WORLD PREMIERES & RECENT WORKS

The International Contemporary Ensemble & Chelsea Factory Present

International Contemporary Ensemble: World Premieres & Recent Works

Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 7:30PM

$10

90 minutes, including a short pause

To participate in Bonita Oliver’s “FOR NAMESAKE,” add your last name here.

The International Contemporary Ensemble presents world premieres by Bonita Oliver and Sylvain Souklaye, both commissioned artists in the Ensemble’s “Call for ____” program.

Program:
Bonita Oliver: FOR NAMESAKE (2024, World Premiere, commissioned by ICE)

Sylvain Souklaye: What is left inside? (2024, World Premiere, commissioned by ICE)

Fay Victor: BassoonIIBassoon (2021)

Cathy Berberian: Stripsody (1966)

Nathan Davis & Clara Warnaar: Estuary (2024, World Premiere) 

Featuring:
Fay Victor | Voice

Alice Teyssier | Voice/Flute

Eric Umble | Clarinet

Rebekah Heller | Bassoon

Varun Rangaswamy | Bassoon

Nathan Davis | Percussion

Clara Warnaar | Percussion

Sylvain Souklaye | Performer

Nicholas Houfek | Lighting Designer

Composers | Bonita Oliver, Sylvain Souklaye, Fay Victor, Cathy Berberian, Nathan Davis & Clara Warnaar

Last names are the focus of Bonita Oliver’s FOR NAMESAKE - how migration has impacted last names and the people who hold them, the power those names have represented, the impact on shaping communities and the subsequent impact on the earth. This work is an invitation to look into one’s own last name journey with curiosity and intention.

Sylvain Souklaye’s What is left inside? focuses on the origin of language and the discovery of phrases—creating a sociological experience for the audience.

Other featured works include a new percussion duo created by Nathan Davis and Clara Warnaar, a bassoon duo by Fay Victor performed by Varun Rangaswamy and Rebekah Heller. Alice Teyssier and Fay Victor will also perform a duo version of Cathy Berberian's Stripsody.

About the International Contemporary Ensemble:
Now in its third decade, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a multidisciplinary collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators committed to building and innovating collaborative environments in order to inspire audiences to reimagine how they experience contemporary music and sound. The Ensemble creates a mosaic musical ecosystem as “America’s foremost new-music group” (The New Yorker), honoring the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, recording, and performing the works of living artists in “a mission worth following” (I Care If You Listen).

About Bonita Oliver:
Bonita Oliver is a Harlem based multidisciplinary artist and improvisor whose work is about transitions and transformation. She creates body in space concept art through visuals, voice, music and environmental soundscapes. Bonita is a 2023/24 Opera America IDEA Opera Grantee and 2023/2024 MOME NYC Women's Fund Awardee for the development of AR:Arias: Sojourner Truth. Bonita is grateful to be supported by ICE in creating this invitation for collective reflection, FOR NAMESAKE.

About Sylvain Souklaye:
Sylvain Souklaye is a French Caribbean Brooklyn-based live artist, sonic maker and author. He started his artistic journey focusing on DIY social justice, or vandalism as he called it, and defined it as the necessary destruction for justice and self-designation. This inner quest took other forms with his writings and his obsession with noise and its sonic linguistics. Those raw words and intense sounds created the conditions for his live experiences. Interiority is at the center of Souklaye's body of work; collective intimacy and epigenetic dialogues are the inner spaces where he invites the audience (in)to. sylvainsouklaye.com

Health and Safety Protocols
Chelsea Factory will be implementing the following procedures to help ensure the health and safety of our patrons, staff, and artists:

• We practice contactless ticketing and will be checking patrons in by name (no need to show printed or digital tickets).

• Masks are optional.

• While Chelsea Factory strongly recommends vaccination against COVID-19, proof of vaccination is not currently required for audience entrance to performances and public programs.

Click here for our full Health and Safety Protocols.