About this Event
For this special evening, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble perform a selection of work by pioneering trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith, set in response to paintings by Naomi Lisiki and Will Maxen, along with works on handmade washi paper by Alexa Hatanaka. Daniel Neumann’s sound installation, Dilation, will be on display before and after the program.
Composer Jen Shyu will give a short talk at the top of the program, highlighting the process behind her forthcoming commission premiere, presently slated for Spring 2027. ✨Tickets include a complimentary wine reception!✨
Smith’s adventurous music evokes the rich interiority beautifully rendered by the work on view, shifting between broad sonic landscapes and a veiled (yet perceptible) rush of memory and personal cosmologies.
The International Contemporary Ensemble is a multidisciplinary collective committed to inspiring audiences to reimagine sonic experience. Co-founded in 2001 by flutist and MacArthur “genius” Fellow Claire Chase, the Ensemble has premiered over 1,000 works and has won the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year Award. Past artistic leadership includes Ensemble members Joshua Rubin, Rebekah Heller, and Ross Karre. A number of the Ensemble’s composer-collaborators have developed highly influential careers, such as Du Yun, 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner for the opera Angel’s Bone, which the Ensemble developed and premiered, and MacArthur Fellows Tyshawn Sorey and Courtney Bryan. Notable presenting partners include Lincoln Center, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, TIME:SPANS Festival, Roulette Intermedium, and Miller Theatre. The Ensemble has given performances at Warsaw Autumn, Dutch National Opera, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Paris Opera, Darmstadt Summer Course, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Park Avenue Armory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Ojai Music Festival.
The Ensemble’s performances, as well as activities such as the “Call for___” Commissioning Program and Digitice, which provides public access to a high-quality video archive of Ensemble performances, are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors and many individuals, as well as the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, The Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Legislature. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble. iceorg.org
About Fridman Gallery
Since its founding in 2013, Fridman Gallery has focused on innovation, social consciousness, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The gallery takes risks, featuring visual, sound and performance art as co-equal genres of human expression. We provide a platform for both emerging and established artists, frequently placing their work in major museum collections.
In partnership with a performing-arts non-profit, New Ear Inc., we host a full calendar of concerts and the annual New Ear Festival. We believe in pushing artistic boundaries and creating immersive experiences as vehicles for personal and societal transformation.
Acknowledgments
The Ensemble’s performances and commissioning activities during the 2026-27 concert season are made possible by the generous support of our board of directors, many individuals, as well as the Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Fromm Music Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music Inc., The Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music, Amphion Foundation, The Cheswatyr Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Legislature. Yamaha Artist Services New York is the exclusive piano provider for the International Contemporary Ensemble.
Event venue & nearby stays
Fridman Gallery, 169 Bowery, New York, United States
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