Blueshift Ensemble is collaborating with ICEBERG New Music to present a free concert in the Crosstown Concourse Central Atrium.
ICEBERG New Music is a New York City-based collective of composers who will be spending a week in Memphis working with Blueshift musicians to put on a performance of their compositions. Sponsored in part by Amro Music.
Free (donations accepted)
Program:
String Quartet No. 4 “Aftermath” by Harry Stafylakis
Imogen for flute and piano by Stephanie Ann Boyd
The Impossible Object for violin and piano by Alex Burtzos
String Quartet No. 1 “Earth Tones” by Jonathan Russ
Kill James for bassoon, cello, and piano by Derek Cooper
Founded by composer Alex Burtzos in 2016, ICEBERG new music is a collective of ten young composers based in New York City. The mission of the organization is to promote the idea that substance – not surface – is the heart of music creation and perception. We live in an era where dogma is out of place; composers can, and should, draw from an unprecedentedly broad array of influences in their work – including popular music, avant-garde techniques, and everything in between. The ten ICEBERG composers hail from different schools and cultivate radically different sounds, but their contrasting musical languages belie shared emphasis on structure and depth of meaning. When these artists compose for the same ensemble and present their works during a joint concert, the result is a glimpse into the ever-widening possibilities of art music in the twenty-first century. ICEBERG is committed to radical stylistic inclusiveness, excellence of craft, dialogue with the audience, and a modernization of the concert-going experience.
Blueshift is a Memphis-based contemporary chamber music ensemble dedicated to bringing artists and audiences together through artistic collaboration. By programming both new and existing classical repertoire alongside multi-genre collaborations, Blueshift aims to connect a wider audience to today’s classical music. The ensemble draws upon Memphis’s uniquely diverse musical heritage by combining classical music with popular music genres such as rock, blues, and soul and featuring local musicians, visual artists, and composers.