NEWSLETTER
The Concert Premiere of Suzanne Farrin’s Macabéa at National Sawdust; The Return of Written for Talea and Talea Encores; Talea Ambassadors Champions New Works by Cypriot Composers;
Celebrating the Centennials of Composers Luigi Nono and Pierre Boulez
New York, NY (July 8, 2024) — Talea Ensemble – a group of bold and boundary-breaking musicians, with a mission to champion musical creativity, cultivate curious listeners, and bring visionary new works to life – announces its 2024-2025 season with highlights including the concert premiere of Suzanne Farrin’s Macabéa at National Sawdust, the return of two of Talea’s acclaimed series - Written for Talea and Talea Encores - the continuation of Talea’s new initiative Talea Ambassadors focusing on music from Cyprus, two programs pulling inspiration from the centennials of Luigi Nono and Pierre Boulez yet centering the innovations they inspired in a generation of composers today, and a number of residencies at universities across the country.
In Summer 2024 the Talea Ensemble heads to Maine for the annual Bowdoin International Music Festival to perform works by Olga Neuwirth, Andile Khumalo, Zosha Di Castri, Derek Bermel, and Anthony Cheung. The ensemble then returns to New York for two concerts as part of the Time:Spans Festival at the DiMenna Center including the US premiere of Steven Takasugi’s Piano Concerto, with guest pianist Roger Admiral, on Sunday, August 18, 2024 at 7:30 p.m., as well as works by Alec Hall, Sasha J. Blondeau, Sivan Cohen-Elias, Sasha Chen, Uri Kochavi, and David Bird on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
The Talea Ensemble kicks off its 2024-2025 season with Exploring Home on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew. The program presents works by Chaya Czernowin, Claudia Jane Scroccaro, Marcos Balter, and Luigi Nono, celebrates Nono’s centennial, and explores the concept of home within our universe, our surroundings, and our bodies.
On Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Talea makes its debut at the International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival in Nicosia, Cyprus for a program that includes world premieres by Cypriot composers. Throughout the season, Talea will continue its new initiative, Talea Ambassadors, a hybrid residency spotlighting composers from a different country or region each season through performance, podcast interviews, discussion, and other content highlighting the work and creative processes of partner composers. The Talea Ambassadors program debuted in June 2024 with a concert at New York’s West End Theatre titled Aux Étoiles, featuring works by France-based composers.
Heading into the holidays, Talea and St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church present Jon Deak’s Passion of Scrooge on Saturday, December 7, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
In the new year, Talea celebrates the 100th birthday of French composer Pierre Boulez with Derivations on Friday, January 24, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew. The program pairs Boulez’s Derive 2 with George Lewis’ Born Obbligato.
Talea’s acclaimed series Written for Talea returns on Friday, March 28, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at the DiMenna Center with a program of new and recent works written especially for the Talea Ensemble - including the recipient of Talea’s 2024 Early Career Commission, and the US Premieres of the new Cypriot works performed earlier in the season in Cyprus.
On Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 6:00 p.m., the Talea Ensemble performs the concert premiere of Suzanne Farrin’s Macabéa at National Sawdust. Based on the novel by Clarice Lispector, Macabéa is an electro-sonic operatic experience with film and music that examines the cultural, psychological, and spiritual manifestations of poverty and power.
Talea Ensemble closes out the season on Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew with Talea Encores, featuring solo works from composers heard earlier in the season. Since 2022, Talea Encores has become a recurring initiative of Talea’s New York programming and represents the ensemble’s commitment to building strong long-term partnerships with composers.
Continuing the ensemble’s commitment to education, Talea Ensemble takes up several residencies at US universities this season, working with students at the University at Buffalo in October 2024 and March 2025; the University of Louisville in November 2024, which includes the world premieres of the winning compositions of the Abell Award, and the US Premiere of Krzysztof Wolek’s COH; CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College in February 2025, for a program of new works for wind quintet by student composers; Brandeis University in April 2025; and UC San Diego with a concert featuring new works by Roger Reynolds, Rand Steiger and student composers in April 2025.
Talea is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Talea Ensemble's 2023-24 season projects are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund, Amphion Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund, Howard Gilman Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, and generous donors like you. Talea’s season is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Concert Information
Time:Spans I
Sunday, August 18, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
DiMenna Center (Cary Hall) | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY 10018
Tickets: $20
Link: https://timespans.org/concert/talea-ensemble-steven-kazuo-takasugi/
Program:
Steven Takasugi - Piano Concerto “Sinfonietta Version" (2023) *US Premiere
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Time:Spans II
Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
DiMenna Center (Cary Hall) | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY 10018
Tickets: $20
Link: https://timespans.org/concert/talea-ensemble-bird-blondeau-chen-cohen-elias-hall-kochavi/
Program:
Uri Kochavi - Dermis
Sasha J. Blondeau - Etat d’exception
David Bird - Moln
Sivan Cohen-Elias - Still Life With Squares
Shasha Chen - The bee is present
Alec Hall - Vertigo
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Exploring Home
Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew | 520 Clinton Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11238
Link: http://taleaensemble.org/concerts/
Program:
Chaya Czernowin - Fast Darkness III: Moonwords
Claudia Jane Scroccaro - I sing the body electric
Marcos Balter - We carry our homes within us which enables us to fly
Luigi Nono - Guai ai gelidi mostri
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Passion of Scrooge
Saturday, December 7, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church | 263 W 86th St | New York, NY 10024
Link: http://taleaensemble.org/concerts/
Program:
Jon Deak - Passion of Scrooge
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Derivations
Friday, January 24, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew | 520 Clinton Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11238
Link: http://taleaensemble.org/concerts/
Program:
George Lewis - Born Obbligato
Pierre Boulez - Derive 2
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Written for Talea
Friday, March 28, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
DiMenna Center | 450 W 37th St | New York, NY 10018
Link: http://taleaensemble.org/concerts/
Program:
New and recent works for Talea (including Talea's 2024 Early Career Commission, and US premieres of new Cypriot works)
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Macabéa - Concert premiere
Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.
National Sawdust | 80 N 6th St | Brooklyn, NY 11249
Link: http://taleaensemble.org/concerts/
Program:
Suzanne Farrin - Macabéa
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Talea Encores
Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.
Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew | 520 Clinton Ave | Brooklyn, NY 11238
Link: http://taleaensemble.org/concerts/
Program:
Solos for flute, oboe, percussion, and double bass by season composers
About the Talea Ensemble
Heralded as “a crucial part of the New York cultural ecosphere” by The New York Times, the Talea Ensemble’s mission is to champion musical creativity, cultivate curious listeners, and bring visionary new works to life with vibrant performances that remain in the audience’s imagination long after a concert. Recipients of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, the ensemble has brought to life over 50 commissions of major new works since it was founded in 2008, including bold and inventive productions that span multiple genres, bringing together music and other contemporary art forms such as theater and visual art. Talea has helped introduce NYC audiences to important works of seasoned composers such as Pierre Boulez, Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Olga Neuwirth, Unsuk Chin, and Hans Abrahamsen, and has regularly commissioned composers of the following generations.
The Talea Ensemble’s work has spanned imaginative performances, collaboration with composers, artist development projects, discussion, and reflection around music. Highlights from Talea’s most recent performance seasons have included: world premieres by Wang Lu, Tyshawn Sorey, Sarah Hennies, Natacha Diels, Anthony Cheung, Agata Zubel, Mark Applebaum, and more; a production of Georg Friedrich Haas’s concert-length Solstices in complete darkness; the US premiere of the immersive theater work Love & Diversity by Manos Tsangaris; and a performance of Julius Eastman’s Femenine in the NY Philharmonic Artist Spotlight Series.
Festival engagements have included performances at Lincoln Center Festival, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, TIME:SPANS, Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Wien Modern, Vancouver New Music, Festival Musica, and many more. The ensemble has also partnered with institutions from across disciplines, such as the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, the City of Ideas Festival in Mexico, and the Storm King Art Center.
Talea undertakes residencies in music departments around the country to support early-career composers. Residencies in the current season include the Peabody Institute, Rice University, Hunter College, Brown University, Ithaca College, and Queens College. Since 2020, Talea has targeted support to early career composers through the Talea Access Project, which includes a commissioning program and a composer recording workshop. Talea is committed to continuing to build these artist development programs in the upcoming seasons.
“Talea is a treasure.” – Musical America
"meticulously prepared and compellingly rendered" – The New York Times
Image at top of release by Drew Bordeaux Photography
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Contact: Katlyn Morahan | Morahan Arts and Media
katlyn@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646-378-9386