MUSIC

International Contemporary Ensemble: Composing While Black, Vol. One

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2023
7:30 PM

Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan

$34
TICKETS + INFORMATION

Among other things, world premieres by Courtney Bryan and Adegoke Steve Colson. Bryan (one feels compelled to note she’s in the current class of MacArthur recipients) is just great: someone who realized she didn’t have to keep jazz and church and R&B and classical separate but could write them all as one music. Colson is an AACM stalwart, putting him in the forefront of American music. You can’t help but see the fingerprints of George Lewis, the International Contemporary Ensemble’s brilliant Artistic Director, all over this program: Bryan was his student (and was in fact inspired by something he once said in class to write this new piece); and he’s not only a colleague of Colson’s in AACM, but he wrote the definitive book on it.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: As you may recall, the revivified Old John’s Luncheonette is right across the street.