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“…the most bracing combinations of adventurous, fulfilling music in recent memory.”
(Joel Harrison, National Public Radio)

“…a who’s who of the current music scene, with names like Nico Muhly, Gabriel Kahane, So Percussion, Missy Mazzoli and Jefferson Friedman crowding the schedule.” (WQXR)

“Rarely can we promise in advance that a concert will be among the most talked-about events of a given year, but this seven-hour introduction to a border-crashing three-month series at Merkin is pretty much a lock. Nearly all the cool kids of the postclassical generation are here.” (Time Out New York)

“Though the festival includes acts such as Alarm Will Sound and the Bang On a Can All-Stars – the two best-known contemporary music supergroups to emerge in the past two decades – it offers a platform for the next generation of composers just hitting their stride, regardless of what category their music is filed under on iTunes.” (Steve Dollar, The Wall Street Journal)

In the winter of 2011, more than 150 composers, songwriters and performers who are re-defining contemporary music came together at Merkin Concert Hall for collaborations exploring the fertile terrain between classical and popular music. Curated by New Amsterdam co-director Judd Greenstein, the Ecstatic Music Festival showcased a new generation of composers and performers drawing on multiple influences and creating new work that seamlessly blends classical and popular music. Presented in association with New Amsterdam, the festival kicked off on Monday, January 17, 2011 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) with a free seven-hour marathon and continued with 13 concerts featuring collaborations between composers and performers from different musical backgrounds. Of the 28 premieres presented during the festival, 18 were new commissions.

The many collaborations in the 2011 festival included:

  • Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurðsson with the Chiara String Quartet
  • Owen Pallett with Nadia Sirota and Thomas Bartlett (Doveman)
  • Clogs, Shara Worden & Sufjan Stevens with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus
  • Dan Deacon with So Percussion
  • Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs), William Brittelle and Caleb Burhans with Roomful of Teeth
  • a Ben Frost arrangement for Alarm Will Sound
  • Vijay Iyer with Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society; and Darcy James Argue with Newspeak

The lineup included four New Sounds Live concerts hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer that were webcast live on Q2, WQXR’s new music station, and taped for future broadcast on WNYC.