One of the new-music highlights of last season was a performance at the Institute of Contemporary Art of Georg Friedrich Haas’s “in vain,” a forbiddingly difficult work of theatrical intensity. The rare opportunity to hear the landmark piece came courtesy of Sound Icon, a highly talented group committed to playing mostly avant-garde European works of the past three decades. The performance was led with conviction and assurance by music director Jeffrey Means.
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Ensembles like Sound Icon, which take on repertoire played by few other groups, are hugely important in any city’s new-music scene but can be hard to keep going. Which is why it’s encouraging that the group has recently made public plans for its third season. It begins on Oct. 21 at Boston University with a performance of “Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil,” by the spectral composer Gérard Grisey. The 35-minute work, which Means described in an e-mail as a “late masterpiece,” consists of four songs for soprano and ensemble, each text about a different aspect of death.
On Nov. 17, Means will lead two works by French composer Philippe Leroux, who will be present at the concert at Northeastern University’s Fenway Center. The program also includes the American premiere of Haas’s “. . .und. . .”
Another US premiere, of Stefano Gervasoni's Epicadenza for solo percussion and ensemble, is on the March 26 concert, which also includes Elliott Carter’s “ASKO Concerto.” Carter also figures in concerts on April 12 and 13, when Sound Icon will perform at the annual Fromm new music concerts at Harvard University.
Means hinted at another event at the ICA on a scale similar to that of the performance of “in vain,” but did not reveal details. “It promises to be an exciting event,” he e-mailed.
www.soundicon.org
Music for Food
Music for Food is a concert series organized by New England Conservatory violist Kim Kashkashian to benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank. Its third season of concerts will focus on the chamber music of Dvorak. The first of its four concerts is on Sept. 17 and includes Dvorak piano works played by Lydia Artymiw, Chausson songs sung by Kendra Colton, and Dvorak’s A-major Piano Quintet, featuring an ensemble that includes Artymiw, violinists Bayla Keyes and Julia Glenn, violist Roger Tapping, and cellist Natasha Brofsky.
The other concerts are Nov. 12, Feb. 18, and April 15. Admission to each is by donation of cash, check, or a non-perishable food item.
www.musicforfoodboston.org
Bill Brett for Boston Globe/File
Kim Kashkashian organized a concert series to benefit Greater Boston Food Bank.
Pro Arte reschedule
The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra has rescheduled a concert featuring the Boston premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Shadows” for piano and orchestra. The piece was originally slated to be played last season; it is now on the final program of Pro Arte’s 2012-13 season, on a slate that also includes Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” Concerto and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 (April 21). Jeffrey Biegel, for whom the piece was written, will be the soloist.
www.proarte.org
Rapido! semis
Boston Musica Viva has announced the Northeast semifinalists in the Rapido! composition contest, which challenges composers to write a chamber ensemble piece in 14 days. BMV is the participating group for the Northeast region, whose three semifinalists are Mark Berger of Marlborough, Derek Hurst of Malden, and Eric Segerstrom of Delmar, N.Y. All will have their pieces performed at Boston Musica Viva’s Sept. 28 concert at Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center.
www.bmv.org
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