This January, the Seattle Chamber Players were recognized with first prize for an Ensemble dedicated to New Music by the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. The Seattle Chamber Players, featuring Cornish Music Department faculty member Paul Taub, are known for pushing music in new stylistic directions through collaborations and commissions. The award, given jointly by Chamber Music America and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), marks this contribution.
The Seattle Chamber Players, continuing to push in new directions, also recently completed their fourth annual presentation of contemporary music programming - the Icebreaker Festival. This year’s festival topic was The American Future and featured a total of thirteen contemporary works for chamber ensemble, nine of them world premiers. The festival was co-sponsored by On the Boards and featured concerts curated by New Yorker critic Alex Ross and former Village Voice critic Kyle Gann, in addition to a Morton Feldman marathon sponsored by the Seattle Art Museum.
