Dennis Polkow

Having been accurately described in a New York Times feature last week as "equal parts: hungry indie band, efficient corporation and missionary initiative," the International Contemporary Ensemble is heading home to Chicago for ICEFest 2007, a new music marathon set to bring the music of living composers to bars, churches, colleges, art galleries and public spaces from Pilsen to the North Side. This is the fifth year for the festival, which this year takes place from September 22-30 and includes eleven shows at eleven different venues, ten world premieres and fifteen Midwest premieres across Chicago neighborhoods.

It used to be that the same pool of 300 contemporary music cognoscente or so would show up to virtually any "new music" event held in Chicago, but with ICE’s listener-friendly format of concerts lasting no longer than an hour, a talent for combing the accessible and the challenging, its informal remarks about the composers and pieces and its unique marketing strategy of word of mouth street teams and blogs to spread the word—to say nothing of its first-class, virtuosic performances—the group is defying odds and expanding the area audience for new music.

Founded in Chicago by flutist Claire Chase and a group of former music students who attended the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, the air of excitement and discovery that surrounds these concerts has allowed ICE to expand its base from Chicago to New York, of all places, already having the most crowded field of contemporary music performances anywhere, and has the group now eyeing the West Coast as well.

Having begun with a thousand dollar budget back in 2000, the ensemble’s board just approved a quarter-of-a-million-dollar budget for 2007-2008, a growth rate that would be the envy of any corporation but unprecedented in the usually ghettoized and pedantic world of classically trained contemporary music.

A look at some of the playful programming and handful of highlights from this year’s ICEFest, however, offers some insight as to the hows and whys this has happened:

"Cello!" (September 22, 9pm, Velvet Lounge, 67 East Cermak, $10) kicks off the festival with an eclectic evening of jazz, classical, electro-acoutsic and experimental pieces from one to eight cellists featuring ICE cellists Katinka Kleijn (also of the Chicago Symphony), Kivie Cahn-Lipman and friends, and including works by Du Yun, Saariaho, Tavener, Villa-Lobos and Lang, as well as a world premiere by Chicago jazzer Greg Ward. "Music for One, Two and Three Daves" (September 24, 8pm, Elastic Arts Foundation, 2830 North Milwaukee, $5) ICE's three Daves—percussionist David Schotzko, violinist David Bowlin and saxophonist David Reminick—perform music by Lang, Sciarrino, and Wolff as well as a new work for "multiple Daves" by Reminick. "X-L: ICE and Moving Theater" (September 28, 8pm, Renaissance Society, 5811 South Ellis, Free) features members of the New York- and Paris-based Moving Theater for a "staged concert" and collaborative response to the work of Iannis Xenakis and Gyorgy Ligeti, including the U.S. premiere of a rare Ligeti work from the 1970s, "Rondeau" for narrator and tape, featuring ICE tenor Peter Tantsits.

"Toy Piano Roadshow" (September 29, 2pm, Casa Sandia, 1359 West 16th, Free) is a playful program for toy pianos, laptops, video and electronics performed by Phyllis Chen and video artist Rob Dietz and featuring works by Pertout, Wolfe, Morris, Chen and a world premiere by Joseph Molinaro.

"ICE Phleughts" (September 29, 8pm, Thomas Robertello Gallery, 939 West Randolph, Free) features ICE's flute section of Claire Chase and Eric Lamb in a program of virtuoso Chicago premieres for the entire flute family—including piccolos, alto and bass flutes—by Philippe Hurel, Bruno Maderna, Samuel Pluta, Huang Ruo and a world premiere by the Chicago-based Dutch composer Sebastian Huydts.

ICEFest 2007 runs September 22-30 at various venues. Visit iceorg.org for more details.

(2007-09-18)

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