International Contemporary Ensemble
International Contemporary Ensemble plays Courtney Bryan
Just this year, composer Courtney Bryan won a coveted MacArthur Award, for her musicality, her genius, and her innovative spirit. Her work Fanfare for Moments of Courage will be performed by International Contemporary Ensemble, one of the world’s leading forces for 21st century music. Lead support for this program comes from a generous contribution from Cheswatyr Foundation.
–Fanfare for Moments of Courage (1.5 min) a one-minute solo clarinet piece commissioned by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops as part of The Fanfare Project, was a response to the summer of 2020 and its isolation and unrest, and a small tribute to the courageous ones.
–And What I Mean is This (6 min) (2018) for violin and viola is in conversation with Ashon Crawley’s book The Lonely Letters.
–In The Heart of God (6 min) for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello is inspired by Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet: “On Love”.
–Blooming (6 min) for wind quintet, commissioned by Imani Winds in tribute to the life and legacy of American poet Gwendolyn Brooks, is inspired by the closing lines of Brooks’ “The Second Sermon on the Warpland,” written in 1968 as part of “In the Mecca.”
–Syzygy, a violin concerto (20min) is inspired by Alma Thomas, Frida Kahlo, and Maya Ying Lin. Syzygy refers to the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system.
Georgia Mills, conductor
Alice Teyssier, flute
Emmalie Tello, clarinet
Andrés Ayola, oboe
Alexander Davis, bassoon
Priscilla Rinehart, horn in f
Nathan Davis, percussion
Pala García, violin
Michelle Ross, violin
Josh Modney, violin
Kyle Armbrust, viola
Clare Monfredo, cello
Kebra-Seyoun Charles, bass