ICE BIO International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) “America’s foremost newmusic group” Alex Ross “bracing, illuminating, reassuring” Financial Times “the new gold standard for new music” The New Yorker “extraordinary” New York Times The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), described by the New York Times as “one of the most accomplished and adventurous groups in new music,” is dedicated to reshaping the way music is created and experienced. With a modular makeup of 35 leading instrumentalists, performing in forces ranging from solos to large ensembles, ICE functions as performer, presenter, and educator, advancing the music of our time by developing innovative new works and new strategies for audience engagement. ICE redefines concert music as it brings together new work and new listeners in the 21st century. Since its founding in 2001, ICE has premiered over 500 compositions––the majority of these new works by emerging composers––in venues spanning from alternative spaces to concert halls around the world. The ensemble has received the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award for its contributions to the field, the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming, and was most recently named Musical America Worldwide's Ensemble of the Year in 2013. From 2008 to 2013 ICE was EnsembleinResidence at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. ICE musicians serve as ArtistsinResidence at the Mostly Mozart Festival of Lincoln Center, curating and performing chamber music programs that juxtapose new and old music. In 2014 ICE began a partnership with the Illinois Humanities Council, the Hideout in Chicago, and the Abrons Art Center in New York to support the OpenICE initiative. ICE has released acclaimed albums on the Nonesuch, Kairos, Bridge, Naxos, Tzadik, New Focus, New Amsterdam and Mode labels. Recent and upcoming highlights include headline performances at the Lincoln Center Festival (New York), Aspekte (Austria), Acht Brücken Music for Cologne (Germany), Festival de Música de Morelia (Mexico), Teatro Amazonas (Brazil), and performances with the Nagoya Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony. ICE has worked closely with conductors Ludovic Morlot, Matthias Pintscher, John Adams and Susanna Mälkki. Since 2012, conductor and percussion soloist Steven Schick has served as ICE's ArtistinResidence. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for ICE. In 2011, with lead support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, ICE created the ICElab program to place teams of ICE musicians in close collaboration with emerging composers to develop works that push the boundaries of musical exploration. ICElab projects have been featured in more than one hundred performances from 2011 to 2014, and are documented online through ICE’s blog, and DigitICE, its online library of performance videos. In 2014, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation renewed its leadership support to launch the OpenICE initiative, which brings the full scope of ICE's programming and educational activities for free to broader audiences around the world. ICE’s commitment to build a diverse, engaged audience for the music of our time inspired The Listening Room , an educational initiative for public schools without inhouse arts curricula. Using teambased composition and graphic notation, ICE musicians lead students in the creation of new musical works, nurturing collaborative creative skills and building an appreciation for musical experimentation. Read more at iceorg.org. STAFF: Vanessa Rose, Executive Director Claire Chase, flutist and Artistic Director (CEO) * Joshua Rubin, clarinetist and CoArtistic Director *
Jonathan Harris, Business Manager Ross Karre, percussionist and Production/digitICE.org * Rebekah Heller, bassoonist and Individual Giving * Ryan Muncy, saxophonist and Grants * Jacob Greenberg, pianist and Education * Maciej Lewandowski, Production and Operations Associate Alice Teyssier, Artistic Operations Associate * Levy Lorenzo, Engineer and Technical Associate Maro Elliott, Executive Assistant * denotes ICE Artist Partner
ARTIST PARTNER BIOS Vanessa Rose, Executive Director Vanessa Rose is honored to be appointed Executive Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble. She brings a range of experiences working in the arts and a passion for the innovative musical experiences synonymous with ICE. Her previous positions include Director of Development at the Lark Play Development Center, where she helped to lead the theater organization's expanded fundraising programs and strategic branding, and Managing Director of The Knights, a New Yorkbased orchestra collective. While at The Knights, Vanessa developed a board of directors, created a fundraising program, and oversaw an international tour, WQXR radio residency and several recording projects. In addition, Vanessa has served as Associate Director of Patron Program and Membership at the Metropolitan Opera, cultivating and soliciting hundreds of donors and supporting key Board members in their own fundraising. In 2006, Vanessa Rose completed the League of American Orchestras' prestigious Orchestra Management Fellowship Program, which included residencies with the Dallas Symphony, Elgin Symphony, Aspen Music Festival and School and the San Francisco Symphony. Vanessa is a violinist and has performed with, among others, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, and Spoleto Festivals (Italy and USA). She comes from a musical family and attended the Eastman School of Music, Mannes College of Music and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. Vanessa lives in Riverdale, NY with her musician husband, Patrick Pridemore, and their two children (who seem to enjoy music). Claire Chase, CoArtistic Director & CEO and Flutist Flutist Claire Chase, a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, is a soloist, collaborative artist, entrepreneur and activist for new music. Over the past decade she has given the world premieres of over 100 new works for flute, many of them tailormade for her. Described as “the young star of the modern flute” by The New Yorker, “ indefatigable” by TimeOut New York , and a “virtuoso of amazing dexterity and sensitivity” by the Chicago Tribune , Chase has given critically acclaimed recitals recently at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. Highlights of the current season include solo performances at the Guangzhou Triennial (Guangzhou, China), Museu Pinacoteca (São Paolo, Brazil), debuts in Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Paris and London, as well as concerto appearances with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot. She has released three critically acclaimed solo albums – Aliento (2010) and Terrestre (2012) and Density (2013). Chase was First Prize Winner in the 2008 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and has performed as a soloist throughout the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. She cofounded the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) in 2001 and serves as the organization’s CoArtistic Director with her creative partner Joshua Rubin, and plays over fifty concerts a year as an ensemble member. Joshua Rubin, CoArtistic Director and Clarinetist Joshua Rubin is a founding clarinetist and the coArtistic Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), where he oversees the creative direction of more than one hundred concerts per season in the United States and abroad. As a clarinetist, the New York Times has praised him as, "incapable of playing an inexpressive note." Joshua has worked closely with many of the prominent composers of our time, including George Crumb, David Lang, John Adams, George Lewis, Philippe Hurel, Kaija Saariaho, John Zorn, Magnus Lindberg, Steve Lehman, Nathan Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, and Mario Davidovsky. His interest in electronic music throughout his career has led him work on making these technologies easier to use for both composers and performers. Joshua can be heard on recordings from the Nonesuch, Kairos, New Focus, Mode, Cedille, Naxos, Bridge, New Amsterdam, and Tzadik l abels. His album "There Never is No Light," available on ICE's Tundra label, highlights music that uses technology to capture the human engagement of the performer and the
listener. In the past season he has been featured as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony (under Ludovic Morlot) and at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, in engagements with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has given solo performances of new music in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Rome and Berlin. He received degrees in Biology and Clarinet from Oberlin College and Conservatory, and his Master's degree from the Mannes College of Music. Ross Karre, Director of Production and Percussionist Ross Karre, percussion and Director of Production, (b. 1983 in Battle Creek, MI) is a percussionist and temporal artist based in New York City. His primary focus is the combination of media selected from classical percussion, electronics, theater, moving image, visual art, and lighting design. After completing his Doctorate in Music at UCSD with Steven Schick, Ross formalized his intermedia studies with a Master of Fine Arts from UCSD. He has worked closely with composers from around the world such as Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, and Harrison Birtwistle in N. America, S. America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Ross is a percussionist for the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and performs regularly with red fish blue fish, Third Coast Percussion (Chicago), the National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble (DC), and many others. His projection design and video art has been presented in numerous prestigious venues around the world including the BBC Scotland (Glasgow Concert Halls), the Park Avenue Armory (NYC), Miller Theater (NYC), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), and the BIMhuis (Holland). Ross is the founder and owner of a growing arts documentation business called rKAD specializing in video and audio recordings of performing arts. Rebekah Heller, Director of Individual Giving and Bassoonist Praised for her “flair” and “deftly illuminated” performances by The New York Times, bassoonist Rebekah Heller is a uniquely dynamic chamber, orchestral and solo musician. Equally comfortable playing established classical works and the newest of new music, Rebekah is a fiercely passionate advocate for the bassoon. Called an "impressive solo bassoonist" by The New Yorker, she is tirelessly committed to collaborating with composers to expand the modern repertoire for the instrument. Her debut solo album of world premiere recordings, 100 names, has been called "pensive and potent" by the New York Times and was featured in the ArtsBeat Classical Playlist of the same publication. As a core member of the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Rebekah plays solo and chamber music all over the world. She has been a featured soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the Nagoya Philharmonic and has performed in cities both near and far – including São Paolo, Rio, Manaus, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Köln, Salzburg, Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and many, many more. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, Rebekah lives in Brooklyn, NY. Jacob Greenberg, Director of Education and Pianist Pianist and Director of Education Jacob Greenberg’s work as a soloist and chamber musician has earned worldwide acclaim. As a longtime member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), he has performed throughout North and South Americas and Europe. With ICE, he leads The Listening Room, an initiative in city public schools that teaches the materials of experimental music composition. Mr. Greenberg’s solo concert series, Music at Close Range, shows his equal commitment to classics of the repertoire. His solo discs on New Focus Recordings have received warm praise, and his 2013 recording of Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi with soprano Tony Arnold has been singled out by critics. At Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in recent summers, he performed Harrison Birtwistle’s Slow Frieze with ICE and conductor Ludovic Morlot, and premiered a new solo work by Nathan Davis. Mr. Greenberg has recorded for the Bridge, Naxos, Kairos, Centaur, Tzadik, New Amsterdam, and Starkland labels, and live performances have been heard on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, BBC Radio 3, and Radio Netherlands. He is also a record producer, and has completed discs for major domestic and international labels. www.jacobgreenberg.net. Ryan Muncy, Director of Institutional Giving and Saxophonist Praised for "superb" performances by The New York Times a s well as his ability to "show off the instrument's malleability and freakish extended range as well as its delicacy and refinement" by The Chicago Reader, Ryan Muncy is a saxophonist who performs, commissions, and presents new music. His work emphasizes collaborative relationships with composers and artists of his generation and aims to reimagine the way listeners experience the saxophone through contemporary music. He is a recipient of the Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists as well as a Fulbright Fellowship and has participated in the creation of more than 100 new works for the instrument. His debut solo was called "absorbing" (Alex Ross) and "one of the year's best albums" ( Time Out New York) . Before joining the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) as saxophonist and Grants Manager, Muncy was, from 2010 to 2014, the executive director of the
Chicagobased new music collective Ensemble Dal Niente. Under his leadership, Dal Niente was named the firstever ensemble recipient of the Kranichstein Music Prize, awarded at the 46th International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. Muncy is also a founding member of Anubis Quartet, a multifaceted chamber group established in 2007 with the aim of reshaping the saxophone quartet genre. During that time, the quartet has commissioned more than 40 new works and remains one of few worldwide in which all four players perform regularly on the entire battery of saxophones. Muncy holds the Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University and has previously served on the faculty of Northern Illinois University’s School of Music.
ARTISTS ICE is comprised of a flexible group of thirtythree artists, including strings, woodwinds, piano, percussion, voice, light and sound designers, which enables great flexibility of programming. Claire Chase, flute, CoArtistic Director and CEO Joshua Rubin, clarinet, CoArtistic Director Jacob Greenberg, piano, Director of Education Rebekah Heller, bassoon, Director of Individual Giving Ross Karre, percussion, Director of Production Ryan Muncy, saxophone, Director of Institutional Giving Steven Schick, Artist in Residence (20122015) Kyle Armbrust, viola Tony Arnold, soprano David Bowlin, violin David ByrdMarrow, horn Kivie CahnLipman, cello Erik Carlson, violin Phyllis Chen, piano Jennifer Curtis, violin Nathan Davis, percussion Peter Evans, trumpet Gareth Flowers, trumpet Nicholas Houfek, Lighting Designer Bridget Kibbey, harp Katinka Kleijn, cello Daniel Lippel, guitar Levy Lorenzo, ICElab Live Sound Engineer Campbell MacDonald, clarinet Nick Masterson, oboe Michael Nicolas, cello Maiya Papach, viola Dan Peck, tuba Wendy Richman, viola James Austin Smith, oboe Cory Smythe, piano Peter Tantsits, tenor Alice Teyssier, flute Nuiko Wadden, harp Randall Zigler, bass Mike Lormand, trombone
ICE OFFICIAL PHOTOS Official Group Shot Photo Credit: Armen Elliott Action Shots Photo Credit: Armen Elliott
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS LOWER RES Photo Credit: Armen Elliott Group Shot #1 (FULL RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #1 (LOW RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #2 (FULL RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #2 (LOW RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #3 (FULL RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #3 (LOW RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #4 (FULL RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider Group Shot #4 (LOW RES) Photo Credit: Carrie Schneider
DIGITICE // http://iceorg.org/digitice
DigitICE is ICE's digital media library. Streaming performances of individual works from our live concerts, along with interviews and behindthescenes videos are available here for free. Most feature high definition video and high quality audio.
OPENICE // http://iceorg.org/openice
OpenICE is a new program designed to bring every aspect of ICE’s musicmaking—performances, commissions, videos, workshops, handson educational activities, blogs, and community gatherings as well as ICE’s work behind the scenes—out into the open for the benefit of a new, significantly expanded audience, all free of charge.
THE LISTENING ROOM: A NEW APPROACH TO MUSIC EDUCATION // http://iceorg.org/education The Listening Room , a new curriculum currently in its third year, places experimental music at the center of a new approach to music education. Targeting public schools with no formal music program, the curriculum draws on the rich vocabulary of experimental music—improvisation, graphic scores, teambased performances, and nontraditional instruments—to teach collaborative creative skills to students of all ages and skill levels.
UPCOMING CONCERTS // http://iceorg.org/events RECENT PRESS // http://iceorg.org/about/press CONNECT // twitter.com/iceensemble // facebook.com/iceorg // instagram.com/iceensemble Media Contact: Maro Elliott: media@iceorg.org November 3, 2015