FELIPE LARA / TALEA ENSEMBLE / CONRAD TAO: MAZES AND PORTALS (NY PREMIERE) // ONE MONTH AWAY // WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3
This concert spotlights five thrilling works by Brazilian-American composer Felipe Lara, offering a vivid journey through more than a decade of his distinctive musical voice. Spanning intimate solo writing to expansive large-ensemble works, the program reveals Lara’s fascination with structures and ideas drawn from musical fractals, mirrors, mosaics, and labyrinths. Influences from electronic music are translated into purely instrumental contexts, creatively expanding the expressive and sonic possibilities of acoustic forces. Together, these works trace Lara’s evolving artistic vision that is at once rigorously constructed and richly immersive.
// This performance is made possible thanks to the generous support of The Wescustogo Foundation.
Tickets on-sale now! // Learn more via the link in our bio!
#NS11 #SeeYourselfAtSawdust
See you TOMORROW, April 28th at 7:30pm for Berio’s Sequenzas for violin, cello, and bass, and more! All 30 fingers flying… courtesy of Karen Kim, @cg_cello and @gregfinity . /event-details/talea-sequenze-iv
Next Tuesday at 7:30! Karen Kim, @cg_cello and @gregfinity curated the fourth and final edition of Talea Sequenze, which features Berio’s Sequenzas for solo violin, cello, and bass + Kaija Saariaho’s “Aure” and Greg Chudzik’s “Silo.”
Tickets: /event-details/talea-sequenze-iv
The infamous 1st page to the Berio Sequenza XIVb for bass, featuring the dreaded “Berio pizz”. Come see this and the cover version, aka Sequenza XIV for cello, Tuesday April 28th, 7:00pm, at 530 Clinton Ave.
Please join us in welcoming Talea’s newest member 📯: Nicolee Kuester!
You can catch Nicolee playing with Talea on tour at the Twin Cities New Music Festival on May 7th and at National Sawdust on June 3rd.
Brooklyn-based horn player and performer Nicolee Kuester enjoys splitting her time between experimental sounds and music from the Western canon. In addition to Talea, she’s a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, and appears with a variety of other groups in NYC, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, Illinoise on Broadway, and the New York Pops. Elsewhere, she’s performed with Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, A Far Cry in Boston, and the San Diego Symphony, and in 2026 she won a GRAMMY award for Best Small Ensemble Performance with Alarm Will Sound. She is co-founder of MEANINGLESS WORK, a performance series that happily meanders between sounds, performance art, text, and movement theater.
📣 Extended deadline: Apply by April 8th, 2026 for Talea’s Recording Workshop!
Have a recent piece you’d like to record? Open to US-based early-career composers ages 18+, this free workshop from June 7-14, 2026 in NYC offers rehearsals and recording of a recent ensemble work by each composer fellow, professional development sessions, and a public performance. And it’s free!
NYC! come get up close and personal with some chicken feet tomorrow night @7 :30pm with the very clucky @taleaensemble 🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓 alongside works by @martiepstein and @artun_cekem
@artun_cekem ’s new work Mea Pulpa questions whether guilt belongs in the self, or in the body. The ensemble takes on elements of the human body, including utilizing 3D-printed vocal tract tubes, illuminating the interconnectedness of the self and the body.
We have been enjoying this first collaboration with Artun! Talea and soprano @freckleddiva perform the world premiere of Mea Pulpa on Friday, March 20th in Brooklyn. Also on the program are world premieres by Marti Epstein and Katherine Balch. Please join us!
@katiecomposes Katherine Balch and Ted Moore @_ted_moore_ chatted with Talea Technical Director, David Adamcyk, about “Still Life,” which Talea is premiering this Friday, March 30th! The piece features field recordings and video from the farm in rural Connecticut’s where Katie and Ted cultivate food. Their chickens make a guest appearance and are not to be missed 🐓
See the full interview on Talea’s YouTube channel, and join us for the premiere of Katherine Balch’s “Still Life” on Friday! We are grateful to the @frommfoundation for commission funding.
Marti Epstein @martiepstein envisioned her upcoming work for Talea, “Fugitive Color,” as a canvas. As part of the compositional process, Marti created a colorful drawing and added dimensions of time and sound to the visual imagery.
Clarinetist @ranemoore sat down with Marti (in Boston!) to talk about her piece, which Talea is premiering on March 20th at 7:30pm in Brooklyn. See the full interview on our YouTube channel! And we hope you’ll join us to hear Marti Epstein’s new work - alongside world premieres by Artun Çekem and Katherine Balch - on Friday.
We’re very excited about this one! Colors, projections, lights, shadows and music combine in a truly vibrant program of world premieres written for Talea: @artun_cekem ’s “Mea Pulpa,” @martiepstein ’s “Fugitive Color” and @katiecomposes “still life” with video projections by @_ted_moore_
Please join us on March 20th in Brooklyn! /event-details/written-for-talea
