Ann Cleare & Alex Mincek in ICE's "Animal Behaviors"

by Ted Gordon on June 5, 2017, 5:07 p.m.

(Ryan Muncy, saxophonist)

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) consists of some of the best instrumentalists in contemporary music, who regularly champion ensemble works by some of the most fascinating composers of our time. In a free "pop-up" concert at Columbia's Miller Theatre on June 6th, members of ICE will split off to perform solo and duo works that dig into the sonic profiles of individual instruments and players, in a program titled "ICE: Animal Behaviors". 

ICE saxophonist Ryan Muncy will perform Ann Cleare's luna (the eye that opens the other eye) for alto saxophone, as well as Alex Mincek's Pendulum III, for alto saxophone and piano, alongside pianist Jacob Greenberg. In Cleare's luna, the composer writes that "the saxophone should be thought of as a dragonfly with eyes so big they cover almost its entire head, giving it a helmeted appeaance and a full 360-degree field of vision." Check out a recording below. 

ICE and Cleare will return to the Miller Theatre in 2018 with a Composer Portrait concert, featuring a newly-commissioned work, two world premieres, and performances of the square of yellow light that is your window and dorchadas. 

Mincek's Pendulum IIIis an early entry in the composer's Pendulum series, in which musical material oscillates between two poles, accellerating, decelerating, reaching tipping points, and repeating. Check out a 2015 recording by Michael Ibrahim and Ron Stabinsky below. 

Ann Cleare's "eyam v (woven)" Premieres at RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra

by Ted Gordon on Feb. 14, 2017, 12:29 p.m.

Since 2009, Ann Cleare has been composing new works for contrabass wind instruments in a series of works entitled eyam. As Cleare writes, her eyam works involve "building sonic structures and language from the visual and acoustic architectures of these large instruments, animating the peculiarity of their rich spectrums and orchestrating such qualities into vibrant sonic sculptures through a variety of acoustic, orchestral, and electronic set ups." 

On February 14th, the fifth of these works—eyam v (woven)—premeires at the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, performed with soloists Richard Craig (contrabass flute) and Carol McGonnell (contrabass clarinet). Cleare recently spoke about her eyam series, named after the so-called "plague town" of Eyam in Derbyshire, with the Contemporary Music Centre in Ireland: 

Fidelio Trio Premieres Ann Cleare's "93 Million Miles"

by Ted Gordon on Dec. 13, 2016, 11:30 a.m.

The fourth annual Fidelio Winter Chamber Music Festival, held on December 4th, saw the world premiere of a new commission for string trio by PSNY composer Ann Cleare, titled 93 Million Miles. The estimated distance between the earth and the sun—which has been subject to numerous conspiracy theories and tireless debate—forms the central metaphor for this piece, which juxtaposes what Cleare calls "two blocks of material, two distant places [...] always so infinitely close, and so infinitely far."

To get a sense of Cleare's writing for strings and piano, check out her 2009 work, inner, for cello and piano: