The Department of Music is pleased to announce the Israeli Chamber Project has been selected as the inaugural ensemble for the Steven Stucky Memorial Residency for New Music. The ensemble will visit campus each semester during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years for multi-day visits to work and perform with music students, both undergraduate and graduate, as well as faculty. Dates for the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 Residencies will be announced soon.
The Israeli Chamber Project(ICP) is a dynamic ensemble comprising strings, winds, harp, and piano that brings together distinguished musicians for chamber music concerts and educational and outreach programs both in Israel and abroad. The ensemble was created as a means for its members to give something back to the community where they began their musical education, as well as to support emerging composers. ICP has appeared at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, Town Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Bargemusic, and at Symphony Space in New York City, the Morrison Artists Series in San Francisco, Carmel Music Society, The Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, and Ottawa’s Chamberfest, among others, and has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and WQXR radio’s Young Artist Showcase.
At Cornell, ICP will work with graduate composers on compositions in progress, engage in open ensemble rehearsals, work with chamber music students, and provide masterclasses and mentoring. Each visit will be anchored by a performance that will offer a balance between new or recent works by Cornell composers, and more established works. Some of these will involve faculty and student performers alongside ICP's musicians, and the group actively seeks interdisciplinary opportunities.
The ensemble was selected by a music department faculty committee co-chaired by Xak Bjerken (Performance) and Kevin Ernste (Composition). “We were looking for a group of superb musicians who have an international reputation, have a broad repertoire, are comfortable performing new music from various aesthetic traditions, and are experienced holding residencies,” said Bjerken. “The Israeli Chamber Project is all of that, and their breadth and openness to our department made them a clear and exciting choice.”
This will not be ICP’s first visit to Cornell. In 2009 they performed two concerts, one that mixed new and more standard works, and one that offered premieres by then-graduate student composers who have established esteemed reputations in new music: Charles Cacciopo, Taylan Cihan (deceased), Amit Gilutz, Jesse Jones, and Christopher Stark.
The Residency for New Music was founded to honor the memory of beloved colleague, educator and composer Steven Stucky. The Endowment was funded through the generosity of more than 50 donors, including substantial leadership gifts from devoted music department supporters Priscilla Browning, Ronni Lacroute, and Elaine Sisman and Martin Fridson.
“I am delighted to see an idea that Steve spent years advocating become a reality,” says Department Chair Steven Pond. “Steve continuously campaigned to encourage new music and believed strongly in the importance of our students working with the finest musicians possible. With the generous help of our friends and alumni, we are pleased to put this legacy program into motion.”
