Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble (EDME) present their third 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 concerts feature performers from across America on the 4th. On the 5th & 6th, EDME & IMPULSE Ensemble will perform scores from around the world, chosen from over 250 works submitted to the Festival.

These scores explore the visions and sounds of young artists writing music today, compositions profoundly engaged with the world as we live it now, post-pandemic, climate changed, and culturally embattled. “Our concerts feature works designed for the ensemble members’ principal instruments, including everything from quiet sonic landscapes to exploratory performance art,” says Lempke.

This year EDME is joined by the IMPULSE Ensemble for a special concert at UO’s Berwick Hall. The IMPULSE Ensemble is a student-run new music ensemble at the University of Oregon School of Music & Dance that is sponsored by the Oregon Composers Forum. They focus, like EDME, on New Music and living composers. They will be performing ten compositions in a variety of contemporary styles (if there is such a thing -- is melange a style?)

Crash by Zach Gulaboff Davis for Flute and Piano

Crackle/Sleep by Matt A. Mason Flute, Violin, Double Bass, and Piano

Close your eyes and see by Nahuel Litwin Percussion, Piano, and Electronics

Postcards from Veneto by Daniel De Togni for Violin, Cello, Clarinet in B-flat, and Piano

Vibrant Spontaneity by Timothy Gargiuilo for Percussion

Grief's Spectrum by Rebecca Pape for Double Bass

Points of Interest by Mark Zanter for Percussion Duet

dynatox delirium by Jude Duane for Clarinet in B-flat and Electronics

Meditations 1-5 by Nathan Froebe for Bassoon and Sax

Secret Atop the Bluff by Jonathan Newmark for Violin, Bassoon, and Piano