Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble

Expanding a collaborative partnership with our neighbors down the road, CMA welcomes the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble for a series of compelling programs under the baton of Tim Weiss. Oberlin Conservatory, long a wellspring of contemporary classical music and the birthplace of award-winning chamber groups such as Eighth Blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), is a treasure in the Northeast Ohio region—in no small part due to the ambitions and success of Weiss. He is the recipient of the Adventurous Programming Award from the American Symphony Orchestra League, and in his 21 years as music director of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble has brought the group to a level of artistry and virtuosity in performance that rivals the finest new music groups.

An interesting feature of the April 9 performance of Oberlin's Contemporary Music Ensemble at the Cleveland Museum of Art is the opportunity to hear an early reading of a brand new piece. Violinist Jennifer Koh and composer Vijay Iyer are now preparing his new violin concerto—Trouble, for violin and chamber orchestra—for its world premiere performance at the Ojai Music Festival in California on Thursday, June 8, 2017. The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble will join the Oberlin-founded International Contemporary Ensemble, under the direction of Steve Schick, in that world premiere performance.
 
This preliminary workshop performance of the piece here in Ohio gives our audience a unique chance to hear the concerto in progress. Written specifically for Jennifer Koh, Iyer’s Trouble was co-commissioned by the Ojai Music Festival, Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, music director. Vijay Iyer is the 2017 Music Director of the Ojai Festival which runs June 8–11.

$10; CMA members and students, free

Program (order TBD):

Vijay Iyer, Violin Concerto (2017)  (Workshop Performance)
        Jennifer Koh, violin soloist

Clint Needham, Chamber Symphony (2008)