For immediate release: November 3, 2015 Press Contact: Carol Ann Cheung, carol.a.cheung@iceorg.org , 347.227.7320 ICE Celebrates Boulez at 90 in National Sawdust Debut Performances ICE teams up with legendary bassoonist, conductor, and curator Pascal Gallois to celebrate Pierre Boulez’s 90th birthday at National Sawdust. National Sawdust, Williamsburg — November 1721, 2015 New York, NY — The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) brings its collaboration with celebrated bassoonist and newmusic super force Pascal Gallois to Williamsburg’s newest music venue, National Sawdust, in honor of Pierre Boulez’s 90th birthday. Shortly following their French tour, ICE and Gallois, joined by contralto Katalin Károlyi, explore Boulez’s extraordinary influence in a series of four concerts taking place November 1721. Highlights include works by George Lewis and Mario Diaz de Leon, world premieres by Olga Neuwirth and Sabrina Schroeder, and Boulez’s masterpiece Le marteau sans maître . To purchase tickets, visit http://nationalsawdust.org/artists/internationalcontemporaryensembleice . New Dialogues // Perspectives: Boulez at 90 — National Sawdust 80 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, New York These four concerts explore Boulez’s tremendous work through the most colorful prisms: his wellknown masterpieces, his close creative dialogue with his peers, and his incalculable influence on younger composers. New Dialogues IIII Nov 17, 2015 • 7pm Exploring works with instruments and electronics by Pierre Boulez and George Lewis, and a world premiere by Olga Neuwirth. Featuring Pascal Gallois, Rebekah Heller, Joshua Rubin, and Claire Chase. Nov 18, 2015 • 9:30pm A dialogue between the idiosyncratic musical voices of Pierre Boulez and Elliott Carter, and a world premiere by Olga Neuwirth. Featuring Pascal Gallois, Rebekah Heller, and guest pianist Dimitri Vassilakis. Nov 19, 2015 • 9:30pm Boulez’s sonic experiments, musical language, and mentorship opened the doors for many younger composers. This concert features new works by composers who are forging new paths emerging from the research of the musical spectrum that Boulez set in motion. Works by Boulez, Franck Bedrossian, Mario Diaz de Leon and world premieres by Sabrina Schroeder and Olga Neuwirth. Featuring Pascal Gallois, Rebekah Heller, Joshua Rubin, and Claire Chase. Perspectives: Boulez at 90 Nov 21, 2015 • 8pm ICE’s final show features the large ICE band in a oneofakind live concert recording for a small audience seated in the Sawdust balcony. This limitedcapacity event features 20thcentury masterpieces by peers and close collaborators of Boulez that are rarely heard together. Featuring the incomparably beautiful voice of soprano Katalin Károlyi on Boulez’s seminal Le marteau sans maître. Luigi Nono: PolifonicaMonodicaRitmica Pierre Boulez: Éclat
Karlheinz Stockhausen: KontraPunkte Pierre Boulez: Le marteau sans maître About National Sawdust: National Sawdust (NS), an unparalleled, artistled, nonprofit venue, is a place for exploration and discovery. A place where emerging and established artists can share their music with serious music fans and casual listeners alike. In a city teeming with venues, NS is a singular space founded with an expansive vision: to provide composers and musicians across genres a home in which they can flourish, a setting where they are given unprecedented support and critical resources essential to create, and then share, their work. www.nationalsawdust.org About Pascal Gallois: As an artist of many talents and uncontested master of the bassoon, that most uncompromising and enigmatic of wind instruments, Pascal Gallois is a soloist, orchestral musician and teacher who is making his mark as a conductor in a necessary extension of his artistic commitment. www.pascalgallois.com About Katalin Károlyi: Born in Hungary, Katalin Károlyi studied singing with Noëlle Barker and Julia Hamari. She went on to set up Studio Versailles Opéra with Rachel Yakar and René Jacobs. Other conductors she has worked with include Yehudi Menuhin, William Christie, Phillip Herreweghe and David Robertson. Opera productions include performances at the Opéra National de Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Wiener Festwochen, Almeida Opera and the Festival d’Aix en Provence. She has also appeared at Ravinia Festival Chicago, Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Barbican Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms and Cité de la Musique. She frequently appears with ensembles including Ictus, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Amadinda, AskoSchoenberg, Musikfabrik, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group and Seoul Philharmonic. She has had numerous works composed for her including Ligeti’s Sippal, Dobbal, Nádihegedüvel which she has given frequent performances of, as well as a recording for Teldec Classics. www.katalinkarolyi.org About Dimitri Vassilakis: Greek pianist Dimitri Vassilakis began his musical studies at the age of 7, continuing as a pupil of Gérard Frémy at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, with tuition also from György Sebok and Monique Deschaussées. He unanimously won first prize for piano, as well as prizes in chamber music and accompaniment. Vassilakis has appeared as a soloist in Europe, North Africa, the Far East, and America, and since 1992 he has been a soloist with The Ensemble Intercontemporain. He has collaborated with a number of composers, including Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Kurtág, Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez, whose Incises he gave the first performance in 1995. He has taken part in a number of recordings, notably Répons by Pierre Boulez. His festival appearances include the Florence Maggio Musicale, the Warsaw Autumn, Edinburgh, Salzburg and Ottawa, and he has performed in concert halls such as the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Carnegie Hall in New York, and London’s Festival Hall. About ICE: 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 33 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. www.iceorg.org Digital press kit: iceorg.org/about/media
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