NOW Ensemble

Cutting-edge chamber group NOW Ensemble discusses the dynamics of working in today’s new-music environment, from building performer relationships to collaborations and commissions with new composers. Composer Griffin Candey (SMTD DMA, 2023) joins the discussion prior to the performance of his new piece, commissioned for NOW, titled Everybody Leaves If They Get The Chance.

Free and open to the public; presented by the Department of Composition as part of the 2024 William Bolcom Residency.

ABOUT NOW ENSEMBLE

Erin Lesser, flute
Yoonah Kim, clarinet
Mark Dancigers, electric guitar
Lizzie Burns, bass
Michael Mizrahi, piano

NOW Ensemble is a dynamic group of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music for the 21st century. With a unique instrumentation of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano, the ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members. NOW Ensemble has brought some of the most exciting composers of their generation to national and international recognition.

In recent seasons, NOW has performed at the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, Lincoln Center, the Apples and Olives Festival in Zürich, Switzerland, Town Hall Seattle, Da Camera Houston, and presented by Carnegie Hall. They were the inaugural ensemble-in-residence at San Diego’s Art of Élan. November 2021 saw the release of their seventh album, Before and After, on New Amsterdam Records. NOW has worked closely with over 100 composers, including Judd Greenstein, Mark Dancigers, Patrick Burke, Missy Mazzoli, Gabriela Smith, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Sean Friar, Kathryn Alexander, San Fermin’s Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Nico Muhly, Timothy Andres, and Sarah Kirkland Snider.

Highlights of the last season include touring behind their new album, Before and After, the world premiere of Judd Greenstein’s opera A Marvelous Order at Penn State University, composed for NOW Ensemble, and performances in venues throughout New York State, supported through a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

On this tour through Michigan, NOW Ensemble’s presents the world premiere of a newly-commissioned piece by composer Griffin Candey. The piece highlights small town nostalgia and the internal battle to love a place while wanting to leave it far behind. Candey explores questions such as How can we love a place and also run from it? How do we live in the in-between? What do we take with us from the places that shaped us?