ACME: 15 Years - Music of Clarice Jensen

THIS CONCERT WAS PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 13.

"such soul, passion, and excellent command" - NPR

"the ensemble gave the punchy, intricate score a tight, viscerally powerful performance" - The New York Times

For the past several years, ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen has been composing contrapuntal and polyphonic music which she performs solo, on her cello with various effects pedals and loopers. She has recorded her music on two acclaimed albums (For this from that will be filled in 2018 and Drone Studies in 2019) and will release a third solo album in 2020. Jensen says, “For this concert, I am arranging my own solo pieces for ACME – for mixed ensemble – exploring the timbral effects of the ensemble layered with the electronic effects I use to manipulate my cello sound. The program will also explore drones and long tones as a sonic phenomenon and emotional experience.”

ACME players for this concert include Laura Lutzke and Ravenna Lipchik, violins; Isabel Hagen, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello; Chihiro Shibayama, percussion; and Grey Mcmurray, electric guitar.

Over the past 15 years, led by Clarice Jensen, ACME has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. The membership of the amorphous collective includes some of the brightest young stars in the field. NPR calls them “contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings reports, “ACME’s absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy. . . Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the “virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.