Face the Music

Since its founding in 2005, Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music youth ensemble has taken its place as a full-fledged player in New York City’s vibrant contemporary classical scene, rapidly becoming what Allan Kozinn of the New York Times has called “a force in the New York new-music world.”

During the 2012-13 season the ensemble will perform at venues across New York City, including Merkin Concert Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium, Queens Museum of Art, Roulette, the Baryshnikov Arts Center and Issue Project Room among others. They will perform on Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival, Make Music New York and in support of New York City public schools through the Neighborhood Classics series.

Highlights of the 2012-13 season include performances of Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet with the JACK Quartet at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and George Lewis’s Artificial Life with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) on the Ecstatic Music Festival as well as world premieres of works by members of Face the Music.

The only student ensemble in New York City dedicated to performing music by living classical composers, Face the Music has been praised by the New York Times for its “stunning performances” of music by contemporary composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Terry Riley. Critics have hailed them as “polished, exuberant” (New York Times) and one of “New York’s favorite contemporary-classical ensembles” (Time Out New York).

Founded in 2005 by Dr. Jenny Undercofler with eight students with unique passion for experimenting with music, the ensemble has now grown to more than 120 teens and pre-teens from over 40 elementary, middle and high schools from across the New York City area. Students in Face the Music come from all the major NYC arts high schools and pre-college music programs. Face the Music performs in several configurations: As three string quartets – Face the Music Quartet, Pannonia Quartet and Sopresa Quartet – as a chamber orchestra and in medium-sized mixed ensembles. Many of the performers are students or alumni of Kaufman Music Center’s own Special Music School, the only K-12 public school in New York City that integrates pre-conservatory musical training with academic education.

For information, call 212 501 3390 or email jundercofler@kaufman-center.org.

Read a New York Times feature on Face the Music.
Read a Daily News feature on Face the Music.
Listen to an story on Face the Music on NPR's "All Things Considered."

Go to a list of composer competitions.