ACME: 

Chamber Masterpieces: Weinberg, Shostakovich, Górecki

Presented by The Morgan Library & Museum with the Polish Cultural Institute New York

Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 7:30pm
The Morgan Library & Museum | 225 Madison Avenue, NYC
Tickets: $35; $25 for members at
(212) 685-0008 ext. 560 or www.themorgan.org/progams

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” – The New York Times on ACME

Watch ACME’s recent Steve Reich concert online at NPR: 
www.npr.org/event/music/160620377/acme-in-concert-steve-reichs-complete-string-quartets

ACME: www.acmemusic.org

New York, NY – ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble performs on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30pm. presented by The Morgan Library and Museum (225 Madison Avenue) and the Polish Cultural Institute New York. ACME pays homage to the late, largely unsung Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg with an elegiac chamber music program that includes his exquisite Piano Quintet Op. 18, plus Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67 and selections from Henryk Górecki’s String Quartet No. 3.

The music of Mieczysław Weinberg is slowly being rediscovered as one of the hidden treasures of the 20th century. Born in Poland, Weinberg emigrated to the Soviet Union under perilous circumstances. Often seen in the shadow of his close friend Dmitri Shostakovich, who regarded him as one of the most outstanding composers of the day, in recent years Weinberg has been recognized as a significant composer in his own right. His prolific output includes 17 string quartets, over 20 large-scale symphonies, numerous sonatas, and film-scores. His 1968 opera, The Passenger, was praised by Alex Ross in The New Yorker in 2011 and will be given its North American premiere by the Houston Opera during the 2013-14 season.

Weinberg’s Piano Quintet Op. 18 was completed in 1944, shortly after he moved to Moscow at the urging of Shostakovich, having fled the Nazi invasion of his hometown of Warsaw. ACME pairs Weinberg’s Quintet with Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, a lamentation of the Holocaust completed the same year. In addition, ACME offers selections from Henryk Górecki’s String Quartet No. 3 entitled Pieśni Śpiewają (“…songs are sung”). The complete line from Russian poet Velimir Khlebnikov's verse that this title quotes is “when people die / songs are sung.”

ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen explains, “This idea is also reflective of Weinberg’s immensely tragic life. Despite, or perhaps because of, a life threatened by uncertainty and unthinkable turmoil, Weinberg still created music; he still ‘sang.’”

ACME players for this concert are Caroline Shaw, violin; Ben Russell, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello, and Timothy Andres, piano.

ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents cutting-edge literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned the group a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls the group “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.”

In addition to the concert at the Morgan, 2012-2013 highlights for ACME included July performances with otherworldly indie-duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen in Chicago's massive Millennium Park and at Le Poisson Rouge; a special September 11 performance of Steve Reich’s complete string quartets, the world premiere of the all-live version of WTC 9/11, at Le Poisson Rouge; a three-night run in October as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, performing the world premiere of Phil Kline's Out Cold with vocalist Theo Bleckmann; as well as performances presented by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and CenterStage in Reston, VA. In April 2013, the ensemble is in residence at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center workshopping a new opera about Nikola Tesla with Phil Kline and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. In February 2013, ACME releasedJoseph Byrd: NYC 1960-1963 – a rediscovered contemporary of La Monte Young and Morton Feldman and a player in the Fluxus art movement – on New World Records.

About The Morgan Library and Museum: The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. Today, more than a century after its founding in 1906, the Morgan serves as a museum, musical venue, independent research library, architectural landmark, and historic site. In October 2010, the Morgan completed the first-ever restoration of its original McKim building, Pierpont Morgan’s private library, and the core of the institution. In tandem with the 2006 expansion project by architect Renzo Piano, the Morgan now provides visitors unprecedented access to its world-renowned collections of drawings, literary and historical manuscripts, musical scores, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, printed books, and ancient Near Eastern seals and tablets. www.themorgan.org

About The Polish Cultural Institute New York: The Polish Cultural Institute New York, established in 2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to building and nurturing cultural ties between the United States and Poland. The Institute initiates, organizes, promotes, and produces a broad range of cultural events in theater, music, film, literature, and visual arts. It has collaborated with such cultural institutions as Lincoln Center Festival, BAM, Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum, PEN World Voices Festival, Yale University, and many more. www.PolishCulture-NYC.org

More about ACME: ACME has performed at Le Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Noguchi Museum, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Stanford Lively Arts in California, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT, and All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Core ACME members include violinists Caleb Burhans, Ben Russell, and Caroline Shaw, violist Nadia Sirota, cellist Clarice Jensen, flutist Alex Sopp, pianist Timothy Andres, and percussionist Chris Thompson.

ACME does not subscribe to one stylistic movement or genre; its concerts present all genres of contemporary music in the same light and with the same conviction. Time Out New York reports, “[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers.” Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, John Luther Adams, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more. ACME has also collaborated with bands and artists including Grizzly Bear (in concert and on their best-selling album, Veckatimest, featuring strings by Nico Muhly); electronica duo Matmos (on The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast, with strings by Jefferson Friedman); Craig Wedren (former frontman of the avant-rock band Shudder To Think); prepared-pianist Hauschka; composers/performers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and Dustin O'Halloran, and Micachu & The Shapes.

Other recent highlights include performances in Boston at Jordan Hall and at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, opening two sold-out concerts by rock singer and guitarist Jeff Mangum; a 12-city tour across the US with A Winged Victory for the Sullen performing at venues including The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, and the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis; a performance at Stanford Lively Arts in the world premiere of a new work commissioned from Ingram Marshall for ACME with acclaimed male a cappella group Lionheart; a performance in the UK at the popular All Tomorrow's Parties festival, playing Gavin Bryars' Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet for an audience of over 1000 people; and a two-night run at The Kitchen, presenting a world premiere by avant-guitarist and composer Mick Barr alongside the premiere of William Brittelle's chamber cycle Loving the Chambered Nautilus, ACME's recording of which was released in June 2012 on New Amsterdam Records. Important past performances include ACME’s Carnegie Hall debut performing the world premiere of Timothy Andres’ Senior with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; a month-long residency at the Whitney Museum presented by the Wordless Music Series, for which ACME tailored a contemporary classical program to complement the indie-rock or electronica performer sharing the concert; and in Nico Muhly’s Tell the Way at St. Ann's Warehouse.

ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen, and has received support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Cary New Music Performance Fund, and the Greenwall Foundation. The ensemble is managed by Bernstein Artists, Inc. www.acmemusic.org

# # #

ACME

Brutal + Sublime

Music by Nico Muhly, Timothy Andres, Mick Barr, Jefferson Friedman, John Cage, & Louis Andriessen

Presented by The CenterStage at Reston Community Center

Wednesday, March 27 at 8pm
2310 Colts Neck Road | Reston, VA
Tickets: $15 (Reston) & $30 (non-Reston) at www.restoncommunitycenter.com
Information: 703.476.4500

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” – The New York Times on ACME

Watch ACME’s recent Steve Reich concert online at NPR:  www.npr.org/event/music/160620377/acme-in-concert-steve-reichs-complete-string-quartets

ACME: www.acmemusic.org

Reston, VA – ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, will perform for the first time in Reston on Wednesday, March 27 at 8pm, presented by the CenterStage at Reston Community Center (2310 Colts Neck Road). Their program, entitled Brutal + Sublime, juxtaposes musical extremes in an ecstatic dance of dissonance and serenity and comprises Nico Muhly’s Big Time for percussion and string quartet, Timothy Andres’ I Found it by the Sea for piano quartet, Mick Barr’s ACMED, selections from Jefferson Friedman’s Grammy-nominated String Quartet No. 3, John Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts, and Louis Andriessen’s iconic Workers Union.

ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen describes Nico Muhly’s Big Time as “at once heartfelt and whimsical.” The piece was premiered this past August by the Lark Quartet and percussionist Yousif Sheronick. Timothy Andres’ piano quartet, I Found it by the Sea, re-contextualizes elements of Brahms’ lyrical chamber music. Mick Barr’s driving string trio ACMED was commissioned by ACME from the metal guitar virtuoso and composer and premiered at The Kitchen in New York earlier this year. Consequence of Sound raved that ACMED is, “more than an exercise in speed and precision . . . a real work of art . . . like some kind of death metal Stravinsky.”

The second half of the concert opens with selections from Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3, nominated for the 2011 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The New York Times describes it as “packed with unusual timbres, unabashedly rich melodies and carefully worked-out themes,” and states, “Mr. Friedman’s quartets . . . already deserve to be heard as classics of this decade.” A nod to the centennial of John Cage’s birth, ACME will play his Zen-likeString Quartet in Four Parts, which was inspired by each of the four seasons of the year. Louis Andriessen’s exhilarating 20th century classic Workers Union, written for “any loud-sounding group of instruments,” completes the program.

ACME players for this concert include Caroline Shaw, violin; Ben Russell, violin; Caleb Burhans, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello, and Chris Thompson, percussion.

Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents cutting-edge literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned the group a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls the group “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.”

In addition to their performance in Reston, 2012-2013 highlights for ACME included July performances with otherworldly indie-duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen in Chicago's massive Millennium Park and at Le Poisson Rouge; a special September 11 performance of Steve Reich’s complete string quartets, the world premiere of the all-live version of WTC 9/11, at Le Poisson Rouge; a three-night run in October as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, performing the world premiere of Phil Kline's Out Cold with vocalist Theo Bleckmann; as well as performances presented by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and The Morgan Library in New York. In April 2013, the ensemble is in residence at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center workshopping a new opera about Nikola Tesla with Phil Kline and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Also in February 2013, ACME released Joseph Byrd: NYC 1960-1963 – a rediscovered contemporary of La Monte Young and Morton Feldman and a player in the Fluxus art movement – on New World Records.

About Reston Community Center: Each year Reston Community Center (RCC) offers more than 2,000 positive, self-development experiences that enhance the quality of life for all people living and working in Reston. RCC provides a wide range of programs in arts, aquatics, enrichment, fitness and life-long learning. The center also creates and sustains community traditions through special events, outreach activities and facility rentals. For more information visitwww.restoncommunitycenter.com.

More about ACME: ACME has performed at Le Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Noguchi Museum, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Stanford Lively Arts in California, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT, and All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Core ACME members include violinists Caleb Burhans, Ben Russell, and Caroline Shaw, violist Nadia Sirota, cellist Clarice Jensen, flutist Alex Sopp, pianist Timothy Andres, and percussionist Chris Thompson.

ACME does not subscribe to one stylistic movement or genre; its concerts present all genres of contemporary music in the same light and with the same conviction. Time Out New York reports, “[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers.” Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, John Luther Adams, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more.

ACME has also collaborated with bands and artists including Grizzly Bear (in concert and on their best-selling album, Veckatimest, featuring strings by Nico Muhly); electronica duo Matmos (on The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast, with strings by Jefferson Friedman); Craig Wedren (former frontman of the avant-rock band Shudder To Think); prepared-pianist Hauschka; composers/performers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and Dustin O'Halloran, and Micachu & The Shapes.

Other recent highlights include performances in Boston at Jordan Hall and at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, opening two sold-out concerts by rock singer and guitarist Jeff Mangum; a 12-city tour across the US with A Winged Victory for the Sullen performing at venues including The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, and the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis; a performance at Stanford Lively Arts in the world premiere of a new work commissioned from Ingram Marshall for ACME with acclaimed male a cappella group Lionheart; a performance in the UK at the popular All Tomorrow's Parties festival, playing Gavin Bryars' Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet for an audience of over 1000 people; and a two-night run at The Kitchen, presenting a world premiere by avant-guitarist and composer Mick Barr alongside the premiere of William Brittelle's chamber cycle Loving the Chambered Nautilus, ACME's recording of which was released in June 2012 on New Amsterdam Records. 

Important past performances include ACME’s Carnegie Hall debut performing the world premiere of Timothy Andres’ Senior with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; a month-long residency at the Whitney Museum presented by the Wordless Music Series, for which ACME tailored a contemporary classical program to complement the indie-rock or electronica performer sharing the concert; and in Nico Muhly’s Tell the Way at St. Ann's Warehouse.

ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen, and has received support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Cary New Music Performance Fund, and the Greenwall Foundation. The ensemble is managed by Bernstein Artists, Inc. For more information, visit www.acmemusic.org.

# # #

American Contemporary Music Ensemble

JOSEPH BYRD
NYC 1960-1963

New World Records
Release Date: February 5, 2013
(Review copies available upon request.)

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” – The New York Timeson ACME

www.acmemusic.org | www.newworldrecords.org

New York, NY— The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is proud to announce its first worldwide release on New World Records, JOSEPH BYRD: NYC 1960-1963, available February 5, 2013. The album is the first commercial recording of the concert music of composer Joseph Byrd, and includes music he wrote over the three years he spent in New York from 1960 to 1963. During this short but prolific time he studied under Morton Feldman, apprenticed under John Cage, was secretary to Virgil Thomson, and had concerts at both Yoko Ono’s Greenwich Village loft and the Recital Hall at Carnegie.

Joseph Byrd was born in 1937 and studied at the University of Arizona (B.M., 1959) and Stanford University (M.A., 1960). Part of the experimental arts scene in New York and Los Angeles in the 1960s, he also founded the psychedelic rock bands The United States of America and Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies. Of his time in New York, he wrote, “New York in the early ‘60s was intoxicating. There was every kind of artistic activity imaginable . . . The city teemed with young artists and writers, musicians and dancers, and there was a sense of being ‘on the axis of the wheel of life.’” During these years, Byrd continued his association with La Monte Young, whom he had met while at Stanford, and collaborated with many artists associated with the Fluxus movement. From 1960 to 1962, Young organized a series of concerts at Yoko Ono’s loft, including a program dedicated exclusively to Byrd’s music on March 4 and 5, 1961.

ACME’s New World Records album includes Joseph Byrd’s Animals for solo prepared piano (1961); Loops & Sequences, written for cellist Charlotte Moorman in 1961; Three Aphorisms for solo prepared piano (1960);Densities I (1962) for solo viola with four treble instruments; Four Sound*Poems from 1962, each of which is dedicated to a woman active in the experimental arts scene in New York – composer Lucia Dlugoszewski, pianist Judy Winkler (now Judy Eda), poet Diane Wakoski, and cellist Charlotte Moorman; String Trio (1962); Water Music (1963) for percussion and tape, written for percussionist Max Neuhaus; and Prelude to “The Mystery Cheese-Ball” (1961), a whimsical prelude to Byrd’s chamber opera which was performed by Jackson Mac Low, Yoko Ono, David Tudor, Diane Wakoski, La Monte Young, and Joseph Byrd at Yoko Ono’s loft in 1961. The score instructs each player to release air from an inflated balloon as slowly as possible, resulting in an otherworldly polyphony.

When Byrd’s music was performed at Carnegie in 1962, Eric Salzman of The New York Times described the concert as a “thimbleful of tiny sounds” which were “generally just this side of the threshold of inaudibility.” Byrd stated in Richard Kostelanetz’s The Theatre of Mixed Means from 1968, “The obligation – the morality, if you wish – of all the arts today is to intensify, alter perceptual awareness and hence, consciousness. Awareness and consciousness of what? Of the real material world. Of the things we see and hear and taste and touch.” The music on JOSEPH BYRD: NYC 1960-1963 thus lends itself to careful and attentive listening, and celebrates subtle shifts in texture and timbre.

ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen said, “Discovering and deciphering the music of such a rich and nearly unknown voice was a terribly valuable experience for all of us. In recording Joseph's music, it is our honor to introduce this important work to our repertoire, and we hope to the repertoire of other ensembles as well.”

ACME players on JOSEPH BYRD: NYC 1960-1963 are Clarice Jensen, cello; Timothy Andres, piano; Caleb Burhans, violin; Caroline Shaw, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; Chihiro Shibayama, marimba; Chris Thompson, vibraphone; and C.J. Camerieri, trumpet; with Alan Zimmerman, percussion.

Tracks:
JOSEPH BYRD: NYC 1960-1963
New World Records (80738-2) | Release Date: February 5, 2013
American Contemporary Music Ensemble | Clarice Jensen, Artistic Director | And Alan Zimmerman
Co-producers: Alan Zimmerman, Clarice Jensen, and Dan Bora

1. Animals (1961) 10:06
Timothy Andres, prepared piano solo; Caleb Burhans, violin; Caroline Shaw, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello; Chihiro Shibayama, marimba; Chris Thompson, vibraphone

2. Loops and Sequences (1961) 7:36
Clarice Jensen, cello; Timothy Andres, piano

3-5. Three Aphorisms (1960) 3:17
Timothy Andres, prepared piano

6. Densities I (1962) 9:53
for viola solo with 4 treble instruments Nadia Sirota, viola solo; C.J. Camerieri, trumpet; Clarice Jensen, cello; Chihiro Shibayama, marimba; Chris Thompson, vibraphone

7. Four Sound*Poems (1962) 3:20
Clarice Jensen, Caroline Shaw, Nadia Sirota & Chris Thompson, speakers

8-9. String Trio (1962) 11:07
Caleb Burhans, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello

10. Water Music (1963) 12:40
for percussion solo and electronic tape
Alan Zimmerman, percussion

11. Prelude to “The Mystery Cheese-Ball” (1961) 3:41
for antiphonal rubber balloons Timothy Andres, Caleb Burhans, Clarice Jensen, Caroline Shaw, Nadia Sirota, Chihiro Shibayama & Chris Thompson, balloons

About Joseph Byrd:
Joseph Byrd (born 1937) received a B.Mus. at the University of Arizona in 1959 and an M.A. at Stanford in 1960. During his three years in New York he studied under Morton Feldman, apprenticed under John Cage, was secretary to Virgil Thomson, and staff arranger and producer for Capitol Records.

He was involved in the seminal new-music, concept art, and performance art avant-garde movements in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1950s, New York City in the early 1960s (a founding member of Fluxus), and Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. His first New York concert was at Yoko Ono’s loft in Greenwich Village in 1961. Together with experimental jazz musician Don Ellis, he founded the New Music Workshop at UCLA in 1963, and co-produced with Barbara Haskell the first West Coast festival of experimental arts in 1966. Throughout the mid-1960s he produced happenings, wrote for the LA Free Press, lectured at the Pasadena Art Museum and elsewhere, and wrote the liner notes for John Cage’s LP of Variations IV. In 1967 he formed an electronic-sound/performance-art rock band, The United States of America, and released two albums on Columbia Records in 1967 and ’68. Then and subsequently he designed “user specs” for pioneer analog synthesizer manufacturers Tom Oberheim and Donald Buchla, and was the first rock artist to use synthesis in combination with live instruments.

From the late 1960s he worked in Los Angeles as composer/arranger, electronic synthesist, and music director for film, radio, and television programs, record companies, and ad agencies. Artists for whom he wrote and produced include Linda Ronstadt, Phil Ochs, The Los Angeles Brass Quintet, The Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet, The Gregg Smith Singers, Su Harmon, Miles Anderson, Ry Cooder, and David Lindley. He moved to Humboldt County in the 1990s, where he is Adjunct Professor of Music at College of the Redwoods in Eureka.

About ACME:
Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble presents cutting-edge literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of contemporary music. ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. ACME has performed at Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kitchen, Le Poisson Rouge, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim, Columbia’s Miller Theatre, All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK, and Stanford Lively Arts in California, among many others.

ACME’s instrumentation is flexible and includes some of New York’s most sought after, engaging musicians. Since its first concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, and more.

ACME was founded by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen, and has received support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Cary New Music Performance Fund, and the Greenwall Foundation. ACME is managed by Bernstein Arts, Inc. For more information visitwww.acmemusic.org.

About Alan Zimmerman:
Producer and percussionist Alan Zimmerman was born, reared, and educated in Texas. After spending time in Japan and Jamaica, he migrated to New York City in 1985, where he is currently Executive Vice-President at Kensico Properties. Alan can also be heard on Eric Richards’s the bells themselves (New World Records 80673).

About New World Records:
Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc., which records under the label New World Records, was founded in 1975. Like the university press, New World preserves neglected treasures of the past and nurtures the creative future of American music. Through the production of over 400 recordings some 700 American composers have been represented. In an industry obsessed with million-unit sales and immediate profits, New World chooses artistic merit as its indicator of success.

The company was founded with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation with a mandate to produce a 100-disc anthology of American music encompassing the broadest possible spectrum of musical genres. This set of recordings, together with their extensive liner notes, provides a core curriculum in American music and American studies. In 1978 the Anthology was completed and distributed free of charge to almost 7,000 educational and cultural institutions throughout the world. An additional 2,000 Anthologies were sold at cost to other similar institutions. Through these recordings two hundred years of music and American cultural history are brought to life.

The company currently releases twelve to sixteen new titles per year. Over the years, nineteen New World titles have received Grammy Award nominations and three of them have won— Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatrain 1984, Leonard Bernstein's Candide in 1986, and Ned Rorem's String Symphony, Sunday Morning, Eagles in 1989. For more information visit www.newworldrecords.org.

# # #

ACME & yMusic

Library Late: New Music Double Bill at the Atlas
Presented by the Library of Congress

Friday, November 30, 2012 at 9:30pm
Atlas Performing Arts Center
1333 H Street NE | Washington, DC
Admission: FREE, tickets required. Available through the Atlas Box Office at 202.399.7993 or www.atlasarts.org

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” – The New York Times on ACME

“all the attitude and energy of an indie rock band”  – Paste Magazine on yMusic

ACME: www.acmemusic.org | yMusic:www.ymusicensemble.com

Washington, DC – ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, and yMusic will play a double bill at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H Street NE) on Friday, November 30, 2012 at 9:30pm presented by the Library of Congress in a special “Library Late” concert. These two new music groups, which share several members including cellist Clarice Jensen and violist Nadia Sirota, are veterans of venues and series including BAM, Carnegie Hall, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Stanford Lively Arts, and more. Audience members will have a chance to meet and talk with the performers in between sets in the Atlas’s café-style Sprenger Theater.

At the Atlas, ACME will perform Don Byron’s Spin; Caroline Shaw’s beautiful Limestone and Felt for viola and cello; Mick Barr’s ACMED (described by Consequence of Sound as “more than an exercise in speed and precision . . . a real work of art . . . like some kind of death metal Stravinsky”); and, in a nod to the centennial of John Cage’s birth, the composer’s Zen-like String Quartet in Four Parts, inspired by each of the four seasons of the year. ACME players for this concert are Rob Moose, violin; Caleb Burhans, violin; Nadia Sirota, viola; and Clarice Jensen, cello.

yMusic, which will announce its set from the stage, has been hailed by NPR as “one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music.” The ensemble is comfortable in the overlapping classical and pop music worlds. yMusic’s exciting orchestration has inspired an expanding repertoire of works by some of today’s most important artists; indie rock luminaries Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) and Ryan Lott (Son Lux), have crafted instrumental works specifically for the ensemble. On yMusic’s debut album, Beautiful Mechanical, which was namedTime Out New York’s No. 1 Classical Record of 2011, the group pairs these works with pieces by composers Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Gabriel Kahane. yMusic is Rob Moose, violin; CJ Camerieri, trumpet; Clarice Jensen, cello; Alex Sopp, flute; Hideaki Aomori, flute; and Nadia Sirota, viola.

About ACME: Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble presents cutting-edge literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls them “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at Le Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kitchen, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim, Columbia’s Miller Theatre, All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK, and Stanford Lively Arts, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible and includes some of New York's most sought after, engaging musicians. Since its first concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, and more.

Highlights of ACME’s current season include a performance of the complete string quartets of Steve Reich at Le Poisson Rouge in September; a three-night run in October as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival performing the world premiere of Phil Kline's Out Cold with vocalist Theo Bleckmann; plus concerts presented by the Library of Congress and The Morgan Library. In April 2013, ACME is in residence at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center workshopping a new opera about Nikola Tesla with Phil Kline and Jim Jarmusch. Also in the spring, ACME will release The Music of Joseph Byrd – a rediscovered contemporary of La Monte Young and Morton Feldman and a player in the Fluxus movement – on New World Records.

ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen, and has received support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Cary New Music Performance Fund, and the Greenwall Foundation. The ensemble is represented by Bernstein Artists, Inc. For more information, visitwww.acmemusic.org

About yMusic: In addition to performing its own repertoire, yMusic serves as a ready-made collaborative unit for bands and songwriters. In the 2012-13 season, yMusic launches new projects with Dirty Projectors, Gabriel Kahane and Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire. Past collaborations have included work with The National, St. Vincent, My Brightest Diamond, Aaron and Bryce Dessner, Ra Ra Riot, and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. These affiliations have brought yMusic to prominent stages around the world including Amsterdam’s Muziekgebuow, New York’s Beacon Theater, and the Krannert Center in Champagne-Urbana. yMusic can be heard on Dirty Projectors’Swing Lo Magellan, Son Lux’s We Are Rising, My Brightest Diamond’s All Things Will Unwind, and a forthcoming record of compositions by Richard Reed Parry.

yMusic was created in 2008 to bring a classical chamber music aesthetic to venues outside the traditional concert hall. Its members have individually toured and recorded with artists such as Bon Iver, Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Antony and the Johnsons, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The National, Rufus Wainwright, Grizzly Bear, Meredith Monk, Yo-Yo Ma, The New York Philharmonic, David Byrne and Sufjan Stevens. For more information, visitwww.ymusicensemble.com.

# # #

ACME: 

Brutal + Sublime

Music by Nico Muhly, Timothy Andres, Mick Barr, Jefferson Friedman, John Cage, & Louis Andriessen

Presented by The CenterStage at Reston Community Center
Wednesday, October 31 at 8pm
2310 Colts Neck Road | Reston, VA
Tickets: $15 (Reston) & $30 (non-Reston) atwww.restoncommunitycenter.com
Information: 703.476.4500

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” – The New York Times on ACME

Watch ACME’s recent Steve Reich concert online at NPR: www.npr.org/event/music/160620377/acme-in-concert-steve-reichs-complete-string-quartets

ACME: www.acmemusic.org

Reston, VA – ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, will perform for the first time in Reston onWednesday, October 31 at 8pm, presented by The CenterStage at the Reston Community Center (2310 Colts Neck Road). Their program, entitled Brutal + Sublime, juxtaposes musical extremes in an ecstatic dance of dissonance and serenity and comprises Nico Muhly’s Big Time for percussion and string quartet, Timothy Andres’ I Found it by the Sea for piano quartet, Mick Barr’s ACMED, selections from Jefferson Friedman’s Grammy-nominated String Quartet No. 3, John Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts, and Louis Andriessen’s iconic Workers Union.

ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen describes Nico Muhly’s Big Time as “at once heartfelt and whimsical.” The piece was premiered this past August by the Lark Quartet and percussionist Yousif Sheronick. Timothy Andres’ piano quartet I Found it by the Sea, which will be performed in Reston with the composer at the piano, re-contextualizes elements of Brahms’ lyrical chamber music. Mick Barr’s driving string trio ACMED was commissioned by ACME from the metal guitar virtuoso and composer and premiered at The Kitchen in New York earlier this year. Consequence of Sound raved that ACMED is, “more than an exercise in speed and precision . . . a real work of art . . . like some kind of death metal Stravinsky.”

The second half of the concert opens with selections from Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3, nominated for the 2011 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The New York Times describes it as “packed with unusual timbres, unabashedly rich melodies and carefully worked-out themes,” and states, “Mr. Friedman’s quartets . . . already deserve to be heard as classics of this decade.” A nod to the centennial of John Cage’s birth, ACME will play his Zen-like String Quartet in Four Parts, which was inspired by each of the four seasons of the year. Louis Andriessen’s exhilarating 20th century classic Workers Union, written for “any loud-sounding group of instruments,” completes the program.

ACME players for this concert are Timothy Andres, piano; Caroline Shaw, violin; Ben Russell, violin; Caleb Burhans, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello, and Chris Thompson, percussion.

Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents cutting-edge literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned the group a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls the group “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.”

In addition to their performance in Reston, 2012-2013 highlights for ACME included July performances with otherworldly indie-duo A Winged Victory for the Sullen in Chicago's massive Millennium Park and at Le Poisson Rouge; a special September 11 performance of Steve Reich’s complete string quartets, the world premiere of the all-live version of WTC 9/11, at Le Poisson Rouge; a three-night run in October as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, performing the world premiere of Phil Kline's Out Cold with vocalist Theo Bleckmann; as well as performances presented by the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and The Morgan Library in New York. In April 2013, the ensemble is in residence at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center workshopping a new opera about Nikola Tesla with Phil Kline and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Also in spring 2013, ACME will release The Music of Joseph Byrd – a rediscovered contemporary of La Monte Young and Morton Feldman and a player in the Fluxus art movement – on New World Records.

About the Reston Community Center: Each year the Reston Community Center (RCC) offers more than 2,000 positive, self-development experiences that enhance the quality of life for all people living and working in Reston. RCC provides a wide range of programs in arts, aquatics, enrichment, fitness and life-long learning. The center also creates and sustains community traditions through special events, outreach activities and facility rentals. For more information visit www.restoncommunitycenter.com.

More about ACME: ACME has performed at Le Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Noguchi Museum, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Stanford Lively Arts in California, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT, and All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Core ACME members include violinists Caleb Burhans, Ben Russell, and Caroline Shaw, violist Nadia Sirota, cellist Clarice Jensen, flutist Alex Sopp, pianist Timothy Andres, and percussionist Chris Thompson.

ACME does not subscribe to one stylistic movement or genre; its concerts present all genres of contemporary music in the same light and with the same conviction. Time Out New York reports, “[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers.” Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, John Luther Adams, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more.

ACME has also collaborated with bands and artists including Grizzly Bear (in concert and on their best-selling album,Veckatimest, featuring strings by Nico Muhly); electronica duo Matmos (on The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast, with strings by Jefferson Friedman); Craig Wedren (former frontman of the avant-rock band Shudder To Think); prepared-pianist Hauschka; composers/performers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and Dustin O'Halloran, and Micachu & The Shapes.

Other recent highlights include performances in Boston at Jordan Hall and at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, opening two sold-out concerts by rock singer and guitarist Jeff Mangum; a 12-city tour across the US with A Winged Victory for the Sullen performing at venues including The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, and the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis; a performance at Stanford Lively Arts in the world premiere of a new work commissioned from Ingram Marshall for ACME with acclaimed male a cappella group Lionheart; a performance in the UK at the popular All Tomorrow's Parties festival, playing Gavin Bryars' Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet for an audience of over 1000 people; and a two-night run at The Kitchen, presenting a world premiere by avant-guitarist and composer Mick Barr alongside the premiere of William Brittelle's chamber cycle Loving the Chambered Nautilus, ACME's recording of which was released in June 2012 on New Amsterdam Records. 

Important past performances include ACME’s Carnegie Hall debut performing the world premiere of Timothy Andres’Senior with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; a month-long residency at the Whitney Museum presented by the Wordless Music Series, for which ACME tailored a contemporary classical program to complement the indie-rock or electronica performer sharing the concert; and in Nico Muhly’s Tell the Way at St. Ann's Warehouse.

ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen, and has received support from The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Cary New Music Performance Fund, and the Greenwall Foundation. The ensemble is managed by Bernstein Artists, Inc. For more information, visit www.acmemusic.org.

# # #

ACME: 

The Complete String Quartets of Steve Reich

Different Trains & Triple Quartet
World Premiere of All-Live Version of WTC 9/11

Composer and Special Guest Steve Reich in Attendance

Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 7:30pm (doors at 6:30)
Le Poisson Rouge | 158 Bleecker Street, NYC
Tickets: $35 Table Seating & $30 Standing Room at 212.505.FISH or www.lprnyc.com

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” –New York Times on ACME

Steve Reich: www.stevereich.com 

ACME: www.acmemusic.org

New York, NY – ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, will give a performance of the complete string quartets of Steve Reich on Tuesday, September 11 at 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm) at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleecker Street). The program includes Different Trains (1988); Triple Quartet, version for three string quartets (1998); and WTC 9/11 version for three string quartets and tape (2010). ACME’s performance will be the world premiere of this all-live version of WTC 9/11, which was commissioned, recorded, and toured widely by the Kronos Quartet in a version for one string quartet plus pre-recorded tape. Conductor Donato Cabrera will lead Triple Quartet and WTC 9/11.

The concert, as well as a pre-concert conversation between Steve Reich and WNYC’s John Schaefer, will be webcast live in its entirety by Q2 Music (more information: www.wqxr.org/#!/articles/q2-live-concerts/2012/aug/20/listen-steve-reichs-complete-quartets/).

ACME players for this concert are Caroline Shaw and Ben Russell, violins; Nadia Sirota, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello; plus violinists Erik Carlson, Keats Dieffenbach, Anna Elashvili and Annaliesa Place; violists Bryan Florenceand Nathan Schram; and cellists Michael Nicolas and Brian Snow.

WTC 9/11* is a wrenching response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Throughout the piece, Reich utilizes recorded material related to the attacks, including the voices of NORAD air traffic controllers, New York City Fire Department personnel, neighborhood residents, two women who for seven months sat Shmira with the remains of victims, as well as a cellist and a cantor from a New York City synagogue singing parts of Psalms and the Torah. NPR’s Anastasia Tsioulcas wrote of the piece, “Reich's [WTC 9/11] crystallizes some of the anxiety and searching that characterized not just the chaos and pain of the attack and its immediate aftermath, but the great unknowns that have characterized the last decade for all of us…”

Reich’s Grammy Award-winning 1988 work, Different Trains, for string quartet and tape, contrasts the romantic journeys by train that Reich made as a child during World War II between the two cities where his separated parents lived (New York and Los Angeles), with the journeys by train that he may have been forced to undertake as a Jew in Europe during those same years. The recorded speech that is interspersed throughout the piece is taken from interviews with individuals in the US and in Europe leading up to, during, and immediately after World War II. Combining the sounds of steam whistles, brakes, and pistons with these voices, Different Trains is both introspective and a driving, harrowing ride.

Triple Quartet, from 1998, was written for and dedicated to the Kronos Quartet, and was premiered in 1999 at the Kennedy Center. Reich has said that the piece is influenced by the last movement of Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet, the string quartets of Alfred Schnittke, and Michael Gordon’s Yo Shakespeare.

About the Artists

About Steve Reich: Steve Reich has been called "America’s greatest living composer" (The Village Voice), "...the most original musical thinker of our time" (The New Yorker), and "...among the great composers of the century" (New York Times). His music has been influential to composers and mainstream musicians all over the world. He is a leading pioneer of Minimalism, having in his youth broken away from the "establishment" that was serialism. His music is known for steady pulse, repetition, and a fascination with canons; it combines rigorous structures with propulsive rhythms and seductive instrumental color. It also embraces harmonies of non-Western and American vernacular music (especially jazz). His studies have included the Gamelan, African drumming (at the University of Ghana), and traditional forms of chanting the Hebrew scriptures.

Different Trains and Music for 18 Musicians have each earned him GRAMMY awards, and his "documentary video opera" works—The Cave and Three Tales, done in collaboration with video artist Beryl Korot—have pushed the boundaries of the operatic medium. Over the years his music has significantly grown both in expanded harmonies and instrumentation, resulting in a Pulitzer Prize for his 2007 composition, Double Sextet.

Reich’s music has been performed by major orchestras and ensembles around the world, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; London, San Francisco, Boston, and BBC symphony orchestras; London Sinfonietta; Kronos Quartet; Ensemble Modern; Ensemble Intercontemporain; Bang on a Can All-Stars; and eighth blackbird. Several noted choreographers have created dances to his music, such as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jirí Kylían, Jerome Robbins, Wayne McGregor, and Christopher Wheeldon.

“There's just a handful of living composers who can legitimately claim to have altered the direction of musical history and Steve Reich is one of them.” — The Guardian (London)

Steve Reich is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Reprinted by permission of Boosey & Hawkes.

About ACME: Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents cutting-edge literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary.  Known for their work with the Wordless Music Series as well as indie music icons such as Grizzly Bear, ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls them “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK, Stanford Lively Arts in California, and the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Vermont, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Ryan Streber, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more.

Highlights of ACME’s current season include a three-night run in October as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, performing the world premiere of Phil Kline's Out Cold with vocalist Theo Bleckmann alongside Kline's Zippo Songs, newly arranged for ACME as a 10-piece ensemble; plus performances presented the Reston Community CenterStage theater in Virginia, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and The Morgan Library in New York.  In April 2013, the ensemble is in residence at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center workshopping a new opera about inventor Nikola Tesla with Phil Kline and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Also in spring 2013, ACME will release The Music of Joseph Byrd – a rediscovered contemporary of La Monte Young and Morton Feldman and a player in the Fluxus art movement – on New World Records.

About Donato Cabrera: Donato Cabrera is the Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), the Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Music Director of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra. He works closely with SFS Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas and frequently conducts the San Francisco Symphony throughout the year. Cabrera made his San Francisco Symphony debut in April 2009 when he conducted the Orchestra with 24-hours notice in a program that included Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In March 2012, he conducted the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, with Paul Jacobs on organ, in the world premiere of Mason Bates’ Mass Transmission, subsequently conducting it with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City in Carnegie Hall for the American Mavericks Festival. From 2005 to 2008, Cabrera was Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Opera, where he prepared the cast and conducted the first rehearsals for the world premiere of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic as well as conducting performances of Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Tannhäuser, and The Magic Flute. In December 2009, he made his debut with the San Francisco Ballet, conducting performances of The Nutcracker. During the 2010-11, season he made his Carnegie Hall and Cal Performances debuts, conducting the world and California premieres of Mark Grey’s Ătash Sorushan. In April 2010, Cabrera stepped in on short notice for the acclaimed British composer/conductor/pianist, Thomas Adés, conducting the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Cabrera was the rehearsal and cover conductor for the Metropolitan Opera production and DVD release of Doctor Atomic, which won the 2012 Grammy® Award for Best Opera Recording. A champion of new music, Donato Cabrera was a co-founder of ACME in New York in 2004. For more information, visit www.donatocabrera.com.

# # #

*Steve Reich's WTC 9/11 was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Barbican Centre, Carnegie Hall, Duke Performances, Krannert Center/University of Illinoi, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the Phyllis W. Wattis Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. This commission was also made possible by the Chamber Music America Commissioning Program, with funding generously provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble releases debut album on New Amsterdam Records

William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus

Physical Album Release Date: June 26
Now Available Digitally

Album Pre-Sale Fundraiser, Now In Progress: http://williambrittelle.bandcamp.com/album/loving-the-chambered-nautilus

New York, NY – ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble announces the June 26 release of the group’s debut album, William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus, on New Amsterdam Records. Loving the Chambered Nautilus, Brittelle’s third album, is a new series of retro-futuristic, electro-acoustic chamber pieces composed by Brittelle and performed by acclaimed violist Nadia Sirota, cellist Clarice Jensen and ACME. By merging the energy and sonic language of pop drum and synth programming with classical forms and instrumentation, Nautilus offers a propulsive and visceral re-imagination of chamber music for the 21st century. The album is currently available at digital retailers, with physical copies being released on June 26. Copies and bonus materials are available until release date through the artists’ Bandcamp site (link above), with proceeds going toward album costs.

Unlike its predecessors, Brittelle's art rock epics Television Landscape (2010) and Mohair Time Warp (2008), Nautilus focuses on chamber virtuosity and intimacy. Guitars and vocals (aside from the closing title track) are conspicuously absent; instead Brittelle brings ACME’s crystalline precision and infectious energy to the forefront against a backdrop of his programmed electro landscapes, with many of the pieces written specifically with Jensen and Sirota in mind. The result is a vivid sound-world that spans a wide emotional range. 

The album title is a reference to the Chambered Nautilus, a fascinating marine creature inhabiting a complex and beautiful shell that is uniquely comprised of both organic and inorganic material, with the line between animal and shell often blurred to the point of becoming indiscriminate. This fluid duality in effect mirrors the relationship between strings and electronics in Nautilus, with both elements coexisting to the point of becoming one. 

The electronic components of Nautilus mainly focus on vintage synthesizer sounds and rudimentary drum machines, while the string playing is most often buoyant and propulsive with interspersing moments of tenderness and calm. The album opens with the three-movement "Future Shock" string quartet series, which immediately introduces the intoxicating musicianship of the ACME players. Entwining string and electronic melodies are driven by perfectly placed moments of fervent tremolo, propulsive polyrhythms, and heady synth beats that result in powerful emotional charges (in particular, watch out for 2'50" on the first movement). "Acid Rain on the Mirrordome" follows, creating a sense of catharsis that anyone who's been put into a trance by The Cure's "Plainsong" will enjoy; the feeling continues later in the affecting slow burn of "Loon Birds in Meshed Crystal", featured in the video below. The title track closes the album with a smooth weave of flute, harp, banjo, and retro electronics, concluding with ACME violinist Caleb Burhans repeating the phrase “I do not hate” in succession, gesturing to Brittelle’s effortless embrace of seemingly contrasting spirits: the grace, intimacy, and intricacy of the classical chamber tradition, and synthetic pop music. 

The project premiered live at NYC venue The Kitchen in early May.

Loving the Chambered Nautilus Tracklisting: 

1. Future Shock for String Quartet, Mvmt. I
2. Future Shock for String Quartet, Mvmt. 2
3. Future Shock for String Quartet, Mvmt. 3
4. Acid Rain on the Mirrordome
5. Future Shock for Cello
6. Loon Birds in Meshed Crystal
7. Loving the Chambered Nautilus

More about composer William Brittelle: William Brittelle is a Brooklyn-based composer of pop-influenced electro-acoustic art music. His primary musical mentors include Mike Longo, longtime pianist/arranger for Dizzy Gillespie; Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici; and punk guitarist Richard Lloyd of Television.  Brittelle’s work is characterized by the melding of complex thematic ideas, rhythms, and formal structure with the visceral power and surface appeal of pop/rock music.  That duality is represented by Television Landscape, his fully-composed, post-apocalyptic art rock concept album scored for orchestra, rock band, synths, and children’s choir.  Dubbed “irresistible” by The New York Times and “a glorious reclamation of lush sounds crusty critics have vilified for years” by Time Out New York, Television Landscape drew substantial praise from both rock and classical critics, leading the Los Angeles Times to muse, “You might wonder if Jane’s Addiction had discovered the soul of Debussy.” eMusic called the album “expansive, anthemic, all-encompassing, shot through with raw emotion” and named it to its ”Albums of the Year” list. The Awl, Alarm Press (“Album of the Week”), New Jersey Star Ledger, Classical TV, The Big City, the All Music Guide, and taste-maker rock blogs Pop Matters and My Old Kentucky Blog are among the other publications that levied praised on the album. Prior to Television Landscape‘s release, Brittelle received a 2006 emerging composer grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation for the creation of Mohair Time Warp, a full-length art-music concept album featuring live musicians and lip-synched vocals. The collage-based, hyper-stylized album was named “CD of the Week” by WNYC’s Soundcheck and dubbed “completely electrifying” by Time Out New York upon its release by New Amsterdam Records in 2008. Brittelle has been the subject of features in The New York Times (Sunday Arts & Leisure), the Los Angeles Times, Time Out NY, and NPR’s All Things Considered. For more information, visit www.adoveonfire.com.

More about ACME: Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents cutting-edge contemporary literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary. Known for their work with the Wordless Music Series as well as indie music icons such as Grizzly Bear, ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls them “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Stanford Lively Arts in California, and the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Vermont, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Ryan Streber, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more. For more information, visit www.acmemusic.org.

# # #

ACME
American Contemporary Music Ensemble

The Music of William Brittelle & Mick Barr

Album Release Concerts for Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus
World Premiere of New Work for ACME by Metal Guitarist Mick Barr of Orthrelm

Friday, May 11 at 8pm & Saturday, May 12 at 8pm
The Kitchen | 512 W. 19^th St., NYC
Tickets: $12 at 212.255.5793 x11 or www.thekitchen.org

ACME at Look & Listen Festival

Monday, May 14 at 8pm
Pratt Manhattan Gallery | 144 W. 14th St., 2nd Floor, NYC
Tickets: $15 at www.lookandlisten.org

PLUS New Album: ACME performs William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus, to be released by New Amsterdam Records on June 26, 2012. Review copies available upon request.

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” –New York Times

ACME: www.acmemusic.org | William Brittelle: www.adoveonfire.com | New Amsterdam Records: www.newamsterdamrecords.com | Timothy Andres: www.andres.com

New York, NY – ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, announces three New York concerts in May and an album release in June 2012. At 8pm on both Friday, May 11 and Saturday, May 12 the group, called “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands” by Time Out New York, will take the stage at The Kitchen (512 W. 19th St., NYC) for two performances of the music of William Brittelle and Mick Barr. At 8pm on Monday, May 14, ACME performs Timothy Andres’ I Found it by the Sea as part of the 2012 Look & Listen Festival, held at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery (144 W. 14th St., 2nd Floor, NYC).

ACME last performed in New York in March at the innovative Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Concert Hall. That same month, the group performed at Stanford Lively Arts in California and at All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel in Minehead, England. ACME has performed in recent seasons at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and Columbia University's Miller Theatre, among others.

ACME at The Kitchen
ACME’s concerts at The Kitchen bring together two distinct programs of music written for the ensemble – the world premiere of ACMED for string trio commissioned from Mick Barr, known for his relentless speed and agility on guitar and avant-garde compositions; and Loving the Chambered Nautilus, a series of works by electro-acoustic artist William Brittelle with original video by LoVid that merge the classical chamber music tradition with electronic retro-futuristic pop gestures. Barr will also join ACME for a performance of Louis Andriessen’s 1975 milestone, Workers Union. These concerts celebrate the release of Brittelle and ACME’s recording of Loving the Chambered Nautilus by New Amsterdam Records, forthcoming on June 26, 2012. [Review copies available upon request. CDs will be available for purchase at the concerts.]

Mick Barr is an American avant-garde metal guitarist, well known for being one half of the band Orthrelm. His previous projects have included Crom-tech, a duo with drummer Zach Hill. He has also released albums under the names Ocrilim and Octis. Barr has recently been composing for chamber ensemble and in addition to ACME has written for the Kronos Quartet. ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen says, “ACME is thrilled to begin a new collaboration with Mick Barr, whose musical perspective is incredibly unique and respected by many. I've admired his music for years and we are already planning future works together.”

William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus re-imagines chamber music for the 21st century, juxtaposing the energy and sonic language of pop drum and synth programming with classical forms and instrumentation, resulting in propulsive and visceral music. The piece was composed by Brittelle to highlight ACME’s remarkable rhythmic precision and crystalline tone against a backdrop of his programmed electro landscapes. Loving the Chambered Nautilus (at the time entitled Future Shock) debuted in August 2010 at Le Poisson Rouge and has since been featured at the String Theory Festival in Minneapolis and San Francisco’s Switchboard Music Festival.

ACME players for these concerts are Caleb Burhans (violin, banjo, and voice), Clarice Jensen (cello), Eric Lamb (flute), Megan Levin (harp), Ben Russell (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola) and Chris Thompson (percussion).

ACME at Look & Listen Festival 2012
At the 2012 Look & Listen Festival, ACME will perform Timothy Andres’ piano quartet I Found it by the Sea, with the composer at the piano. I Found it by the Sea re-contextualizes elements of Brahms’ chamber music. Andres says, “I found it impossible to write a piano quartet without paying homage in some way to Brahms’s Op. 25 (which I first heard 11 years ago and remains my benchmark for great chamber music). I noticed a similarity between the theme of I Found it in the Woods to the piano theme about 10 bars into the Brahms quartet and mashed the two of them together, creating the theme for, in a sense, my Variations on a Theme by Brahms.”

ACME players for the Look & Listen Festival are Ben Russell (violin), Caleb Burhans (viola), Clarice Jensen (cello), and Timothy Andres (piano). The concert will be hosted by Tracie Morris, Associate Professor, Humanities and Media Studies Department at Pratt Institute and also includes performances by Brooklyn Rider, janus trio, clarinetist/composer Derek Bermel and pianist/composer Michael Brown.

About the Artists

About William Brittelle: William Brittelle is a Brooklyn-based composer of pop-influenced electro-acoustic art music. His primary musical mentors include Mike Longo, longtime pianist/arranger for Dizzy Gillespie, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici, and punk guitarist Richard Lloyd of Television. Brittelle’s work is characterized by the melding of complex thematic ideas, rhythms, and formal structure with the visceral power and surface appeal of pop/rock music. That duality is best represented by Television Landscape, his fully-composed, post-apocalyptic art rock concept album scored for orchestra, rock band, synths, and children’s choir. Dubbed “irresistible” by The New York Times and “a glorious reclamation of lush sounds crusty critics have vilified for years” by Time Out NY, Television Landscape drew substantial praise from both rock and classical critics, leading the Los Angeles Times to muse, “You might wonder if Jane’s Addiction had discovered the soul of Debussy.” Brittelle has been the subject of features in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Time Out NY, and NPR’s All Things Considered. His compositions have been presented across the U.S., including performances in Seattle’s Icebreaker Festival curated by Alex Ross and Kyle Gann, the Festival Internacional in Chihuahua, Mexico, Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge series, New Music New College in Sarasota, Florida, the String Theory Festival in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Switchboard Festival in San Francisco, the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, le Poisson Rouge, Galapagos Art Space, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, The Stone, and the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall. Recent commissions include Obituary Birthday (A requiem for Kurt Cobain) for the Seattle Symphony, Computer Wave for pianist Michael Mizrahi, and a series of pieces for Roomful of Teeth, premiered at Mass MoCA. Brittelle has been the recipient of grants and awards from the American Music Center, American Composers Forum, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and ASCAP. Along with composers Judd Greenstein and Sarah Kirkland Snider, he co-directs New Amsterdam Records and New Amsterdam Presents, a vital Brooklyn-based record label and presenting organization. He is a passionate promoter, presenter, and producer of new and adventurous music in New York City, having overseen the release of more than 30 critically acclaimed recordings.  Brittelle also co-produced and presented more than 50 live music events throughout the U.S. in the last four years.

About Mick Barr: Mick Barr is an American musician, composer and performer currently based in the NYC/NJ area. Notable for his relentless speed and agility on guitar and avant-garde compositions, he has been an active musician for almost twenty years and has released over 40 recordings. He is most known for his work with the technical duos Orthrelm and Crom Tech, the progressive black metal band Krallice, as well as his 2 solo projects Octis and Ocrilim. He has released records with notable labels such as Tzadik, Ipecac, Profound Lore, Hydrahead and Kill Rock Stars. He has also been an active improviser, releasing records and playing alongside greats such as Weasel Walter, John Zorn, Mike Pride, Jon Irabagon, Kevin Shea and Milford Graves among many others. In recent years he has been composing for chamber ensembles and has written pieces for Kronos Quartet, Wet Ink Ensemble and ACME. He was named one of the 50 fastest guitarists of all time by Guitar World magazine in 2008. In 2009 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

About Timothy Andres: Timothy Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. His début album, Shy and Mighty, was released by Nonesuch Records in May 2010 to immediate critical acclaim. Of the disc, which features ten interrelated pieces for two pianos, performed by Timothy (Timo) and co-pianist David Kaplan, Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker that Shy and Mighty “achieves an unhurried grandeur that has rarely been felt in American music since John Adams came on the scene… more mighty than shy, [Andres] sounds like himself.” Current season highlights include a weekend of performances in Los Angeles, including a commission from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and his re-composition of the Mozart “Coronation” Concerto, and chamber works performed by wild Up; performances of his “Crashing Through Fences” by eighth blackbird and Crash Ensemble; and solo recitals at (le) Poisson Rouge and Wigmore Hall.  Upcoming items include a new Nonesuch album of orchestral works performed by Andrew Cyr and the Metropolis Ensemble; a commission from the Gilmore Foundation for Kirill Gerstein; and a new piano quintet for Jonathan Biss and the Elias String Quartet, commissioned by Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Performances and the Concertgebouw.

About ACME: Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. The ensemble presents cutting-edge contemporary literature by living composers alongside the “classics” of the contemporary.  Known for their work with the Wordless Music Series as well as indie music icons such as Grizzly Bear, ACME’s dedication to new music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls them “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, Columbia University's Miller Theatre, Stanford Lively Arts in California, and the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Vermont, among others. ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Ryan Streber, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more.

# # #

American Contemporary
Music Ensemble (ACME)

Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
153 Main Street | Burlington, VT
Tickets: $25 at 802 86-FLYNN or www.flynncenter.org

“vital” “brilliant” “electrifying” –New York Times

ACME: www.acmemusic.org
Phil Kline: www.philkline.com
Theo Bleckmann: www.theobleckmann.com

New York, NY – The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) with Grammy-nominated vocalist Theo Bleckmann will perform The Music of Phil Kline at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (153 Main Street, Burlington VT) on Friday, March 23, 2012 at 8pm. Presented in the intimacy of FlynnSpace, this downtown New York-style “salon” evening is full of new cutting-edge songs and chamber music composed by Phil Kline (“a true original” – New York Times), including selections from Kline favorites The Blue Room and Other Stories (2002), Zippo Songs (2003), Locus Solus (2006), John the Revelator (2007), The Long Winter (2009), and The Season is Over (2005) as well as a preview of two songs from Out Cold, Kline’s new song cycle for Bleckmann and ACME which will premiere in the fall of 2012.

Phil Kline is a unique artist whose work employs music in many mediums and contexts, ranging from experimental electronics, performance art and sound installations to songs, choral, theater and chamber music. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Kline has graduated from ‘experimental’ to ‘original’ – he’s one of America's most important compositional voices.” Singer Theo Bleckmann is known for his distinctive, unmistakable voice. The New York Times reports, “A vocalist of inventive instinct and assiduous musicality, he’s never more secure than when in reverie, plumbing depths at once familiar and strange.”

Time Out New York calls ACME “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and Columbia University's Miller Theatre, among others. ACME musicians for this concert are Caroline Shaw and Ben Russell, violins; Caleb Burhans, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello; and Conor Hanick, piano.

In March, ACME also performs at the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York (March 1), Stanford Lively Arts in California (March 4); and All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel in Minehead, UK (March 9-11). ACME will be back in New York at The Kitchen in May for two performances (May 11-12) of music by William Brittelle and metal guitarist Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Crom-tech), and an appearance at this year’s Look & Listen Festival (May 14).

About Phil Kline: Raised in Akron, Ohio, Phil Kline came to New York to study English Literature and Music History at Columbia College. After graduating, he became part of the vital downtown New York arts scene: he founded the rock band The Del-Byzanteens with Jim Jarmusch and James Nares, collaborated with Nan Goldin on the ever-evolving soundtrack to The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, and for many years played guitar in the notorious Glenn Branca Ensemble. His earliest compositions grew out of his work as a solo performance artist and often used boombox tape players as a medium. Bachmans's Warbler for harmonicas and 12 tape loops was performed at the 1992 Bang on a Can Marathon, and the walking sound sculpture Unsilent Night debuted in Greenwich Village later that year. Unsilent Night is now performed annually in cities around the world.

The widely acclaimed Zippo Songs, a quasi-theatrical song cycle based on poems Vietnam vets inscribed on their Zippo lighters, had its first run at HERE in NYC in 2003. Locus Solus, a suite of songs and chamber works based on the proto-surrealist novel of Raymond Roussel, was first presented at the bizarre Ryerss Mansion Museum in Philadelphia in 2006.

Among his chamber works, Exquisite Corpses was commissioned by the Bang on a Can All-Stars and premiered by them in 1997; The Blue Room and Other Stories was premiered by the string quartet Ethel at the Kitchen in 2002; and The Last Buffalo was commissioned by the trio Real Quiet and premiered at the Music3 Festival in San Diego in 2004.

Recent works include the full-length choral Mass John the Revelator, written for the vocal group Lionheart and Ethel, commissioned by WNYC and premiered at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in 2006; and scores for two evening-length dances by Wally Cardona: Everywhere and Site. The large sound installation World on a String opened the season at the Krannert Center in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, in September 2007. The 2009 season will see the world premieres of SPACE for String Quartet, written for Ethel as part of the Alice Tully Hall reopening festivities, The Long Winter, a sonata commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill, and Really Real, a collaboration with choreographer Wally Cardona, featuring the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Kline’s music has been heard in every imaginable type of venue, from the streets of Greenwich Village, CBGBs and the Knitting Factory, to the Kitchen and BAM, Alice Tully Hall, London’s Barbican Centre and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Major awards include grants from the Rockefeller New York State Music Fund, Meet the Composer, NYSCA, American Composers Forum and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust. Recordings of Unsilent Night, Exquisite Corpses, The Blue Room and Other Stories, Zippo Songs, and John the Revelator are available on the Cantaloupe label.

About Theo Bleckmann: A singer and new music composer of eclectic tastes and prodigious gifts, Grammy-nomiated Theo Bleckmann makes music that is accessibly sophisticated, unsentimentally emotional, and seriously playful. His work provokes the mind to wonder, but connects immediately with the heart.Bleckmann has released a series of gorgeous and irreverent albums on Winter & Winter, including recordings of Las Vegas standards, of Berlin Kabarett, and of popular “bar songs” (all with pianist Fumio Yasuda), a recording of newly-arranged songs by Charles Ives (with the improvisational jazz/funk collective Kneebody), his acoustic Solos for Voice “I dwell in possibility” and his latest project: “Hello Earth - the music of Kate Bush.”

He maintains an ongoing creative relationship with guitar phenomenon Ben Monder, with John Hollenbeck and Gary Versace, he makes up Refuge Trio and with singers Peter Eldridge, Kate McGarry, Lauren Kinhan, and Luciana Souza, he forms Moss, a vocal All-Star collective. Bleckmann has additionally collaborated with musicians and composers, including Laurie Anderson, Uri Caine, Philip Glass, Sheila Jordan, Phil Kline, Michale Lang, Kirk Nurock Michael Tilson Thomas, Julia Wolfe, Kenny Wheeler, John Zorn, the Bang on a Can All-stars, and, most prominently, Meredith Monk, with whom Bleckmann worked as a core ensemble member for fifteen years.

Bleckmann's joyous, mischievous sensibility is also manifest in his compositional work, settings of by Rumi, Emily Dickenson, and Kurt Schwitters as well as building ineffable soundscapes with just his voice and loop pedals, including a recent string quartet for JACK String Quartet, commissioned by the Slought Foundation.

Bleckmann's approach to music and performance have led to recognition in unusual quarters, including a Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross and an article on vocal technique solicited for John Zorn's Arcana series, Volume III. Bleckmann's adventurous and extravagantly beautiful choices have led his work to be described as “from another planet” (New York Times), as “magical, futuristic,” (AllAboutJazz), “limitless” (Citypaper, Philadelphia) “transcendent” (Village Voice) and “brilliant” (New York Magazine), and left one critic wondering, “does he eat people food?” (AllAboutJazz). He has a gift for creating sounds listeners have never heard before, but pine to hear again.

In 2010, Bleckmann received the prestigious JAZZ ECHO award from the Deutsche Phono-Akademie in his native Germany and also appeared on the David Letterman show with Laurie Anderson.

About ACME: Led by artistic director and cellist Clarice Jensen, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of masterworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, primarily the work of American composers. Known for their work with the Wordless Music Series as well as indie music icons such as Grizzly Bear, ACME’s dedication to cutting-edge contemporary music extends across genres, and has earned them a reputation among both classical and rock crowds. Time Out New York calls them “one of New York’s brightest new music indie-bands.” ACME has performed at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Tenri Cultural Institute, the Noguchi Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the Flea Theater, and Columbia University's Miller Theatre, among others.

ACME's instrumentation is flexible, and includes some of New York's most sought-after, engaging musicians. Current core ACME members include violinists Caleb Burhans, Laura Lutzke, Rob Moose, and Ben Russell, violist Nadia Sirota, cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, pianist Timo Andres, and percussionist Chris Thompson.

Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Philip Glass, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Michael Nyman, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Arnold Schoenberg, Ryan Streber, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Chen Yi, and more.

ACME does not subscribe to one stylistic movement or genre; its concerts present all genres of contemporary music in the same light and with the same conviction. Time Out New York reports, “[Artistic Director Clarice] Jensen has earned a sterling reputation for her fresh, inclusive mix of minimalists, maximalists, eclectics and newcomers.” ACME has collaborated with bands and artists including Grizzly Bear (in concert and on their best-selling album, Veckatimest, featuring strings by Nico Muhly); electronica duo Matmos (on The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast, with strings by Jefferson Friedman); Craig Wedren (former frontman of the avant-rock band Shudder To Think); prepared-pianist Hauschka; composers/performers Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, and Dustin O'Halloran, and Micachu & The Shapes.

Other recent highlights include ACME’s Carnegie Hall debut performing the world premiere of Timo Andres’ Senior with the New York Youth Symphony in Stern Auditorium; opening the TriBeCa New Music Festival at the Flea Theater performing works by young American composers Jefferson Friedman, Caleb Burhans, Ryan Streber and Nico Muhly; and a month-long residency at the Whitney Museum presented by the Wordless Music Series, for which ACME tailored a contemporary classical program to complement the indie-rock or electronica performer sharing the concert. In addition to a January tour with chart-topping pianist Simone Dinnerstein, 2010 concert highlights included a performance of Gorecki’s String Quartet No. 2 opening for Polish electroacoustic musician Jacaszek; a concert of music by John Luther Adams and Kevin Volans; and a performance of the music of Louis Andriessen, all at (Le) Poisson Rouge. In spring 2011, ACME performed with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Nico Muhly’s new work Tell the Way in February; at The Kitchen during April’s 21c Liederabend produced in collaboration by Beth Morrison Projects, Opera On Tap, and VisionIntoArt; and as part of the MATA Festival in May.

ACME has an exciting and ambitious season in 2011-2012. The season began in September, with performances presented by the Wordless Music Series in Boston at Jordan Hall and at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, opening two sold-out concerts by American rock singer and guitarist Jeff Mangum with performances of Gavin Bryars’ Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet and music by Erik Satie. In October, ACME performed works by American composers John Luther Adams, Jacob Druckman and Alex Freeman in Columbia, South Carolina at the University of South Carolina. Later that month, ACME appeared at Joe’s Pub in New York, presenting a concert featuring music by 12 American composers selected through the Sequenza21 and the Manhattan New Music Project Call for Scores. In addition to its Flynn Center appearance in March 2012, that month ACME will also perform during the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York, at Stanford Lively Arts, and will travel to England to perform at All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum. In May, they will perform the music of William Brittelle and Mick Barr at The Kitchen in New York.

ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, conductor Donato Cabrera, and publicist Christina Jensen. The ensemble is managed exclusively by Bernstein Artists, Inc. For more information, visit www.acmemusic.org.

# # #