Celebrating the sum of its parts
New music gets a new festival and a new home
On any given week, Boston offers far more performances of contemporary classical music than most American cities and, with all the universities in town, the average number of composers per square foot is impressively high. But for all its richness, the local new-music scene can also be diffuse and heavily fragmented, with venerable ensembles toiling away in relative obscurity and newer voices struggling to be heard.
That's why a stretch of four days this month holds so much promise and excitement. For once, Boston's most prominent new-music ensembles will join together to command the cultural spotlight thanks to the inaugural Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music, beginning Sept. 18 at the Institute of Contemporary Art.
Eight concerts will be spaced over the four days, with seven premieres and more than 25 local composers in the mix. The lineup includes the Firebird Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, Dinosaur Annex, the Cantata Singers, Collage New Music, the Callithumpian Consort, the reunited George Russell Living Time Orchestra, the cellist Matt Haimovitz in recital, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. BMOP's own conductor, Gil Rose, curated the festival.
"The most exciting thing for me personally is to have all of these groups, some of them quite long-standing new music institutions, participating in the same event for really the first time," said Rose. "We finally get to work a bit together rather than off in our own corners. All of us together are higher profile, and this a great way for all of these groups to kick off their seasons."
In many ways, the notion of pooling the multigenerational talent and energy of these ensembles is a no-brainer but it took the initiative and financial backing of the Alice M. Ditson Fund, based at Columbia University, to get the project off the ground. (The Boston Musicians' Association later matched the Ditson funding.) Established in 1940 by the wife of a Boston music publisher, the Ditson Fund generally supports emerging American composers, and this new biennial festival, conceived by composer (and Ditson secretary) Fred Lerdahl, is intended to migrate to a different American city every other year. (In 2010, it will be in New York.) Even so, Lerdahl believes it has the potential to make a lasting local impact. "One hope I have is that this might serve as a kind of unifying gesture," he said, "because so much that's interesting in the city doesn't always happen together."
The festival will also mark a welcome reconfiguration in the local new-music geography. That is, very few of the city's ensembles have performed in the ICA's glass-walled 325-seat theater. But the hall's intimate scale, its sleek contemporary design, and the very ethos of the museum as a whole, make it a natural home for experimental modern music. One can only hope that this new relationship has a serious future.
Of course, the bigger question looming over the festival is whether it will be a one-off collection of concerts, vanishing once the Ditson Fund moves on to its next city, or whether it can lay down local roots and become a major annual event in Boston. For the latter to happen, this inaugural festival will have to be an artistic success and a triumph with its audiences. After that, of course, it comes down to resources.
Rose put it simply: "Somebody locally would have to say, 'Wow, this is a really great thing and even if Ditson has a different agenda, we shouldn't let it blow away in the wind.' "
Ditson Festival of Contemporary Music at Institute of Contemporary Art, Sept. 18 to 21, 617-478-3103, www.icaboston.org or www.ditsonfestival.org.
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com. 