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Miami ISCM and the New Music Miami Festival
The Florida International University (FIU) School of Music houses the Miami Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. This Associated Chapter formed in 2001 has further represent the goals of the ISCM in the US, namely the advocacy and presentation of Contemporary Music and related events.
Numerous ISCM affiliated activities have been realized and are being planned for the future including the annual New Music Miami ISCM festival, NODUS Ensemble concerts, and other new music related events (please visit the New Music Miami and NODUS sections of this site for more information.
In addition the chapter continues to make an official submission of up to 6 works by selected US based composers to the ISCM World Music Days Festival each year. These works will be considered for possible presentation at this event by the host country’s festival directors. The World Music Days Festival is one of the most important international new music events in the world. Learn more about ISCM
The directors for the Miami Section are Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Jacob Sudol, and Paula Matthusen. For more information regarding the chapter please feel free to contact Orlando Jacinto Garcia garciao@fiu.edu
THE NEW MUSIC MIAMI ISCM FESTIVAL: AN OVERVIEW
The New Music Miami Festival began in 1993 as the May in Miami Music Festival, an annual, week-long festival occurring every May founded by composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia in collaboration with Florida International University and the New World Symphony Orchestra. The festival featured nightly concerts with performances by performers from the New World Symphony and FIU faculty of renowned, emerging, and student composers works.
In 1997, the festival expanded its scope and became the New Music Miami Festival. At this point the festival was no longer just for young composers and master artists, and instead the repertoire was opened to include works from all composers internationally many of whom attended the festival and presented their work for FIU and other students, and the South Florida community at large. This followed another change in format in 2002 when the festival became the New Music Miami ISCM Festival, reflecting FIU’s status as an associated chapter of the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) which afforded the festival even wider recognition.
The festival has continued to expand and in 2009 changed from a 1 week event to an 8 – 12 concert festival spread out over a 3 month period of time, often featuring concerts for acoustic and electroacoustic instruments as well as video both in concert settings such as the Wertheim Performing Arts Center and unique venues such as out-of-doors concerts at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Art Museum, the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens, Wolfsonian – FIU and later the Miami Beach Urban Studios located on Lincoln Road with a return to the Wolfsonian for our 25th, 26th, and 27th editions of the festival. Throughout this, New Music Miami has developed numerous partnerships with presenting institutions, such as the Festival of Latin American Music, the Cervantino Festival, the Forum of New Music, and a host of local institutions.
In addition to championing music from the US, the festival has enabled composers and performers to participate and present their work from countries such as Canada, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Germany, England, Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, and France. Special guest performers have included Miranda Cuckson, Rebekah Heller, Steve Schick, Jeff Kaiser, Joan La Barbara, Evan Ziporyn, Michael Norsworthy, Martin Kuuskmann, Margaret Lancaster, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Cristina Valdes, Jennifer Choi, Mari Kimura, Madeline Shapiro, Jaime Marquez, Saul Bitran, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Daniella Strasfogel, Martha Mooke, Adam Levin, Sarah Cahill, Colin McAllister, Quasar Saxophone Quartet, Fidelio Trio, Dal Niente, Fonema Consort, Duo Duplum, Transient Canvas, Pauline Kim Harris, the NODUS Ensemble, Amernet String Quartet, and the FIU Symphony Orchestra and FIU Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Distinguished, featured composers have included Earle Brown, Morton Subotnick, Jonathan Kramer, Tania Leon, Donald Martino, Pauline Oliveros, Bernard Rands, George Crumb, Olly Wilson, Tomas Marco, Lukas Foss, Don Erb, Chinary Ung, Mario Lavista, Judith Shatin, Javier Alvarez, Todd Reynolds, Matthew Burtner, Elizabeth Hoffman, Pierre Jalbert, Joel Hoffman, Odaline de la Martinez, Flores Chaviano, Rand Steiger, Daniel Asia, Ken Ueno, George Lewis, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Augusta Read Thomas, and Fredrick Kaufman among others. The festival continues to be directed by founder composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia https://www.orlandojacintogarcia.com/ with co-directors, composers Jacob Sudol http://www.jacobsudol.com/ and Paula Matthusen http://www.paulamatthusen.com/
About the NODUS ensemble
Initiated by FIU faculty composer in residence Orlando Jacinto García, NODUS is the professional contemporary chamber music ensemble in residence at Florida International University in Miami (FIU). Specializing in the cutting edge Art music of our time, the makeup of the ensemble varies for each concert depending on the works being presented. The ensemble’s repertoire includes recent music by composers from around the world, works written specifically for the ensemble, and works with electronics and/or video.
NODUS debut at the FIU Festival of the Arts in November 1998 and shortly thereafter was featured at the January 1999 New Music Miami Festival. Subsequent performances have included the 1999, 2000, and 2001 FIU Music Festival, the 2001 Music of the Americas Festival, the 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 – 2023 New Music Miami ISCM Festival, the 2004 International Computer Music Conference, the 2006 International Association of Women in Music Conference, and other concerts held at a variety of South Florida venues over the past several seasons. In 2009-10 NODUS was featured at the International New Music Festival in Lima, Peru. During the fall of 2010 the ensemble performed 2 concerts at the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico receiving high critical recognition for both.
NODUS has been featured at the Norton Museum, Wertheim Performing Arts Center, the Wolfsonian, the Spanish Cultural Center, Miami Art Central, Miami Art Museum, von Hartz Gallery, Dorsch Gallery, Gusman Concert Hall, among other performing spaces in the region. In the summer of 2010 Innova Recordings released sonidos cubanos, the ensembles’ first CD. The album includes the works of 4 Cuban composers Tania Leon, Sergio Barroso, Ileana Perez Velazquez, and Orlando Jacinto Garcia. The works by Garcia and Leon were nominated for a Latin Grammy in the fall of 2010. The album is available here and here
The musicians in NODUS currently include internationally acclaimed performers, clarinetist Kelsey Gallagher, percussionist Colin Williams, pianist Chen Hui Jen, violinists Mari-Liis Pakk, Misha Vitenson, Avi Nagin, violist Michael Klotz, cellist Jason Calloway, and contrabassist Luis Gomez Imbert, among others