The International Contemporary Ensemble will be coming to Brandeis on Saturday, Jan. 30, for a three-day residency. The group, since its formation in 2001, has emerged as one of the top contemporary classical ensembles in New York and Chicago, with the New York Times praising it as "one of the most adventurous and accomplished groups in new music." The 30-member collective features flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, acoustic and electric guitar, as well as electronic accompaniments, and frequently plays compositions by new or young composers. On Jan. 30, ICE will perform at the Slosberg Recital Hall at 8 p.m., displaying their critically acclaimed repertoire of Philippe Hurel, Franco Donatoni, Mario Davidovsky, Philippe Manoury and Edgar Guzman. On Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., ICE will give a concert featuring premieres by Brandeis' own graduate Composition students, after spending that afternoon working with the students on their compositions. In addition to the concerts, ICE will be reading new pieces of music on Monday, Feb. 1 at 10 a.m. and giving a talk on art entrepreneurship at noon, both in the Slosberg Recital Hall. The group's stay at Brandeis is sponsored by the Brandeis Arts Council, and all performances will be free and open to the public.

So what should students expect from a "new-music" ensemble? ICE's MySpace page categorizes it as classical/experimental, but the two genres hardly describe the group's dynamic selection of modernist, minimalist and contemporary composers.

Since the group frequently programs emerging composers, ICE's sound and style changes with each new arrangement or composition. James Borchers (GRAD), who is responsible for organizing ICE's residency at Brandeis, has often found its concerts to be "very exciting, unconventional, and always at a high level."

Borchers first met with ICE when he was a graduate student at Queens College and the group had just recently formed. Years later, Borchers saw that it had "become a prominent fixture of the contemporary new music scene in New York" and contacted them about coming to Brandeis in summer 2008.

"I was primarily interested in bringing them to Brandeis to work with the graduate composers because they have a tremendous amount of experience, expertise, and affinity for the work of young emerging composers," Borchers said in an e-mail to justArts. "The majority of their repertoire comes from music written only in the last few decades, by composers that are actually still alive."

Borchers, along with the staff and faculty of the Music department, expressed great enthusiasm for ICE's residency at the school. "The concerts will likely challenge your expectations," Borchers said, "and should offer a compelling insight into the realm of contemporary music.