About

The History of newEar

Founded by a group of musicians with a common interest in contemporary music, newEar is Kansas City's first (and only) professional contemporary music ensemble. The group played its much-publicized debut concert at St. Mary's Church on January 23, 1994. Since that time, newEar's audience has grown while critical support has remained strong. newEar offers its listeners interesting and varied programs with a definite "what next?" factor.

In fifteen seasons, newEar has premiered over 70 compositions by such composers as William Kraft, James Mobberley, Judith Shatin, Michael Henry, Adrienne Elisha, John Hilliard, Tina Davidson, and newEar resident composers Ingrid Stölzel, Alonzo Conway, Paul Rudy, Mark Lowry, and Dwight Frizzell. newEar's flexible instrumentation lends itself to the programming of a variety of contemporary works, whether multi-media, theatrical, or strictly musical. Concerts often feature special guests, with notables such as Lou Harrison, Pauline Oliveros, Harry Spaarnay, Fred Ho, Julianna Osinchuk and Yehuda Hanani having shared the stage with newEar.

newEar was featured at the 2007 Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, CA, where they performed and conducted masterclasses. They were also featured at the 20th Annual Contemporary Music Festival at James Madison University. They have appeared in St. Louis at the Ethical Society and at St. Louis University. In Kansas City, newEar performs an annual concert series and has collaborated with both the State Ballet of Missouri and aha! Dance Theatre. newEar has performed several times at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (including its grand opening) and the nationally renowned Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in conjunction with exhibits of minimalist and contemporary art.

In November 2003 newEar premiered James Mobberley's Vox Inhumana, a work commissioned by the Serge Koussevitsky Foundation and the Barlow Foundation. Kansas City Star music critic Paul Horsley named that concert as one of the top ten concerts of 2003. The Pitch voted newEar "Best Classical Musicians of 2005" and a May 8, 2006 review in the Kansas City Star ended by wishing "that more local concerts were similarly challenging." The group has received numerous Performance Award grants from the Aaron Copland Fund of the American Music Center in New York.