International Contemporary Ensemble Reveals 2025–2026 Season

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) has announced its 2025–2026 season, marking its 23rd year as a trailblazer in experimental and contemporary music. This season will feature world premieres and interdisciplinary performances at major institutions including The Met and MoMA, the return of the Call for ____ Commission Program, international concerts at Vienna’s Wien Modern, and residencies with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Artistic Director George Lewis said, “With our Ensemble, artists and audience embark on a collaborative adventure to produce new ways of seeing and knowing the world. We do so in full pursuit of our fundamental mission—the practice of freedom, a message that is needed now more than ever.”

The season launches August 22 at the TIME:SPANS Festival with U.S. premieres by Marcos Balter and Corie Rose Soumah. On October 5, ICE will perform live interpretations of graphic scores by Jennie C. Jones at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, activating her Roof Garden installation. In November, ICE and Ensemble Either/Or will premiere Stephen Prina’s A Lick and a Promise at MoMA as part of the artist’s major retrospective.

Additional highlights include “Composing While Black” concerts in Vienna (November), Chicago (January), and Oberlin (April), and a Composer Portrait of Hannah Kendall at Miller Theatre on April 23. The March 12 concert at Roulette will debut works by Lester St. Louis and Camila Agosto through the Call for ____ Commission Program, alongside Paul Novak’s seven dreams about my body.