Composing While Black at NYU Skirball

The International Contemporary Ensemble performs work by and with four composer-performers from the renowned experimental music collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Composer-performers from both collectives will work together to create exciting, all-new hybrid compositional-improvisative works. Referred to as a “musical power couple” in The New York Times (2017), the music of composer-pianist Adegoke Steve Colson and composer-vocalist Iqua Colson focuses on many facets of the human experience. Their critically acclaimed performances and recordings illuminate social issues and have featured such innovators as Reggie Workman, David Murray, Andrew Cyrille and Henry Threadgill, as well as master artists of other disciplines. In 2023, ICE premiered Adegoke Colson’s Mirrors, for baritone voice and ensemble. Percussionist-composer Thurman Barker is a recipient of a 2022 NYSCA award for composition and is a Professor Emeritus of Bard College in music and jazz studies. An original member of the AACM, Barker has collaborated closely with other AACM members, including Dr. Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill, as well as Sam Rivers and Cecil Taylor. Barker composes music for ensembles large and small, moving beyond genre to reflect the human experience itself. A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1979, percussionist-composer Reggie Nicholson has twice been nominated for the Alpert Award in the Arts, and his compositions exhibit a keen aware of sound, space, and timbre. He has performed at many venues around the world, and has released recordings for solo percussion, percussion ensemble, percussion with electronics, and chamber forces. The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is internationally renowned for its impact on experimental music. Now in its sixtieth year, with chapters in Chicago and New York, the composite output of AACM members has explored new and influential ideas about timbre, sound, collectivity, extended technique, instrumentation, intermedia, computer music technologies, installations, and kinetic sculptures.