“NOW... imports a catchy inflection to classical forms... Striking a balance between the old and the new has rarely sounded this good.”
— Newsweek
NOW Ensemble
Members
Logan Coale, Bass » Mark Dancigers, Electric Guitar and Composer » Alicia Lee, Clarinet
Michael Mizrahi, Piano » Alex Sopp, Flute » Patrick Burke, Composer » Judd Greenstein, Composer
NOW Ensemble is a dynamic group of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music for the 21st century.
With a unique instrumentation of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano, the ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members. NOW Ensemble has brought some of the most exciting composers of their generation to national and international recognition.
In recent seasons, NOW has performed at Lincoln Center, the Apples and Olives Festival in Zürich, Switzerland, Town Hall Seattle, Da Camera Houston, and in Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series. NOW has performed at Miller Theater, Merkin Hall, the Bang on a Can Marathon, The Kitchen NYC, The Stone, the Carlsbad Festival, the Festival Internacional Chihuahua, the Look and Listen Festival, The Music Gallery Toronto, Sarasota's New Music New College, the Southern Exposure Series, Pittsburgh's Music on the Edge, Cal Arts, MIT, Juilliard, Town Hall Seattle, Da Camera Houston, and Lincoln Center, among many others.
From 2016-2018 they were the inaugural ensemble-in-residence at San Diego’s Art of Élan. In June 2019 NOW Ensemble’s album Rounder Songs was awarded an Independent Music Award (IMA) for Best Eclectic EP. December 2019 saw the release of their sixth album, Spare the Rod!, on New Amsterdam Records.
NOW Ensemble's performances have been featured on NPR's “All Things Considered” and live on WNYC, and their album Awake charted at #1 in Amazon's Classical Chamber Music Charts. “Plan of the City,” NOW's collaboration with filmmaker Joshua Frankel, was praised in the Washington Post as “one of the best matches of visuals to music I’ve seen.” Since 2004, NOW has worked closely with over 100 composers, including Judd Greenstein, Mark Dancigers, Patrick Burke, Missy Mazzoli, Sean Friar, Kathryn Alexander, San Fermin's Ellis Ludwig- Leone, Nico Muhly, Timothy Andres, and Sarah Kirkland Snider.
Highlights of the recent seasons include residencies at Antenna Cloud Farm and Lynn University, performances at the College of St. Rose, the Red Note New Music Festival, the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, and in venues throughout New York City. They released their seventh new album, Before and After, in 2021 to critical acclaim.
——-
"The vibrant sound of NOW Ensemble... does something more than offer composers an alternative to the ubiquitous 'Pierrot ensembles plus singer or percussion.' It breathes the air of this planet: the musical air of indie rock, rap, jazz, pop, and minimalism variously synthesized by classically-trained composers and instrumentalists. Three of NOW's founding members are composers, and a community of 35 like-minded others have responded to the opportunities NOW embodies: to defy specialization, reject alienation, and inspire deft musicians to convey a sense of private amusement that enlivens the music they perform." - Jeffrey Edelstein, International Concert Review
Logan Coale
double bass
Bass player LOGAN COALE’s projects help illuminate paths forward for the tradition of art music and the importance of the conversation between art music and popular music.
He is currently bass player for Natalie Merchant and is a member of contemporary classical music group NOW Ensemble. He has performed and toured with The National, Lisa Hannigan and Aaron Dessner, Silk Road Ensemble, Abigail Washburn, Helado Negro, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Knights Chamber Orchestra, The Mark Morris Dance Group, A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Wordless Music Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound. He has recorded commercially for David Lang, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, Lisa Hannigan, The Lone Bellow, Mum, The National, Olga Bell, Sharon Van Etten, Local Natives, Joanna Newsom, Luluc, and Jonsi Sigursson of Sigur Ros, among others. He was a scholarship student of both Todd Seeber and Edwin Barker of the Boston Symphony, and a fellow at the Tanglewood and Schlesswig-Holstein Festivals. Logan grew up in Portland, Oregon, and currently lives in Brooklyn.
back to the top
Mark Dancigers
electric guitar & composer
MARK DANCIGERS is a composer and the electric guitarist for the new-chamber music group NOW Ensemble. Praised for his "entrancing" music in the New York Times, Dancigers creates scores that are melodically driven, texturally imaginative, and sonically vibrant. Dancigers studied composition at Yale (B.A.), the Yale School of Music (M.M.), and Princeton University (PhD). He has previously been on the faculties of Yale College and the University of Redlands School of Music, and is currently Assistant Professor at the New College of Florida in Sarasota.
His orchestra music has been commissioned by the New York City Ballet for the work "Bright" with choreographer Justin Peck. His music has also been performed by the Alabama, Minnesota, Cabrillo, and New York Youth Symphony Orchestras. His piece for yMusic "Everness" has been broadcast repeatedly on the nationally aired program "Performance Today."
His most recent project is the duo Grand Electric, an ensemble of electric guitar and piano, with the accomplished pianist Aaron Wunsch.
back to the top
Alicia Lee
clarinet
Clarinetist ALICIA LEE enjoys a diverse musical life performing old and new works in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings. She maintains a busy freelance career throughout New York City, performing and touring regularly with a variety of groups, including the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Knights, and NOVUS, ACME, and Alarm Will Sound. She has performed at the Lucerne, Spoleto (Italy and US), Yellow Barn, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Marlboro, and Bay Chamber music festivals.
She is a founding member of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Ms. Lee has held positions in the Santa Barbara Symphony and the Bergen Philharmonic in Norway. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French Language and Literature from Columbia University, and pursued musical studies at The Juilliard School with Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima as a part of the Columbia-Juilliard exchange program. She earned additional degrees from the University of Southern California and The Colburn School, where she was a student of Yehuda Gilad.
Born into a musical family, Alicia grew up in Michigan, where she began playing violin and piano at the age of 5 and eventually switched to clarinet at the age of 12. She is currently Assistant Professor of clarinet at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she also performs with the Wingra Wind Quintet.
back to the top
Michael Mizrahi
piano
Pianist and Director MICHAEL MIZRAHI has appeared as concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and teaching artist in major concert halls around the world. A first prize winner in several international competitions, he also performed for many years with the Moët Piano Trio. In addition to appearing as the pianist in NOW Ensemble, Mizrahi recently released The Bright Motion and Currents, two critically acclaimed albums of newly commissioned works for solo piano that Time Out Chicago described as being "packed with effervescent solo-piano selections and adroit performances."
Mr. Mizrahi is also an alumni of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and as such regularly performs with other alumni in chamber ensembles comprised of virtuoso musicians, entrepreneurs, and passionate advocates of the arts. Mizrahi has helped create innovative performances and engaging projects with partners around the world. Drawing from his work with Ensemble Connect, Mizrahi has worked to foster partnerships between Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music and the surrounding community, and helped found Lawrence’s Music For All project that brings classical chamber music to children and populations who ordinarily do not participate. Mr. Mizrahi was a co-director for many years of the prestigious Decoda Chamber Music Festival, which in 2023 took place at Lawrence University, as well as the Lawrence Summer Music Institute, a program for advanced high school musicians launched in 2023.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and religion from the University of Virginia and a doctoral degree in piano performance from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Claude Frank. He is currently Frank C Shattuck Professor of Piano at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.
back to the top
Alex Sopp
flute
ALEX SOPP is a musician and artist living in Brooklyn. As the flutist of yMusic, The Knights, and NOW Ensemble, the New York Times has praised her playing as “exquisite” and “beautifully nuanced." Comfortable in many genres, Alex has commissioned, premiered, and recorded with some of the most exciting composers and songwriters of our time, including Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, Ben Folds, Jonsí of Sigur Ros, Paul Simon, Gabriel Kahane, St. Vincent, Judd Greenstein, My Brightest Diamond, The Dirty Projectors, and The National. A sought-after soloist, Alex made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony, and has appeared with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of David Robertson. In addition to her three main musical families, she plays as a guest with the International Comtemporary Ensemble (ICE), and has made appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
In addition to playing the flute, Alex is a singer and a painter. Most recently, she has appeared as a multi-disciplinary performer and singer in theater director John Tiffany’s production of “The Ambassador,” a staged music theater piece with original songs by Gabriel Kahane. Her voice can also be heard on several albums, including the forthcoming yMusic + Ben Folds collaboration, “So There”. Alex’s paintings grace the covers of records by such artists as Ben Folds and The Knights, and can be seen in private collections.
Alex grew up in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. She completed both her Bachelors and Masters degrees at The Juilliard School.
back to the top
Patrick Burke
composer
PATRICK BURKE works as a composer and educator in Pittsburgh. He draws inspiration from his background as a classical pianist, an amateur rock and folk guitarist, and a performer in a gamelan ensemble. Formally tight, narrative structures are balanced with lyricism and expounded with a dream-like logic that is often inspired by film. Patrick was commissioned this year to compose a piece for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, to be performed in February of 2014. Patrick has also been commissioned by the Albany Symphony, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, IonSound Project, and others. As a founding member of NOW Ensemble, Patrick contributed the title track to their second album, Awake, which was released last year on New Amsterdam Records, reaching the #2 position on Amazon’s classical album charts, and #1 on iTunes. Patrick’s music continues to be performed increasingly throughout North America by ensembles such as eighth blackbird, the Minnesota Orchestra, Present Music, Citywater Ensemble, and others. His recent music has been called “indie-classical at its finest” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), and “glittering fun…at once very sophisticated and instantly accessible” (Third Coast Digest). Patrick currently serves as Assistant Professor of Musicianship and Music Technology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.
back to the top
Judd Greenstein
composer
JUDD GREENSTEIN was born and raised in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, where he began his compositional life by writing hip hop beats as a teenager. His concert works reflect those origins, as well as his traditional piano background, combining an urban, beat-oriented sensibility with a late Romantic classical harmonic language. A passionate advocate for the indie classical community in New York, much of Judd’s work is written for the virtuosic ensembles and solo performers who make up that community, and is tailored to their specific talents and abilities. Judd has attracted attention through his close collaboration with many of the best young solo musicians in New York and beyond, including violist Nadia Sirota, yMusic, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, percussionist Samuel Solomon, violinist Colin Jacobsen, pianists Michael Mizrahi and Blair McMillan, and flutist Alex Sopp. He has also received performances by and commissions from a wide array of ensembles around the country, including Present Music, the Seattle Chamber Players, the University of Texas at Austin New Music Ensemble, and the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, as well as many prominent ensembles in New York, including Carnegie Hall, the Kaufman Center, Newspeak, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble, the Knights, Sympho, and the New York Youth Symphony. Central to his output is his work for NOW Ensemble.
back to the top