Face The Music: Kaufman Center's Teen New Music Ensemble
See press coverage of Face the Music.
Face the Music is an ensemble of astonishingly talented teenagers performing works by today's most compelling and creative new music composers. In residence at Kaufman Center, Face the Music breaks the boundaries of classical music education and performance, featuring today's music presented by the emerging artistic voices of tomorrow.
Founded by Kaufman's Jenny Undercofler and composer Huang Ruo, Face the Music provides an unparalleled performance and education experience for the next generation of musical leaders. The group burst onto the scene in 2005, performing works by such new-music mainstays as Michael Gordon, Phil Kline and John Adams.
Says Undercofler: “In traditional music education, many talented kids put down their instruments after a certain age. Their training and their worlds simply have diverged; they stop relating to classical curriculum and works created decades or even hundreds of years ago. Our goal is to re-capture their excitement and interest with a conception of classical music that is much broader and colored by recognizable sounds from their daily lives. In turn, these young performers create an amazingly energizing and rewarding experience for their audiences.”
During the 2009-10 season, Face the Music performed works by Nico Muhly, Graham Fitkin, Marcelo Zarvos, Paul Desenne and others at venues such as the Look and Listen Festival, the Bang On A Can Marathon, Merkin Concert Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, The Queens Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, and the Brooklyn Lyceum. The group has given world premieres of commissioned works by Joe Phillips and Frances Schwartz, as well as the U.S. premieres of works by Gérard Grisey and Anton Batagov. Allan Kozinn praised their "knockout performance" of Grisey's Manifestations in The New York Times. Read the review. In 2009, Face the Music performed live on WNYC at the opening of the Jerome L. Greene Space.
This spring the ensemble was featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered for their work with composer Nico Muhly. “Dealing with [Face the Music] has been akin to dealing with professionals," Muhly told reporter Jeff Lunden in a May 27th interview. "Weirdly, it didn't feel that much different than dealing with the Philharmonic. ”
Listen to the NPR feature on Face the Music.
During the 2010-11 season Face the Music will return to many of the venues above with new repertoire including Christine Southworth’s Volcano and Tristan Perich’s qsqsqsqqqqq.
Face the Music features 25 classically trained musicians ranging from 5th to 12th grade. The group's mission is to engage talented teenage musicians from across the city in presenting challenging and exciting work by contemporary composers. The majority of the Face the Music players are students or alumni of the Special Music School, Kaufman Center’s own K-8 public school for musically gifted children, or attend Lucy Moses School, the Center’s community school for the arts.
For more information about Face the Music, please call 212 501 3390 or email jundercofler@kaufman-center.org.