Liza Lim (Photograph: Astrid Ackermann)

Among the choice items included in today's Winter-Spring 2020 season announcement from The Kitchen was news of the latest installment in Density 2036, the enthralling 23-year commissioning program initiated by the industrious flute genius Claire Chase in 2014. Density 2036, part vii will be presented at Queenslab, a Ridgewood venue with which The Kitchen has been partnering for some time now, on May 15 and 16. The program comprises a single work: Sex Magic, by the brilliant Australian composer Liza Lim. One of several current projects that, according to Lim, "celebrate ideas of spirituality bound together with feminine energy and erotics," the piece is scored for "contrabass flute, alto ocarina, Aztec death whistle, bell, pedal bass drum, electronics and installation of kinetic percussion instruments designed by the one and only Levy Lorenzo," Chase revealed on Facebook a few weeks ago. A few more details are available here; Chase shared a schematic of the stage plot here.

While you're waiting, look out for Extinction Events and Dawn Chorus, a new collection of Lim's music on the Kairos label. The disc is due for release on March 6, and already has earned a spot high up on Alex Ross's newest playlist.

The experience of repetition as death by Clarice Jensen

The cellist Clarice Jensen, a founder of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and a burgeoning composer, has signed to 130701, the new-music imprint of London-based indie label FatCat Records. Jensen's second full-length solo album, The experience of repetition as death, is due April 3 in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, all of which can be pre-ordered now on Bandcamp. One track already available for streaming, "Metastable," shows that Jensen's prowess as a formidable, unpredictable composer is growing rapidly. More evidence will be on offer when ACME performs new arrangements of Jensen's solo pieces in the second event of the group's 15th-anniversary series, on March 13 at Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan; advance tickets are available here.

The composer Clara Iannotta has just shared on SoundCloud a recent live recording of the JACK Quartet performing You crawl over seas of granite, an evocatively titled new work for amplified, detuned string quartet. The group has just completed studio recordings of all four of Iannotta's string quartet works, for release later this year on the German label Wergo.

Speaking of the JACK Quartet, the group's new recording of Sonare & Celare, by Cenk Ergün, arrives on March 13 via the New Focus label. On that same evening and the one that follows, JACK plays the complete string quartet works of John Zorn at National Sawdust. (Obligatory disclaimer: I am employed by National Sawdust.)

In 1988, the visionary American composer Ben Johnston – most widely known for his use of just intonation and microtonal systems – completed a symphony, which he intended to be played by a local community orchestra near his home town in Tar River, North Carolina. No performance transpired at the time, but now Johnston's Symphony in A is set to have its long-delayed world premiere on March 21 at the second annual Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival, in San Francisco. Organized by the Del Sol Quartet, who played Johnston's music widely (and launched the festival inspired by a visit with the composer), the event includes performances by the quartet, guitarist Giacomo Fiore, the Cornelius Cardew Choir, and others; the symphony will be played by the Pythagorean Festival Orchestra, conducted by John Kennedy.

More details about the festival are available here. Should you wish to know more about Johnston and his work, the remembrance Kyle Gann wrote for NewMusicBox is mandatory.

Finally, congratulations to the composers Catherine Lamb, Francesca Verunelli, and Samir Amarouch, recently named the winners of this year's Ernst von Siemens Foundation Composers Prize. Information about all three can be found on the foundation's website.