Welcome to the 2022-2023 Season of Ensemble CONCEPT/21!

We have decided to completely focus this season on an in-depth shepherding of the new generations of young composers.

While they have always focused on fostering new voices in composition, with about 60 premieres of young composers’ works in the last 9 years, EC/21 would like to develop deeper and even more fruitful relationships with educators, institutions, and young composers in our area.

To this end, we are planning to engage several local public schools through composition workshops where young high school composers will develop from concept to page to stage compositional projects. These workshops will feature professional composers that will lead the young composers through this process and assist high school teachers in follow-up work in developing new pieces, which eventually could be submitted to a Call for Scores by January 2023. Young composers still affiliated to regional educational institutions submit their works for evaluation by a jury of professional composers and conductors through the Call for Scores. The selected works receive a fully professional performance and recording by EC/21.

Selected works from the Call for Scores will receive their premiere in our traditional concert on April 14, 2023 “New Voices in Michiana.” The format of EC/21 concerts have always included not just music, but also engaging “Concert Conversations,” with introductions to the works on each program, and a Q&A opportunity for the audience.

This year, we are also continuing our partnership with South Bend Lyric Opera, which started last season with the performance of Jake Heggie’s opera Three Decembers. This season, EC/21 is collaborating again with the SBLO to bring to you a brand new opera by Indiana composer Paul Herman, The Gift. The premiere performances will be offered on January 27 and 28, 2023. For more information, please visit the South Bend Lyric Opera website.

All performances will take place at Indiana University South Bend.

We hope you enjoy our season what we are preparing for you! Thank you for your support of new music and for visiting our website. Please stay tuned for upcoming details on our new 2022-2023 season!

The 2022-2023 season of Ensemble CONCEPT/21, Inc. is supported by the following grants:

The Paul and Diane Herman Family Fund in the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, Inc.

The Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust

An Arts Project Support Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission, with the support of the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

It is with great pleasure that we are announcing the winners and honorable mentions of the 2022 Ensemble CONCEPT/21 Call for Scores. 

Winners:
Persistence of Memory – Oliver Rigsby (Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, Violin, and Cello)
Dark Symbols – Eric Saroian (Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, Violin, and Cello)

Honorable Mentions:
Entwining – Paul Novak (Clarinet, Cello, Violin, Piano)
Piano Trio No. 1, Movement 1 – Aidan Feeney (Violin, Cello, Piano)

These four works will be performed at the March 25 concert at IU South Bend conducted by Maestro Caleb Wenzel.

Friday, March 25, 2022, 7:00 pm – New Voices in Michiana – Louise E. Addicott & Yatish J. Joshi Performance Hall, Indiana University South Bend

https://events.iu.edu/iusbarts/event/473891-ensemble-concept21?_ga=2.203976208.1089179099.1646146983-974673917.1588572129

EC21 is planning a 2021-22 season in the hopes that we will soon overcome the limitations of the pandemic. We will announce full details shortly, but do check this page for:

VIDEO CONCERT NO. 2, with works by Ryan Olivier, Jorge Muñiz, Paul Herman, Ilya Levinson and Gustavo Leone, coming up in May!.

And, in the meantime, follow the musings of contemporary music of our artistic director Carmen-Helena Téllez on Twitter at twitter.com/chtellez

Our VIDEO CONCERT NO.1 has stayed online, per your request and is available in our media page in this website, and on YouTube.

EC/21 wants to announce with gratitude that we recently have received support from the Indiana Arts Commission, the Stanley A. and Flora P. Clark Memorial Community Trust Foundation and the John Eaton Foundation, to pursue new musical initiatives adapted to the challenges of the pandemic. We also want to thank all of you in our audience, who have faithfully followed our efforts to showcase and disseminate new musical creativity in our region. We will be joining you all back soon!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Our last concerts of the season (March 6, April 3 and 22, 2020 in South Bend and Chicago) had to be canceled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dedicated as we are  to our long-standing project NEW VOICES IN MICHIANA, supporting young composers of the region, we are now preparing a new video performance that we will announce in the next few days! Please stay tuned and visit our page for updates!

We will also announce a series of events adapted to the new social conditions imposed by the pandemic, seeking to keep you all engaged with the miracle of creating new music for our times. If you wish to be placed in our mailing list, send us a note at ensembleconcept21@gmail.com