Talea Ensemble Reveals 2024-25 Season Lineup

 Talea Ensemble has announced its 2024-2025 season with highlights including the concert premiere of Suzanne Farrin’s Macabéa at National Sawdust, the return of two of Talea’s acclaimed series - Written for Talea and Talea Encores - the continuation of Talea’s new initiative Talea Ambassadors focusing on music from Cyprus, two programs pulling inspiration from the centennials of Luigi Nono and Pierre Boulez yet centering the innovations they inspired in a generation of composers today, and a number of residencies at universities across the country.

In Summer 2024 the Talea Ensemble heads to Maine for the annual Bowdoin International Music Festival to perform works by Olga Neuwirth, Andile Khumalo, Zosha Di Castri, Derek Bermel, and Anthony Cheung. The ensemble then returns to New York for two concerts as part of the Time:Spans Festival at the DiMenna Center including the US premiere of Steven Takasugi’s Piano Concerto, with guest pianist Roger Admiral, on Sunday, August 18, 2024 at 7:30 p.m., as well as works by Alec Hall, Sasha J. Blondeau, Sivan Cohen-Elias, Sasha Chen, Uri Kochavi, and David Bird on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. 

The Talea Ensemble kicks off its 2024-2025 season with Exploring Home on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew. The program presents works by Chaya Czernowin, Claudia Jane Scroccaro, Marcos Balter, and Luigi Nono, celebrates Nono’s centennial, and explores the concept of home within our universe, our surroundings, and our bodies. 

On Wednesday, October 2, 2024 Talea makes its debut at the International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival in Nicosia, Cyprus for a program that includes world premieres by Cypriot composers. Throughout the season, Talea will continue its new initiative, Talea Ambassadors, a hybrid residency spotlighting composers from a different country or region each season through performance, podcast interviews, discussion, and other content highlighting the work and creative processes of partner composers. The Talea Ambassadors program debuted in June 2024 with a concert at New York’s West End Theatre titled Aux Étoiles, featuring works by France-based composers. 

Heading into the holidays, Talea and St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church present Jon Deak’s Passion of Scrooge on Saturday, December 7, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.

In the new year, Talea celebrates the 100th birthday of French composer Pierre Boulez with Derivations on Friday, January 24, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew. The program pairs Boulez’s Derive 2 with George Lewis’ Born Obbligato. 

Talea’s acclaimed series Written for Talea returns on Friday, March 28, 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at the DiMenna Center with a program of new and recent works written especially for the Talea Ensemble - including the recipient of Talea’s 2024 Early Career Commission, and the US Premieres of the new Cypriot works performed earlier in the season in Cyprus.

On Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 6:00 p.m., the Talea Ensemble performs the concert premiere of Suzanne Farrin’s Macabéa at National Sawdust. Based on the novel by Clarice Lispector, Macabéa is an electro-sonic operatic experience with film and music that examines the cultural, psychological, and spiritual manifestations of poverty and power. 

Talea Ensemble closes out the season on Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew with Talea Encores, featuring solo works from composers heard earlier in the season. Since 2022, Talea Encores has become a recurring initiative of Talea’s New York programming and represents the ensemble’s commitment to building strong long-term partnerships with composers. 

Continuing the ensemble’s commitment to education, Talea Ensemble takes up several residencies at US universities this season, working with students at the University at Buffalo in October 2024 and March 2025; the University of Louisville in November 2024, which includes the world premieres of the winning compositions of the Abell Award, and the US Premiere of Krzysztof Wolek’s COH; CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College in February 2025, for a program of new works for wind quintet by student composers; Brandeis University in April 2025; and UC San Diego with a concert featuring new works by Roger Reynolds, Rand Steiger and student composers in April 2025. 

Talea is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Talea Ensemble's 2023-24 season projects are supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and in part by the Alice M. Ditson Fund, Amphion Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund, Howard Gilman Foundation, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, and generous donors like you. Talea’s season is also made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.