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The International Contemporary Ensemble performs work by and with four composer-performers from the renowned experimental music collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Composer-performers from both collectives will work together to create exciting, all-new hybrid compositional-improvisative works.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Referred to as a “musical power couple” in The New York Times (2017), the music of composer-pianist Adegoke Steve Colson and composer-vocalist Iqua Colson focuses on many facets of the human experience. Their critically acclaimed performances and recordings illuminate social issues, and have featured such innovators as Reggie Workman, Tyshawn Sorey, Joseph Jarman, David Murray, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis and Henry Threadgill, as well as master artists of other disciplines including dancer/choreographer Savion Glover, writer/activist Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) and dancer/actress Carmen de Lavallade. Iqua regularly consults and produces arts based projects. She worked with a team and acclaimed actress Cicely Tyson to design and build the Cicely L. Tyson School of Performing & Fine Arts Campus in New Jersey. She has received awards for initiatives that use the arts as catalyst for educational and/or social change. Iqua worked with tenor saxophone titan Fred Anderson for several years in her early career which contributed to her decision to join the AACM. Her compositions usually center around vocal performance. Adegoke is a decorated composer who has written for large and small ensembles and received several honors and commissions supporting his work in music composition. His commission from Fromm Music Foundation led to his first collaboration with ICE when they premiered his piece Mirrors, for baritone voice and ensemble in New York during their 2023 season. His works for small ensembles have been recorded by such greats as bassist Richard Davis, composer and trumpeter Hannibal and most recently by Andrew Cyrille on his ECM Release, “The News.” Adegoke was honored by his home town November 2018 when he was inducted into The East Orange Hall of Fame, joining several other distinguished E.O. natives in all fields including Althea Gibson, Dionne Warwick, Naughty by Nature, John Amos, and Whitney Houston. Adegoke Steve Colson is a Steinway Artist.
Percussionist-composer Thurman Barker is a recipient of a 2022 NYSCA award for composition and is a Professor Emeritus of Bard College in music and jazz studies. An original member of the AACM, Barker has collaborated closely with other AACM members, including Dr. Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill, as well as Sam Rivers and Cecil Taylor. Barker composes music for ensembles large and small, moving beyond genre to reflect the human experience itself.
A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1979, percussionist-composer Reggie Nicholson has twice been nominated for the Alpert Award in the Arts, and his compositions exhibit a keen aware of sound, space, and timbre. He has performed at many venues around the world, and has released recordings for solo percussion, percussion ensemble, percussion with electronics, and chamber forces.
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is internationally renowned for its impact on experimental music. Now in its sixtieth year, with chapters in Chicago and New York, the composite output of AACM members has explored new and influential ideas about timbre, sound, collectivity, extended technique, instrumentation, intermedia, computer music technologies, installations, and kinetic sculptures.
SUPPORT
This performance is made possible through lead support from the Arlene & Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music.
NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels; The Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater; Collins Building Services; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Villa Albertine; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Goethe Institut-New York; Austrian Cultural Forum New York; Marta Heflin Foundation; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Allies for Arts Access Fund support.
