Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME) presents their fourth 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.”

The scores being performed 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, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, voice, piano, percussion, and electronics. The ensemble will perform in myriad permutations across sixteen 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.

The following works will be performed:

…upon her thousand eyes by Eleanor Margraf

Imminent Futurabilities by Marta Tiesenga

Pitchforks and Crow’s Feet by Kyle Grimm

Bodies of Sound in Space Abby Kellums

Echo Echo by Robin Haigh

What was then isn’t now and will never be again by Anak Baiharn