Hill Auditorium
In Plain Air
International Contemporary Ensemble
This artist collective was founded in 2001 to explore how new music intersects with communities across the world.
The group’s UMS debut features mechanical instruments that have had a place in music history: organ (in this case, Hill Auditorium’s Frieze Memorial Organ), harmonium, harpsichord, music boxes, carillons, and electronic instruments. In Plain Air is a composition in multiple movements for organ, ensemble, electronics, and customized instruments designed to bring the sonic properties of a large organ into a contemporary concert context, with members providing sonic liaisons to the organ and its rich color combinations. The work also abstracts and layers a historical lineage of mechanical instruments inspired by the organ and its role in communal music-making. The result? A journey through a diverse landscape of timbres, instrumental scales, and sonic spaces both public and private.
Original support for In Plain Air was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia.