* Join us Sunday, February 13, at 5:00pm Eastern / 2:00pm Pacific for a special gathering to engage with composers and performers about works in progress and share exclusive performance videos by Ghost Ensemble with work by Sky Macklay, Cassia Streb, Ben Richter, and more! All campaign supporters will receive an invitation link to the Zoom gathering on Sunday morning. *
2022 marks ten years of Ghost Ensemble creating experimental music together. Since our first session in 2012, our mission of creating diverse, meaningful new work in collaboration with outstanding, highly original composers and performers has manifested in over thirty innovative musical works that blur borders of genre, style, and scene and move us toward immersive listening experiences. We believe, with Pauline Oliveros, that “music is the most important coordinating, synchronizing cultural force on earth. Creative music, or music that is newly composed or improvised, can influence change by challenging habitual thought patterns … The most positive function of music at this time could be for healing separations that cloud the spirit of humanity.”
In turn, these experiences continue to bring us closer together. Ensemble bassist and composer James Ilgenfritz says, “Part of what’s unique about Ghost Ensemble is that the relationships between the people are so profound. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a concert series be such a deeply rewarding and life-affirming experience — all relationships deepened in meaning. That’s a unique characteristic of Ghost Ensemble — a familial feeling. I’m deeply honored to be part of such a community.” As composer and 2016 Ghost Ensemble collaborator Elizabeth Adams writes, “Working with Ghost Ensemble came as an enormous relief ... to listen in a vulnerable way in performance, drawing the audience into what's at stake for each of us ... My collaboration with Ghost was so meaningful, generative, and affirming.”
Ghost Ensemble’s 2022 season will bring a return to live in-person performances with concerts in New York, New England, Appalachia, and California, featuring world premieres of new Ghost commissions including Catherine Lamb’s Cascade/Cantus, Ben Richter’s Rewild, Sky Macklay’s Harmonifriends, Miya Masaoka’s Spirals of Energy, and Lester St. Louis’s Metaphors Made of Soot and Ultraviolet Light. These works branch from manifold sources in contemporary classical music, experimental improvisation, and sound art: intricate combinations of projection, choreography, and costumes, inflatable harmonica-playing robotic sculptures, extended explorations of microtonality and harmonic space, liminal acoustic phenomena stretching between quantum and geologic time. We’ll be sharing preview excerpts from these collaborations and much more at our special online gathering for supporters on Sunday, February 13.
To create the future that we hope to live in, we need experimental music that celebrates wonder, awe, and fascination, that connects listeners and creates community through collective experiences of positive transformation. Ghost Ensemble is profoundly fortunate to have a community of supporters that makes these activities possible. We rely on private fundraising to realize the vital workshop process that allows truly groundbreaking new work to flourish; as we celebrate our tenth season and embark on a return to live performance with a landmark slate of commissions, this year is more important than ever. At this crucial moment, your contribution can help bring these innovative new works to fruition.
Please consider making a meaningful gift in support of Ghost Ensemble. All who contribute this month will receive an invitation to our February 13 supporters-only event featuring exclusive performances, interviews, and previews of our works in progress.
Thank you for helping to create this future together!