This October, Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble presents their fifth annual New Music Festival, a celebration of composed sound works, with a special focus on those that push composition’s boundaries. EDME's executive director, JP Lempke, describes New Music as "a catch-all term for sounds that are composer-driven, encompassing experimental, improvised, electronic, chamber, and symphonic musics. It is contemporary classical, but without the inherent contradiction embedded in that phrase.”

On the 2nd, the opening concert will feature guest artists from around the world. On the 3rd & 4th, EDME & IMPULSE Ensemble will perform newly composed scores, chosen from over 300 international submissions. These scores explore the visions and sounds of both established and emerging artists. These artists engage with the world as we live it now: sonically diverse, politically charged, and forever changing.

EDME’s instrumentation for this year’s NMF is flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, french horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, voice, piano, percussion, and electronics. The ensemble will perform in myriad permutations across fourteen pieces and three shows. “Our concerts feature works designed for the ensemble members’ principal instruments, including everything from quiet sonic landscapes to exploratory performance art,” says Lempke.

EDME will perform
E Hoʻopulapula by Justin Park
Innovations 2 by Stephen Montalvo
Vociferation by Marc Perez
She Breathes Fire: Prologue by Stacy Busch
Little Mind by Juniana Lanning
Tales From Tír na nÓg by Daniel Germano