This October, 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.

Ebi Revolution by Chatori Shimizu for Violin and Cello

Medi(no)tation by Michael Tod Kovell for Full Ensemble

Fresh Fuel for the Sodium Flares by Emma Denney for Double Bass

Stop the wind of my voice before it breaks me by Marc Perez for Voice

Zero - Aria 2: Hazy Forest by Kaito Nakahori for Flute, Clarinet in B-flat, Bassoon, Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Voice

Billow by Alicia Castillo for Full Ensemble

Dance of the Beloved Forever Chemicals Meeting Each Other Once Again In An Orgiastic Reverie After Many Lifetimes Apart by M. A. Tiesanga for Full Ensemble

First Light by Joshua Weitz for Clarinet in B-flat and Electronics

Samoyeds by Robin Haigh for String Quartet

ChouChou's Suite by Qingye Wu for Bassoon

Celestial Bodies by Cooper Wood for Flute, Clarinet in B-flat, Violin, Cello, and Piano