish I’d been able to more vividly convey the sheer joy and intelligence with which I was confronted during the Saturday afternoon I sat down with about a third of the 30-member group in its sexy compound. Listening to these players talk — mostly deferential to one another, but occasionally combining in a Berio-like caterwaul — it was impossible to not be swept up in their sheer enthusiasm for discovering new music and bringing it to the public. And in talking to Miller Theatre director George Steel, whose comments unfortunately didn’t make the final cut, it became clear that this trait, along with the group’s tremendous skill, has already made it an indispensable part of the local landscape.

Look out, California. You’re next.

Playlist:

Barbara Benary – Aural Shoehorning; Sun on Snow; Barang I; Barang II; Downtown Steel – DownTown Ensemble and Gamelan Son of Lion (New World)

Philip Glass – Music in 12 Parts, Part 8 (Orange Mountain Music download via iTunes)

Phill Niblock – Four Full Flutes – Petr Kotik, Susan Stenger, Eberhard Blum (XI)

Eliane Radigue – Trilogie de la Mort (XI)

Kiss – Kissology, Vol. 2 (VH1 Classic DVD); Destroyer (Mercury)

Ace Frehley – Ace Frehley (Mercury)

Heaven and Hell – Live Radio City Music Hall 2007 (Rhino)

David Tudor – Rainforest (two versions); Gordon Mumma – 4 Mographs; Gestures II (two sections); Song without Words (New World)

Composers Inside Electronics – From the Kitchen Archives, Vol. 4 (Orange Mountain Music)

Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry – Symphonie Pour un Homme Seul (EMF)