This year brings another exciting lineup of concerts, workshops, and masterclasses featuring world-renowned guest composers, international ensembles, acclaimed soloists, and our own talented Bienen students.
We begin the season by welcoming composer, conductor, and 2023 Nemmers Prize winner Tania León, who will be participating in talks, composition masterclasses, and ensemble rehearsals. Leon’s week-long residency culminates with a concert by the Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), led by Ben Bolter, on October 18.
Later in the fall, the Northwestern Opera Theatre, directed by Joachim Schamberger, will present Viktor Ullman’s now critically acclaimed chamber opera, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, November 16-19. Conductor Alan Pierson and the Contemporary Music Ensemble join the Opera Department for this production.
The winter quarter offers a flurry of contemporary music concerts by student groups—including the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, Saxophone Ensemble, and CME—featuring regional and world premieres by internationally celebrated artists Julius Eastman, Nina Shekhar, Wang Lu, and Clara Iannotta, among others.
In the spring we are thrilled to be joined by London-based composer Cassandra Miller, who will be collaborating with CME. That concert will also feature Girard Grisey’s iconic spectral masterpiece "Partiels" (from Les Espaces Acoustiques). Next, the Institute will be presenting two concerts dedicated to world premieres by student composers, featuring Ensemble Linea from Strasbourg, France, and Alarm Will Sound flautist Erin Lesser.
Finally, the 2023-2024 academic year will conclude with a concert by the Contemporary Music Ensemble, led by Alan Pierson on May 17, 2024, featuring guest composer Steven Takasugi’s over-the-top, theatrical chamber work Sideshow.
In celebration of the artist’s 75th birthday
An experimental vocalist, composer, sound artist, and theatrical collaborator, Joan La Barbara has been powerful force in contemporary music for more than five decades. A pioneer in extended vocal techniques, she taken the human voice in vastly new expressive directions and used her abilities as the foundation of rigorous compositional practice. She has also inspired the work of numerous collaborators including Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Morton Feldman, and John Cage.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Saturday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m.
Joan La Barbara’s Awakenings plus works by Elijah Smith and David Lang
Composition Colloquium
Tuesday, October 25, at 5:00 p.m.
Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m.
Joan La Barbara's In solitude this fear is lived
La Barbara’s visit has been generously sponsored by the Kreeger Wolf Fund, the department of Art Theory and Practice, and the program in Comparative Literary Studies.
See Full NUNC! 5 Schedule
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
Sunday, October 23, at 4:00 p.m.
The ensemble’s annual Evensong concert follows the ritual and structure of the ancient liturgy, woven together with contemporary works reflecting issues of our time.
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
Friday, November 11, at 7:30 p.m.
Andrew Megill leads BCE in a brief, yet marvelously varied, program of works ranging from English composer John Dunstable’s music of the early 15th century to French composer Daniel Lesur’s Cantique des cantiques of the mid-20th century.
Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann's In a Grove (Midwest Premiere)
Thursday-Saturday, November 17-19, at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 20, at 3:00 p.m.
Based on the short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, the opera is set in 1921 in a ghost forest in the Oregon mountains. Seven witnesses—some of them suspects—provide testimony about events that transpired in a mountain grove, where an aspiring botanist goes missing and her new husband, a schoolteacher, appears to have been murdered. Each performance of In a Grove is paired with François Sarhan’s Hands, a set of short musical-theatrical works exploring how hands represent our various roles in society.
Ted Hearne's "Sound from The Bench" - Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
February 3, 2023
A 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Sound from The Bench is a reaction to Jena Osman’s book Corporate Relations that follows the historical trajectory of corporate personhood in the United States, with texts from landmark Supreme Court Cases and ventriloquism textbooks. The work is built around the tension between the human voice and electric guitar, person and machine, asking, “Who is speaking?” With the original band from the 2014 premiere, the composer on hand, and a kaleidoscope of musical styles, Sound from The Bench holds a mirror to politics and the Court.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
February 10, 2023
Dallas Symphony Orchestra principal harpist Emily Levin and Michelle Gott, a regular soloist with orchestras and ensembles throughout the US and Canada, join the Contemporary Music Ensemble for a world premiere by composer Aaron Holloway-Nahum. Also featured on the program are Ted Hearne’s dance-like 2019 work Authority and a world premiere by Bienen composer Quan Wen.
Quan Wen, They Bought Some Kerfuffle and Lost Their Virginity, Etcetera
Aaron Holloway-Nahum, Everything Around Me is Crying to Be Gone (world premiere)
Ted Hearne, Authority
An Evening of Electroacoustic Music
March 6, 2023
New electroacoustic works by Northwestern doctoral students in composition, including surround sound playback and live electronics.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
March 10, 2023
The Contemporary Music Ensemble’s second concert of the winter quarter features Bienen faculty composer and Wet Ink Ensemble co-director Alex Mincek’s Pendulum VII; Charlie Piper’s shimmering Zoetrope; inti figgis-vizueta's richly textured Primavera Crown; and a new work by Gen Tanaka.
Charlie Piper, Zoetrope
Gen Tanaka, Psilotrope (world premiere)
inti figgis-vizueta, Primavera Crown
Alex Mincek, Pendulum VII
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
May 17, 2023
Beth Willer is among the leading commissioners and conductors of new choral music in the US. Having just completed a tour with her ensemble Lorelei at the orchestras of Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Nashville, Willer conducts BCE in selections from Wally Gunn’s The Ascendant, which the composer describes as “a combination of polyphonic patterns and processes, blended with the angularity and clarity of rock music harmonies and forms.” The music is compelling and rhythmic, paired in this program with music of the 17th century: Orlando Di Lasso’s heart-wrenching Lagrime di San Pietro.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
May 18, 2023
The ensemble’s final concert of the academic year features a world premiere composed by—and featuring—guest composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay, praised by Pitchfork for “elevating the diverse sounds of Earth to the heavens.” Also on the program are Andrew Norman’s Try—a musical portrait of creative risk-taking—the world premiere of Andrew Maxbauer’s lontano, and Louis Andriessen's iconic Workers Union.
Andrew Norman, Try
Andrew Maxbauer, untitled (lontano)
Ben Lamar Gay, Lapsus (Onomatopoeic Lives)
Louis Andriessen, Workers Union
CME and the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble performed works of Marcos Balter ('08 DMA), David Lang, and Ayanna Woods at Chicago's Ear Taxi Festival. Northwestern was strongly represented in the Festival programming, with over 100 faculty, students, and alumni among the featured performers and composers.
Cellist and curator Seth Parker Woods visited campus for a recording session with Bienen School students. He had worked with students remotely during the 2020-2021 academic year and two intense days of rehearsals and recordings brought his collaboration with the Institute to a successful end.
GRAMMY Award-winners and Bienen School Alumni Third Coast Percussion performed a concert of student works written for them showcasing their collaboration with the University’s composition program. Five Bienen School composers have explored writing for percussion quartet or percussion duo, with the members of Third Coast functioning as their mentors and collaborators in the process.
The final Contemporary Music Ensemble concert of Winter quarter will bring composer Fernanda Aoki Navarro to campus for a performance of her ensemble piece Glottogony (2018).
Ear Taxi Festival: Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble
October 4, 2021
BCE and CME return to the stage of Chicago’s Ear Taxi Festival, a celebration of new music and a gathering of the city’s most creative composers and ensembles. BCE will sing works about exile and monuments: the Chicago premieres of David Lang’s stateless and Ayanna Woods’ SHIFT. CME performs Marcos Balter's meltDown Upshot.
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble: Evensong
October 31, 2021
BCE’s annual exploration of liturgy through contemporary and early music returns, with works marking the events of the last two years in music of lament and hope by Judith Weir, Ayanna Woods, Herbert Howells, and John Tavener.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
November 19, 2021
The Contemporary Music Ensemble presents the US premiere of Harmoniemusik (full version) by Bienen Institute for New Music Director Hans Thomalla, as well as the premiere of A Sudden Gust of Wind by doctoral composition student Yi-Ting Lu.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
February 4, 2022
Alan Pierson and Ben Bolter, conductors; Andrew Ritchie, graduate assistant conductor; Nathalie Joachim, guest composer and flute
Lisa Atkinson, lament for solo flute, featuring Nathalie Joachim (world premiere)
Olive Haugh, You're Burning for solo flute, featuring Nathalie Joachim (world premiere)
Andrew Hamilton, Music for People Who Like Art
Nathalie Joachim (arr. Samuel Perlman), Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti)
Nathalie Joachim (arr. Samuel Perlman), Madan Bellegarde
Nathalie Joachim (arr. Samuel Perlman), Suite pou dantan
An Evening of Electroacoustic Music
March 3, 2022
The program includes a variety of electronic pieces for up to eight speakers, including Kasia Glowicka’s I Thought It Was a Dream But When I Woke, I Couldn’t Walk, a piece inspired by Afghan women writers’ poems; Olive Haugh’s Remakings, an exploration of the human voice; Yvette Jackson’s Swan, a three-part radio opera that “opens aboard the tall ship Swan transporting Africans along the Middle Passage to the Americas and gradually morphs into a spacecraft in search of freedom”; Ji Youn Kang’s Enfolding Plane III—Punky Pulse Pool; and an eight-channel work by Chris Mercer.
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
March 6, 2022
BCE embraces new composing voices through readings of new works by Bienen student composers in a relaxed, workshop atmosphere. Also, in this “open forum,” BCE sings the long-awaited Midwest premieres of works by Kevin Zhang and Jaco Wong, originally scheduled for NUNC (the Northwestern University New-Music Conference) in 2020. Take a look inside the creating and assembly of new music.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
March 12, 2022
Ben Bolter, conductor; Andrew Ritchie, graduate assistant conductor; Fernanda Aoki Navarro, guest composer
Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Glottogony
Karen Bao, Azure Moon (world premiere)
György Ligeti, Chamber Concerto for 13 Instrumentalists
New Music, Midwest Graduate Music Consortium Concert
April 10, 2022
The Midwest Graduate Music Consortium presents a concert of new music by emerging composers from member schools and beyond, featuring Bienen and local performers.
Gregory Rowland Evans, Nagual
Chun-Wai Wong, A Call in the Wilds
Joey Tan, Sweets
Luis Fernando Amaya, Bestiario: Dos
Yi-Ting Lu, Timelessness I
Justin Weiss, of fragile reflections
Baldwin Giang, Fidelio Descending
Contemporary Music Ensemble
April 23, 2022
Wan Heo, Vanishing Light (world premiere)
Caleb Burhans, oh ye of little faith (do you know where your children are?)
Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Aequilibria
David Lang, forced march
Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and Choirs
April 30, 2022
Donald Nally, conductor
The Last Message Received is inspired by the blog of the same name. In 2014, 16-year-old Emily Trunko created a space for people to anonymously share their final communications with loved ones. Thousands of posts later, composer Christopher Cerrone and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann collaborate to create a sometimes dramatic, sometimes intimate, and sometimes joyous tapestry of these plaintive communications. This commissioned world premiere is answered with one of the great Requiems of the 20th century, that of Maurice Duruflé, in his version for full orchestra.
Christopher Cerrone, The Last Message Received
Maurice Duruflé, Requiem, Op. 9
Preconcert conversation with Christopher Cerrone and Donald Nally at 6:30 p.m. in the McClintock Choral and Recital Room.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
May 20, 2022
Alan Pierson and Andrew Ritchie, conductors
Salvatore Sciarrino, Le voci sottovetro
Konstantinos Baras, Trauma (world premiere)
Julius Eastman, Stay On It
A message from the Director, Hans Thomalla
Like every other academic institution, Northwestern University and the Institute for New Music have without a doubt been strongly impacted by the global pandemic. Concerts and other events had to be canceled and many of our usual activities are now online. Nevertheless, the Institute continues to present New Music activities for students and the Northwestern community, as contemporary artistic voices seem more important than ever in our world.
The Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME), led by Alan Pierson and Ben Bolter, are working on contemporary works that can be rehearsed and performed online: John Luther Adams’ breathtakingly beautiful “Ten Thousand Birds” and Bienen School alumnus Marcos Balter’s “Meltdown Upshot”. A second production period will feature Jessie Cox “Existence Lies In Between” and Inti Figgis-Vizueta’s “Primavera Crown.”
Seth Parker Woods, one of the leading contemporary music cellists of our time, is a featured guest artist at the Institute in 2020-21. As part of his collaboration with the Bienen School, he will give a presentation on contemporary repertoire and technique, provide insights into his performance praxis, and discuss current repertoire. Furthermore, he will perform several new compositions for solo cello written by Bienen composition students for him during the year.
The Spektral Quartet, Chicago’s preeminent chamber group for contemporary music and a long-time partner of the Institute for New Music, will return later in the academic year for a collaboration with Bienen School students. The quartet will coach instrumentalists from the Contemporary Music Ensemble in contemporary performance techniques, and perform new works written for them by Bienen School students.
Chicago-based new music pianist Mabel Kwan, whose concert of student works had to be canceled in spring, will return to campus and perform seven new works written for her.
Jennifer Higdon, 2018 Nemmers Prize Winner in Music Composition, will return virtually to campus for a master class with composition students. We look forward to seeing her return in person later in the academic year for performances of her works and further engagements with students in music performance and music composition.
Contemporary Music Ensemble: Works by Timo Andres, Missy Mazzoli and Felipe Lara
Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
Galvin Recital Hall
Bienen Contemporary/Earl Vocal Ensemble Evensong
Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019, 5 p.m.
Alice Millar Chapel
“Dog Days” opera (Chicago Premiere)
Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 21-23, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 24, 3 p.m.
Ryan Opera Theater
The production, which marks the first collaboration between the Bienen School’s opera program and Institute for New Music, will be directed by Joachim Schamberger and conducted by Alan Pierson, conductor of the “Dog Days” world premiere in 2012. Composer David T. Little will be in residence at the Institute for New Music November 19-22 leading up to the Chicago premiere of his work.
Contemporary Music Ensemble presents Hans Abrahamsen’s “Schnee”
Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall
New Music Showcase
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
Galvin Recital Hall
HPSCHD@50: A Colloquium of the Northwestern University Music Library
Friday, February 28, 2020
Deering Library
To mark the 50th anniversary of John Cage's landmark happening HPSCHD, the Northwestern University Music Library presents HPSCHD@50, a day-long colloquium of speakers and panel discussions for Cage scholars.
An Evening of Electroacoustic Music
Tuesday, March 3, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
The composition and music technology program presents a concert showcasing new electroacoustic music.
Oscar Bettison Residency
Wednesday-Friday, March 4-6, 2020
British-American composer Oscar Bettison will attend rehearsals with the Contemporary Music Ensemble, led a composition masterclass, and present a colloquium during his March residency. CME will present a concert on Friday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ryan Opera Theater.
Ensemble Dal Niente Residency
Monday-Wednesday, March 9-11, 2020
The Chicago-based contemporary classical music ensemble will coach the Contemporary Music Ensemble and work with composition students before presenting a concert of student works Wednesday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m. in Galvin Recital Hall.
NUNC! 4 – Conference/Festival
April 24-26, 2020
One of the leading conferences for new music in the world, NUNC! brings together composers, performing musicians, scholars and other new music advocates for a weekend of workshops, panel discussions and concerts. NUNC! 4 participating artists include the internationally acclaimed Arditti Quartet, Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Bienen School alumna Jennifer Walshe, a leading voice of the aesthetic field merging music composition and performance art.
This event was canceled due to COVID-19
Jennifer Higdon Residency
Monday-Thursday, April 27-30, 2020
Jennifer Higdon returns to campus for her second residency as winner of the Bienen School’s 2018 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. The Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra will perform a series of Higdon concertos featuring faculty soloists on Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.
This event was canceled due to COVID-19
Contemporary Music Ensemble
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Works by Burhans and Zivkovic
This event was canceled due to COVID-19
Mabel Kwan Residency
Friday-Sunday, May 15-17, 2020
Mabel Kwan, Chicago based pianist and member of Ensemble Dal Niente, will visit campus to work with composition students.
This event was canceled due to COVID-19
October 15-20, 2018
During her October residency, Higdon coached Bienen School ensembles and chamber groups, conducted lessons and seminars with composition students, participated in an interdisciplinary panel discussion on the arts and attended performances by Bienen ensembles.
Panel Discussion: LGBTQ+ in the Arts
October 16, 2018
Discussion topics included the relationship of identity to creative output, inclusivity and discrimination within the arts, the role of the LGBTQ+ community in making progress toward equality and the role of arts presenters in representing LGBTQ+ artists and art.
CME Concert featuring music of Jennifer Higdon
October 18, 2018
Jennifer Higdon, selections from Short Stories for saxophone quartet: "Stomp and Dance," "Summer's Eve," and "Splashing the Canvas"
Jennifer Higdon, Like Clockwork for percussion ensemble
George Lewis, Anthem
Pierre Boulez, Dérive 2
SWE Concert featuring music of Jennifer Higdon
October 19, 2018
Steven Bryant, Radiant Joy
Jennifer Higdon, Mysterium
Jennifer Higdon, Percussion Concerto
Adam Schoenberg, Migration (Symphony No. 2)
NUSO Concert featuring music of Jennifer Higdon
October 20, 2018
Jennifer Higdon, Peachtree Street
Leonard Bernstein, Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major (“Eroica”)
Jennifer Higdon, winner of the 2018 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, reflects on her first Bienen School residency.
University Chorale + Contemporary Music Ensemble: Pre-Election Concert
November 4, 2018
Johannes Brahms, Nänie
Benjamin C. S. Boyle, Empire of Crystal
Michael Gilbertson, Console Us
Giacomo Carissimi, Historia Jonae
Michael Laurello, Envelope Writings
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble: Pre-Election Concert
November 5, 2018
Nicholas Cline, Water Sheds
Lansing McLoskey, Zealot Canticles
William Brooks, in memoriam reducere studemus
Contemporary Music Ensemble
November 29, 2018
Salvatore Sciarrino, Introduzione all’oscuro
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Kontra-Punkte
Hunter Chang, From the Shadows
Marcos Balter, meltDown Upshot
Kate Soper Residency
February 7-9, 2019
Kate led a composition masterclass, participated in a colloquium with composition students, and coached the Contemporary Music Ensemble in a performance of her work The Ultimate Poem Is Abstract. The residency culminated with a CME concert on February 9.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
February 9, 2019
Matt Marks, A Song for Wade
Kate Soper, The Ultimate Poem Is Abstract
John Adams, Chamber Symphony
Ben Zucker, new work
New Music Performance Showcase
February 18, 2019
Craig Davis Pinson, No Fat Pig
Michael Fiday, Jim and John
Ben Zucker, Pilot Mine
Nico Muhly, Drones & Viola
Kevin Puts, Arches
Liza Sobel, Skin
Tim Ferchen, Mallet Quartet
Missy Mazzoli, This World Within Me Is Too Small
Ruud Roelofsen, Nebulae
Contemporary Music Ensemble
March 8, 2019
Works by Charles Wuorinen, Mark Andre, Jay Alan Yim and Michael Gordon
Zafa Collective Residency
March 12-14, 2019
Performance of student works; round table discussion for performance students about careers in new music
Concert March 14, 2019
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble: New Works from Northwestern
March 15, 2019
Enjoy an evening of exploration as the ensemble workshops four new choral pieces by Bienen School student composers, concluding with a brief final performance.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
April 25, 2019
Works by Rebecca Saunders, Zoe Morfas and Tyondai Braxton, and a US premiere by Philippe Hurel
David T. Little and Judd Greenstein Residency
April 24-27, 2019
The composers will coach the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, University Chorale, and Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra in preparation for the Midwest premieres of their two works with origins in Brooklyn.
Concert April 27, 2019
Mivos Quartet Residency
April 29-May 2, 2019
Mivos Quartet – Olivia De Prato and Lauren Cauley, violin; Victor Lowrie Tafoya, viola; and Tyler J. Borden, cello – will coach Bienen School composition and strings students and present a concert of new works.
Concert May 2, 2019
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and University Chorale
May 15, 2019
The movements of Kile Smith’s The Waking Sun, an exploration of Seneca’s stoic view of the world, anchor this thought-provoking collaboration between University Chorale and the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble. Interspersed with early music of Bach, Tompkins, and Marenzio, this journey is one of waiting, longing, and hope. The program also features the second performance to date of Ted Hearne’s Fervor.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
May 24, 2019
Works by Aphex Twin, Philip Glass, George Papajohn and Giacinto Scelsi
Current Voices in Composition: Lecture Series
Sky MacKlay, October 11
Jennifer Higdon, October 18
Marcos Balter, November 29
Kate Soper, February 7
Tonya Ko, February 21
Zafa Collective, March 14
Josh Modney, April 11
Thesis Machado, April 25
Contemporary Music Ensemble
October 20, 2017
Jeremy Podgursky, Gonna Get Your Soul Start Dancing
Nico Muhly, By All Means
Tristan Arostegui, The Kedziad
Tristan Murail, Désintégrations
November 15-16, 2017
As part of his residency week, Reich attended rehearsals and classes with students and faculty. On Wednesday night the school's Percussion Ensemble performed a selection of his works, followed by a concert on Thursday night with performances by the Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble.
Percussion Ensemble
November 15, 2018
Steve Reich, Music for Pieces of Wood
Steve Reich, Nagoya Marimbas
Steve Reich, Mallet Quartet
Steve Reich, Sextet
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, Contemporary Music Ensemble and Saxophone Ensemble
November 16, 2017
Steve Reich, Radio Rewrite
Steve Reich, Pulse
Steve Reich, New York Counterpoint
Steve Reich, Tehillim
Contemporary Music Ensemble
February 9, 2018
Amy Beth Kirsten, Drink Me
Anthony Cheung, SynchroniCities
Harrison Birtwistle, Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum
Tyler Kramlich, world premiere
Ensemble Dal Niente
March 6, 2018
The acclaimed new music ensemble returned to the Bienen School to work with both music performance and composition students. The residency concluded with a performance of eight new works by current composition students written for the groups.
CME and BCE
March 9, 2018
Shawn Jaeger, Letters Made with Gold
Sofia Gubaidulina, Jetzt immer Schnee
Sam Scranton, world premiere
The Crossing and BCE
March 16, 2018
Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble The Crossing shared their passion for contemporary choral music in a weeklong residency that included a seminar with conducting students, open rehearsals, and a collaboration in concert with the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, featuring Michael Gordon's Anonymous Man.
Grammy-winning choral ensemble The Crossing joins the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble in performance.
NUNC! 3: Northwestern University New Music Conference 3
April 20–22, 2018
Featuring dozens of performances of new works along with presentations, master classes, and discussions, the event drew composers, performers, musicologists, theorists, and other participants from across the country and beyond to engage with new works and new discourse on questions of contemporary composition, performance praxis, music aesthetics, and other topics.
Learn more about NUNC! 3
Current Voices in Composition: Lecture Series
Eva Zöllner - October 12, 2017
Wang Lu - January 11, 2018
Christian Wolff - January 18, 2018
Lucy Dhegrae - February 8, 2018
Shawn Jaeger - March 8, 2018
Michael Gordon - March 15, 2018
Ear Taxi Festival: Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble
October 6, 2016 (Harris Theater, Chicago)
Hans Thomalla, Wonderblock (Chicago Premiere)
Ted Hearne, Consent (Chicago Premiere)
Contemporary Music Ensemble
October 22, 2016
Hans Thomalla, Wonderblock
Marcos Balter, Growth
Kaija Saariaho, Io
Hunter Hanson, new work
Spektral Quartet with Winston Choi, piano
November 9, 2016
Samuel Adams - Quartet Movement
George Lewis - String Quartet 1.5: Experiments in Living
Mikel Kuehn - String Quartet No. 1 "If on a winter's night..."
Tomeka Reid - Prospective Dwellers
Contemporary Music Ensemble: Andrew Norman
November 19, 2016
Andrew Norman, Try
Alex Mincek, Chamber Concerto
Helmut Lachenmann, Mouvement
The Contemporary Music Ensemble performs Alex Mincek’s Chamber Concerto, conducted by CME co-director Ben Bolter.
MusicNOW: Steve Reich's 80th Birthday Celebration
November 21, 2016 (Harris Theater, Chicago)
Reich Different Trains
Reich Proverb
Reich Double Sextet
The CSO’s MusicNOW series paid tribute to Steve Reich's unrivaled musical contribution with a diverse program of works that highlighted the breadth and invention of his existing work. Students from the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble performed Proverb.
February 7-9, 2017
Steve Reich, winner of Northwestern University’s Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, attended music rehearsals, discussions with students and faculty, and a performance of his work when he visited the Bienen School of Music for his first Nemmers Prize Residency
Steve Reich in Conversation
February 7, 2017
Joining Steve Reich in discussion was Alan Pierson, lecturer of conducting and co-director, Contemporary Music Ensemble; and Hans Thomalla, associate professor of composition and Director of the Institute for New Music.
Contemporary Music Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble: The Music of Steve Reich
February 9, 2017
Steve Reich, City Life
Steve Reich, Clapping Music
Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians
Steve Reich, winner of the 2016 Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition, discusses his first Bienen School residency with conductor Alan Pierson.
Contemporary Music Ensemble: Tony Arnold
March 2, 2017
Renowned new music vocalist Tony Arnold coached vocal students, worked with student composers, and performed works by Georges Aperghis with the Bienen School’s Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Student New Music Showcase
March 14, 2017
The Institute for New Music presented its annual new music showcase, giving Bienen School performance majors an opportunity to present contemporary solo and chamber works in a concert setting. The diverse program featured Bienen students performing the music of Murail, Sciarrino, Messiaen, Mazzoli, Fuentes, Thomalla, Larsen and more.
Eighth Blackbird Lecture/Demonstration
April 6, 2017
The Chicago-based, four-time Grammy-winning ensemble performed and spoke about their music.
Spektral Quartet
April 9, 2017
The quartet offered a performance of new works by Bienen School student composers Jose Arellano, Nicholas Cline, Sam Scranton, Luis Fernando Amaya Muoz, Ethan David Boxley, Liza Sobel, Craig Davis Pinson, and Austin Joseph Busch.
Claire Chase
April 13, 2017
Flutist and new music entrepreneur Claire Chase was on campus for her third year as an artist in residence at the Institute for New Music. Chase coached student ensembles and composers, jointly taught a course with Hans Thomalla, and performed the newest installment of her Density 2036 project.
Bienen School visiting artist Chase Chase performs an excerpt from a work in progress by Northwestern alumnus Marcos Balter.
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble
April 22, 2017
The two ensembles collaborated in the second of a series of concerts commemorating the late composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. In his 2010 Song/Play/Company, simplicity emerges out of seeming chaos as the English Renaissance composer John Dowland’s “Flow, My Tears” slowly comes into focus. In the masterful Ad Cor (To the Heart)—Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s last major work, written for conductor Donald Nally—individual movements address the wounded heart, the joyful heart, and the mocking heart before the three perspectives come together in the organic finale.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
May 5, 2017
Joon Park, new work
Tyler Kramlich, new work
Frank Zappa, Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat
Edgard Varèse, Intégrales
Fonema Consort
May 17, 2017
The group’s program featureed works composed by Bienen School students.
Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and Contemporary Music Ensemble
May 26, 2017
Taimur Sullivan, saxophone
Augusta Read Thomas, Hemke Concerto: Prisms of Light for saxophone and orchestra
Edgard Varèse, Amériques
Frank Zappa, Pedro’s Dowry: yes, that’s right
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
May 26, 2017
Music by Kevin Puts and Arvo Pärt as well as John Tavener’s prayerful Svyati for cello and choir.
Contemporary Music Ensemble and Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra: Zappa and Varèse
May 28, 2017 (Millennium Park, Jay Pritzker Pavilion)
The Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and Contemporary Music Ensemble celebrated the spirit of experimentation that united these two composers with a program featuring Zappa as a “virtual emcee” in recordings discussing his Varèse experiences. The Northwestern University Percussion Ensemble was featured in Varèse’s Ionisation.
Frank Zappa, Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat and Pedro’s Dowry: yes, that’s right
Edgard Varèse, Ionisation, Intégrales, and Amériques
Current Voices in Composition: Lecture Series
Andrew Norman, Friday, November 18
Enno Poppe, Thursday, December 1
Stacy Garrop, Tuesday, January 10
Sam Pluta, Tuesday, February 14
Seung-Won Oh, Tuesday, February 21
Alex Mincek, Tuesday, March 28
Joshua Fineberg, Tuesday, April 4
Sila: The Breath of the World (Midwest premiere)
September 25-26, 2015
Shimmering harmonic clouds hover and gently transform in John Luther Adams’s Sila (2014) for 80 musicians, performed by members of the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. Presented on the Arts Green with Lake Michigan, the Ryan Center for the Musical Arts, and the Chicago skyline as backdrop, Sila explores the composer’s deep concern with the interactions between humans and the environment. In this mystical work, inspired by natural harmonic overtones, performers move to the rhythm of their own long, beautiful exhalations.
80 Bienen School musicians performed John Luther Adams's "Sila: The Breath of the World" on the Arts Green.
Mark Barden, composition colloquium
October 20, 2015
This event was part of Sexing Sound: Gender Sound Music, a three-day event presented through a partnership between Experimental Sound Studio, the Goethe-Institut, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago.
NUNC! 2: Northwestern University New Music Conference 2
November 6-8, 2015
The Institute for New Music’s second conference and festival for composers, performers, theorists, and musicologists specializing in new music took place in November 2015. Guest artists included Ensemble Dal Niente, Third Coast Percussion, and composers Ted Hearne, Donnacha Dennehy, Kate Soper, Ann Cleare, and Rick Burkhardt. Bienen School faculty participants included composer Hans Thomalla, saxophonist Taimur Sullivan, director of choral organizations Donald Nally, musicologist Ryan Dohoney, and composer Jay Alan Yim.
Learn more about NUNC! 2
Claire Chase: Density 2036 - Part III
November 10, 2015
Flutist Claire Chase returns for a week-long residency November 9-15 and concert.
Ursula Oppens with Jerome Lowenthal
November 14, 2015
The four-time Grammy nominee performs music of Frederic Rzewski and Elliott Carter.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
December 4, 2015
Anton Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra and Steve Reich’s City Life
CME performs works by Webern, Burhans, and Reich in this December 2015 concert.
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble: Sound in Architecture
January 10, 2016
Guillaume Dufay’s Nuper rosarum flores (Recently garlands… adorned this temple) and Morton Feldman’s 1971 Rothko Chapel.
Third Coast Percussion
January 12, 2016
The Chicago-based percussion group prepares, rehearses, and records percussion pieces with students, in addition to coaching them on writing for percussion.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
February 4, 2016
Matthew Peterson, guest composer
Alex Mincek, Poco a poco
Luis Fernando Amaya en mi caminar en el desierto (world premiere)
Matthew Peterson Tumult and Flood (world premiere)
Julia Wolfe Tell Me Everything
Symphonic Wind Ensemble
February 5, 2016
Premiere of Joel Puckett commissioned work Ship of Theseus
Northwestern University Composer/Performer Project: An Evening of World Premieres
Claire Chase and Ben Bolter
February 16, 2016
Music by Hunter Hanson, Liza Sobel, Riona Ryan, Nick Cline, Austin Busch, Luis Fernando Amaya and Wilson Tanner Smith
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble
February 20, 2016
Hearne and Ratniece on the National Stage
Contemporary Music Ensemble: Georg Friedrich Haas’ In Vain
March 10, 2016
Program includes a performance of Georg Friedrich Haas’ seminal work with members of Ensemble Dal Niente and Witold Lutoslawski's Chain 1, conducted by Vincent Povázsay.
Please join us for a free presentation and talk prior to this concert at 6:30pm at the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Drive. The program will begin with a performance by international cello improviser Deborah Walker, followed by a discussion from Block Museum curator Corinne Granof of Moorman’s Bomb Cello (c.1965), an instrument fashioned from military practice bomb.
Claire Chase and Guests
April 16, 2016
Bienen School visiting artist Claire Chase was joined by three Bienen School graduate student soloists, along with 100 flute “migranti” – migrating flutists who moved throughout the recital hall – to present the Chicago premiere of Salvatore Sciarrino's monumental Il cerchio tagliato dei suoni (Cutting the Circle of Sounds). Flutists from the People's Music School and Merit School of Music, members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, and additional Chicago-area flutists made up the migrating ensemble.
Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble and Contemporary Music Ensemble
Premiere of David Lang commissioned work
April 17, 2016
Two Bienen School ensembles come together for an all-Lang program featuring a new composition by the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner: a half-hour unaccompanied work, conducted by Donald Nally, commissioned by the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble to celebrate the opening of the new Ryan Center for the Musical Arts. The program also includes Lang’s beautiful setting of text from the Book of Ruth, where you go, as well as the chamber orchestral works Increase and Forced March, conducted by Alan Pierson.
Ensemble Linea
April 17-21, 2016
The French ensemble was in residence at the Institute for New Music at the Bienen School, working with composition students, coaching performance students in contemporary music, and playing two concerts.
- Concert 1: April 18, 2016
Raphaël Cendo, Rokh I
Aurélien Dumont, fiocchi di silenzio
Yair Klartag, new work for Ensemble Linea
Marco Momi, Iconica
Pascal Dusapin, Indeed for trombone
Frédéric Durieux, etudes en alternance 1, 2, and 3 (first performance of No. 3) - Concert 2: April 21
In the second of its Institute for New Music visiting-artist concerts, the ensemble performed music by Bienen School composition students.
Third Coast Percussion
May 7, 2016
The Chicago-based percussion group prepares, rehearses, and records percussion pieces with students, in addition to coaching them on writing for percussion.
Contemporary Music Ensemble
May 20, 2016
Timo Andres, Checkered Shade
Nicholas Cline, water-witching (world premiere)
Louis Andriessen, Workers Union
Simon Steen-Andersen, Chambered Music
Student New Music Showcase
May 26, 2016
Student Composers' Concert
May 31, 2016
An evening of original student compositions.
