Musique 21

Musique 21, a contemporary music ensemble, uses flexible instrumentation and is devoted to the performance of works written by composers of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries. It provides audiences with unique sounds and timbres that have been developed throughout the contemporary era of music. It comprises both faculty and students within the College of Music.

Since its inception in 1997, the ensemble has performed works by MSU composers Jere Hutcheson and Ronald Newman and other composers, including Evan Chambers, George Crumb, Sofia Gubaidulina, Ian Honeyman, Libby Larson, Gyorgy Ligetti, David Liptak, Stephen Rush, Joseph Schwantner, Michael Torke, Edgard Varese, and Dana Wilson.

Musique 21 director Kevin Noe describes the ensemble and its recent performance of "Return Flight," a theatre of music production that uses Ligeti's monumental Musica Ricercata as the point of departure for a ritual celebration of life's simple building blocks. The performance also featured world premieres by Ricio Fruge, Ricardo Lorenz, Kieren MacMillan, Diego Rivera, and Phillip Sink.