With a commitment to cultivating a more curious and engaged society through music, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)—as a commissioner and performer at the highest level—amplifies creators whose work propels and challenges how music is made and experienced. ICE strives to cultivate a mosaic musical ecosystem that honors the diversity of human experience and expression by commissioning, developing, and performing the works of living artists. ICE is a collective of musicians, digital media artists, producers, and educators who are committed to creating collaborations built on equity, belonging, and cultural responsiveness.

Founded in 2001 by flutist and MacArthur “genius” Fellow Claire Chase, ICE has premiered over 1,000 works and is the recipient of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, as well as Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year Award. Now in its third decade, and led by Artistic Director George Lewis and Executive Director Jennifer Kessler, ICE continues to build new digital and live collaborative environments that strengthen artist agency and musical connections around the world. ICE’s Digitice platform provides high-quality video documentation, as well as public access to an archive of composers’ workshops and performances. In addition, ICE continues to build space for inter-organization dialogue on equity, and has facilitated New Music Virtual Town Hall meetings for peer organizations and individual musicians to share resources. ICE has had a major impact on the contemporary performance ecosystem in New York City, nationally, and internationally, by supporting the creativity of their composer-collaborators, as well as presenting workshops and performances for hundreds of student composers.

Jerome Foundation supports International Contemporary Ensemble’s Call For__ Commissioning program. This commissioning program supports two early-career New York City-based composers from any sound discipline and spans 6 to 18 months. The program showcases a diverse range of instrumental forces and musical aesthetics. Commissioned artists engage in collaborative workshop opportunities with ICE artists and the production team. The program includes a compositional and rehearsal period followed by premiere performances during the concert seasons, and each commission engagement operates on a unique timeline anchored in a 1-week incubation residency with ICE musicians. Additionally, artists receive promotional support and high-quality documentation produced and made available on Digitice, ICE’s acclaimed digital outreach initiative.