Performers:

Alex Woods, violin

Elizabeth Weisser, viola

Chris Gross, cello

Eliot Gattegno, saxophone

Mary Elizabeth Mackenzie, soprano

Steve Beck, piano

Alex Lipowski, percussion

James Baker, conductor

Victor Adán, electronics

Hard-core punk, heavy metal, dance club tradition, spectralist harmonies, jazz rhythms, and noise are transmogrified for chamber ensemble in works inspired by The Sex Pistols' classic punk rock album "Never Mind the Bollocks."

Performance playlist:

Trembling Time II (2009/10)
Mario Diaz de Leon

Medium Princeps (1971)
Iancu Dumitrescu

Le Mômo (1999)
John Zorn

String Trio (1991)
James Dillon

DW 16, Songbook 1 (2004) US Premier
Bernhard Lang

The Talea Ensemble has performed many important world and US premieres of new works by composers including Tristan Murail, Jason Eckardt, Pierluigi Billone, Jean-Luc Hervé, Stefano Gervasoni, Marco Stroppa, and Fausto Romitelli amongst others. The Talea Ensemble was the guest ensemble for the 18-day Spectrum XXI Festival tour in Paris and London and has twice been invited as guest ensemble to the Nevada Encounters of New Music (NEON) as well as La Ciudad de las Ideas (Mexico) and the International Contemporary Music Festival of Lima, Peru. As an active collaborator of new music, the Talea Ensemble has joined forces with Ensemble Cairn (Paris), Hyperion Ensemble (Romania), and the iO Quartet (New York).

Assuming an ongoing role in supporting and collaborating with student composers, the ensemble has served as ensemble in residence at Harvard University, Columbia University, and New York University. Recent projects include the US Premiere of Fausto Romitelli’s Professor Bad Trip, a festival of emerging Italian composers, and its monthly series at the arts-driven Roger Smith Hotel. Special highlights for the 2010-11 season include concerts presented by the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Danish Consulate, and an Indonesian tour. Future commissioned works written for the ensemble include premieres by John Zorn (Chamber Music America), James Dillon (Fromm Foundation), Eric Chasalow (Barlow Endowment), and Victor Adán (Meet the Composer). The Talea Ensemble has recorded works on the Living Artists Label and Gravina Musica.