"Ensemble 21's young players seem eager to join Speculum Musicae and the Group for Contemporary Music.... They have the skill and enthusiasm the task requires."
- The New York Times

Ensemble 21 Historical Information

Founded in 1993 by composer Jason Eckardt and pianist Marilyn Nonken, Ensemble 21 contemporary music performance group is a cooperative of young musicians dedicated to bringing New Music to new listeners. In the past six years, Ensemble 21 has established a record of excellence in performance and demonstrated a serious commitment to today's composers. After the ensemble's debut concert - a tour-de-force evening of twentieth-century classics and little-known gems - the New York Times announced: "Ensemble 21's young players seem eager to join Speculum Musicae, the Group for Contemporary Music, and other like-minded ensembles....They have the technical means and enthusiasm the task requires." Today, Ensemble 21 continues to provide compelling and insightful performances of contemporary works, building for New Music a larger, more adventurous audience.


Ensemble 21 presents three concerts annually at major New York venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Kathryn Bache Miller Theatre. The ensemble's programs are designed to provide entertaining, provoking, and emotionally-satisfying new music experiences for listeners of diverse backgrounds and interests. Ensemble 21's growing audience includes new music enthusiasts and non-musicians alike. To reach out to new listeners, the members and directors of the ensemble appear regularly on New York public radio, performing and discussing new works on the air. Ensemble 21 also organizes interactive events, such as panel discussions, bridging the gap which too often separates today's composers from their listeners.


"As new music continues to redefine itself," reads the ensemble's mission, "it is imperative, now more than ever, that the works of composers still breathing be brought to the public with vigor, style, and the awareness that this is the music of our time." Now in its sixth performance season, Ensemble 21 continues to fulfill its mission. While special priority is given to programming the music of emerging American composers, the ensemble also performs works by Europeans rarely heard in this country, as well as twentieth-century masterpieces from both the United States and abroad. Through inventive programming - emphasizing drama, color, and quality rather than a particular aesthetic or style - Ensemble 21 paints for its audiences a vivid portrait of the international New Music scene.


Ensemble 21 provides exciting opportunities not only for its listeners but for composers and performers as well. The ensemble maintains an active commissioning program which has already aided in the creation and premiere of several new works by emerging composers. Ensemble 21's commitment to young artists is also evidenced by the Annual Featured Soloist Recital, which introduces to New York audiences a talented performer who excels in the twentieth-century repertoire. These recitals bring much-deserved attention to gifted young artists, while exposing the public to lesser-known works. By offering unique opportunities to those who create, perform, and listen to the music of today, Ensemble 21 hopes to make a lasting contribution towards strengthening the New Music community of tomorrow.

Ensemble 21 Artistic Advisory Board

Milton Babbitt is one of America's most important composers, theorists and educators; his work in twelve-tone theory has been the basis for post-war compositional thought among composers of many styles. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, MacArthur Fellowship, William Schuman Award, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences Gold Medal. A member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and William Schubael Conant Professor of Music Emeritus at Princeton University, he currently teaches at the Juilliard School.

Martin Boykan, a member of the editorial board of Perspectives of New Music, is Irving G. Fine Professor of Music at Brandeis University. He has been honored with grants and commissions from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Guggenheim Foundation, The Fromm Foundation of Harvard University, and the Koussevitsky Foundation. Martin Boykan was awarded the National League-ISCM Prize in 1983.

David Burge is recognized as one of the foremost performers of twentieth-century piano music. He has premiered and recorded the works of several contemporary composers, most notably George Crumb. He was awarded a Grammy Award for his historic recordings, and his recent book Twentieth Century Piano Music received the Deems Taylor Prize for Musical Journalism. Having taught at Northwestern, Stockholm, and Pennsylvania Universities, as well as the Eastman School of Music, Dr. Burge currently composes and performs in the San Diego area.

Mario Davidovsky is a leading composer of electronic music; his historic "Synchronisms" were among the first works to combine live performers with electronic tape. His many honors include the Pulitzer Prize, the Aaron Copland-Tanglewood Award, and the Brandeis University Creative Arts Award, and he has received fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. Until recently the MacDowell Professor of Music at Columbia University, he now teaches at Harvard University.

George Edwards is a composer of numerous award-winning works. He has received commissions from the Koussevitsky Foundation, the Pro Arte Quartet, and the Composers Quartet, and he is the recipient of the Rome Prize, a Naumburg Foundation Recording Award, and two Guggenheim Fellowships. Previously on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, he is now the Assistant Chairman of the Department of Music at Columbia University.

Donald Martino has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Mark M. Horbilt Award. Granted fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Institute of Arts and Letters, and The Guggenheim Foundation, Martino has taught at Princeton, Yale and Brandeis Universities, the New England Conservatory, and Harvard University, where he held the position of Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music.

Robert Morris is best-known for his exhaustive theoretical work, his many scholarly articles, and his landmark book Composition with Pitch Classes. He is also a prolific composer, having written numerous works both acoustic and electronic sources. Previously at the University of Hawaii and Yale University, Morris is currently Professor of Composition and Theory at the Eastman School of Music and the Editorial Board Chairman of Perspectives of New Music. His awards include grants from the National Foundation for the Arts and American Council of Learned Societies.

Milton Peckarsky has championed new music as a pianist, concert coordinator and educator. During his years in New York, he made his performing debut at Carnegie Hall and earned a Master of Arts from Columbia University. Later, he returned to the mid-west to bring contemporary music to new audiences. He has been a teacher and concert organizer at Alverno College and Concordia University, as well an integral member and coordinator of the Music of Our Time series at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Mr. Peckarsky is active with the Wisconsin Alliance of Composers, Meet the Composer/Arts Midwest, and the Civic Music Association.

Ensemble 21 Executive Board

Toby Boshak, Executive Director, Princess Grace Foundation

Milton Diamond, Esq.

Frances Richard, Director, Symphonic and Concert Music, ASCAP