ECCE Kicks Off 7th Season with 'EVOLUTIONS' at NYC's DiMenna Center Tonight

ECCE kicks of its 7th season with a concert encompassing works by seven noted contemporary composers at New York City's The DiMenna Center tonight, Thursday, November 20, 2014.

Entitled "Evolutions: Shifting Sonic Landscapes" the program explores how contemporary European influences affect the trajectories of American composers through works by three New York based composers (Elizabeth Hoffman, Jason Eckardt, Reiko Fueting, two New England composers (John Aylward and Martin Boykan), and one Brazilian composer who has made New York his home (Felipe Lara).

Hoffman's piano work, Night Slices, meditates at the intersections of American and European minimalism. Eckardt's politically charged Rendition tackles the issue of military use of torture, while Fueting's light, asleep, is a philosophical treatise on memory, disembodiment and the artists' existential crisis. Aylward's Ephemera transforms French spectral landscapes into a rhythmically charged tour de force for clarinet and cello while Lara's virtuosic Livro dos Sonhos I dances with decidedly Latin rhythm within a European harmonic landscape.

The crown jewel of the evening will be the ensemble commissioned premiere of Martin Boykan's Piano Trio #4. Mr. Boykan, a recent inductee to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, has touched generations of composers with his music. Boykan's premiere will be paired with Duo for Violin and Piano, a work by the late Seymour Shifrin, a close friend and colleague of Mr. Boykan's who has left his own indelible mark on contemporary music.

ECCE Ensemble musicians performing at The DiMenna Institute include BCC Emerging Artist's Fellowship recipient flutist Catherine Gregory; New York based clarinetist Vasko Duvoski; Grammy-Award winning violinist Karen Kim; cellist and ECCE Artistic Director Serafim Smigelskiy; and Ecce's co-Artistic Director and pianist, Wei-Cheih Lin (Biographies of performers attached).

The ensemble will host an hors d'oeuvres and drinks pre-concert reception that will also feature artisan chocolates by Chocolate Dances, a New York City dance company which also has its own line of artisan chocolate truffles.(www.chocolatedances.com)

DETAILS:

ECCE

"Evolutions: Shifting Sonic Landscapes"

November 20, 2014

The DiMenna Center for Classical Music

450 West 37th Street, New York City, NY (between Ninth and Tenth Avenue)

7PM- Pre-Concert Reception Featuring CHOCOLATE DANCES

8PM - Concert

Elizabeth Hoffman: Night Slices

Jason Eckardt: Rendition

Reiko Fueting: light, asleep

Seymour Shifrin: Duo for Violin and Piano

John Aylward: Ephemera

Felipe Lara: Livro dos Sonhos I

Martin Boykan: Piano Trio #4

Tickets: $15/$10 students at door, or online: eccensemble.com.

ABOUT ECCE - Founded in 2008, ECCE (John Aylward, Executive Director; Serafim Smigelskiy, cello; Artistic Director; Wei-Chieh Lin, Co-Artistic Director; Catherine Gregory, flutes; Vasko Dukovski, clarinets; Hassan Anderson, oboe; Doug Balliett, double bass; and Mike Truesdell, percussion) is a group of today's most accomplished performers who are committed to presenting captivating and visionary performances of contemporary music. Through concerts, symposia, and other community-centered events, ECCE shares new forms of engagement in modern music with a diverse international audience.

ECCE has realized personal and refined interpretations of works by composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Philippe Hurel, Lee Hyla, Helmut Lachenmann, Fabien Levy, Hanspeter Kyburz, Louis Karchin and many others. Every year, the ensemble deepens its relationships with prominent composers and brings their work to new audiences.

Additional events this 2014-15 season include a 4-day workshop with guest composers Isabel Mundry and Rafael Cendo December 4 - 7, 2014 at the Goethe-Institut Boston. Mundry and Cendo will give lectures and round table discussions on the state of German / French exchange in contemporary European music. The ensemble's 5th annual Call For Scores Competition Opens for Applications on December 1, 2014. Created to shine a spotlight on emerging international talent, winners receive a world premiere performance of their work in the season closing gala on April 24, 2015 at New York City's DiMenna Center. In February, ECCE embarks on a month -long residency at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts as recipients of the Margret W. & Richard P. Traina Endowment. Also in February, ECCE embarks on a tour of works by Mark Andre, an avante garde German composer not often heard in the states. The French-born composer's music is marked by a deep philosophical consideration of Christianity, its metaphysical insights and the powerful ways it has shaped contemporary European culture. The Mark Andre Portrait concert will be presented at The New England Conservatory in Boston on Monday, February 2, 2015 and at the DiMenna Center, in New York on Friday, February 6, 2015.

Following the end of the 2014-15 season in the United States, ECCE decamps to France for its annual residency at the international Etchings Festival. Held in the medieval hamlet region of Southwestern France, at the Moulin a Nef in the charming and inspiring village of Auvillar, the festival brings together professional and student composers and musicians for an extraordinary international conference, comprising public concerts, master classes led by guest composers, and broad cultural conversations, providing a unique platform for the Ensemble to share the best of contemporary American and international repertoire with European audiences. Auvillar, with its 13th century architecture, renowned agriculture, wines and cheeses, situated on the Garonne River and nearby remnants of medieval structures and a Gallo-Roman village, is designated one of France's "100 Most Beautiful Villages."

In addition to the Etchings Festival, and The Goethe-Institut Boston, ECCE continues to expand its residency and workshop programming, holding events at The La Pietra Forum in Florence, Italy; the NEON Festival; Virginia Commonwealth University; and The University of Campinas at Sao Paulo, Brazil. These opportunities continue to connect ECCE with the most diverse cross-sections of society, sharing with them the profound aesthetic experience of contemporary music, and the joy of its creation. www.eccensemble.com