"Splendid performers"
- The New York Times

Ensemble 21 Directors

Composer Jason Eckardt is the Executive Director of Ensemble 21. He

Major festivals have programmed his works, including the Festival d'Automne a Paris, IRCAM-Resonances, ISCM World Music Days (1999, 2000), Darmstadt, Voix Nouvelles, Musik im 20. Jahrhundert, Musikhost, Currents in Musical Thought-Seoul, New Consortium, International Review of Contemporary Music, Festival of New American Music, and the International Bartok Festival. Performances of Eckardt's music have been broadcast by the BBC, Saarlandisches Rundfunk, Radio Socioculturelle, WKCR, the Australian Broadcasting Company, WBAI, and Cultura FM Espana.

Out of Chaos, a portrait CD recorded by Ensemble 21, is available on Mode. Other recordings include Echoes' White Veil by pianist Marilyn Nonken on CRI, Transience by marimbist Makoto Nakura on Helicon, Sweet Creature by percussionist Michael Lipsey on Capstone, and Multiplicities by flutist Nancy Ruffer on Metier. Future releases include Tango Clandestino by pianist Amy Dissanayake, Tangled Loops by saxophonist Nathan Nabb, and Trespass with piano soloist Marilyn Nonken and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Tim Weiss, conductor.

Eckardt has written on subjects ranging from applications of cognitive research in composition to Richard Serra's use of process from a musical perspective. His work has appeared in Perspectives of New Music, L'etincelle, Dansk Musik Tidsskrift, and Current Musicology. Upcoming publications include an article in Musiques-Sciences and a chapter in Arcana II, edited by John Zorn.

Eckardt received a doctorate in composition from Columbia University as a Presidential Fellow. In 1992, Eckardt graduated cum laude from Berklee College of Music where he was awarded the Richard Levy Scholarship. He has attended masterclasses with Milton Babbitt, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has taught at Columbia University, Oberlin Conservatory, New York University, the University of Illinois, Rutgers University, and Northwestern University and is currently a member of the faculty at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

"A pianist from music's leading edge" (New York Times), Artistic Director Marilyn Nonken has emerged as one of the most gifted young musicians dedicated to the modern and contemporary repertoires. Upon her 1993 New York debut, she was heralded as "a determined protector of important music" (New York Times). Recognized as "one of the greatest interpreters of new music" (American Record Guide), she regularly is named "Best of the Yea"Ó by some of the nation's leading critics (Boston Globe, 1997-2002, and Washington Post, 2005).

Ms. Nonken's performances have been presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, IRCAM, the Theatre Bouffe du Nord, the ABC (Australia), the Guggenheim Museum, the Rockefeller Foundation, Kettle's Yard, Cleveland Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Miller Theatre, Phillips Collection, Logos, and universities and conservatories around the world. Composers who have written for her include Milton Babbitt, Mario Davidovsky, Chris Dench, Pascal Dusapin, Jason Eckardt, Michael Finnissy, Tristan Murail, and David Rakowski. She has toured with the complete piano music of Boulez, Murail, and Schoenberg and been presented in the U.S., France, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Italy, the Czech Republic, England, Belgium, and the Netherlands. An acclaimed chamber musician, she plays with Ensemble 21 (the New Music group of which she is Artistic Director and a co-founder), the Group for Contemporary Music, and Elision (Sydney); she has also appeared as a guest with MusicNOW (Chicago Symphony), the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Speculum Musicae. Recent and upcoming festival appearances include Resonances and the Festival d'Automne (both, Paris), New Music Days (Ostrava), Musikhost (Odense), Huddersfield Contemporary Music, When Morty Met John (New York), Works and Process (New York), Piano Festival Northwest (Portland), AKI (Cleveland), and June in Buffalo.

Ms. Nonken's discography features recordings on New World Records, Mode, Lovely Music, Albany, Metier, and CRI. "American Spiritual," a CD of works written for her, was released in 2001; other releases include Feldman's "Triadic Memories," Rakowski's "Martian Counterpoint," and Eckardt's "Out of Chaos" (with Ensemble 21). Her latest release is "Tristan Murail: The Complete Piano Music" (Metier). Upcoming releases include chamber music of William Albright (PRISM Saxophone Quartet), Brian Ferneyhough (Elision), Charles Wuorinen ('cellist Fred Sherry), and Louis Karchin (saxophonist Taimur Sullivan).

A student of David Burge at the Eastman School, Ms. Nonken received a Ph.D. degree in musicology from Columbia University. Her writings have been published in Perspectives of New Music, Agni, Current Musicology, and the Journal of the Institute for Studies in American Music. She also guest edited "Performers on Performance," a special issue of Contemporary Music Review.

Currently the director of piano performance studies at New York University's Steinhardt School, Ms. Nonken is a Steinway Artist.