Polyaspora

Multiple perspectives offer multiple possibilities. This seemingly simple core concept provides the starting point for the concert “Polyaspora” by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). Adrian Tchaikovsky’s 2021 science fiction novel “Shards of Earth” describes a future condition of human life throughout our galaxy in which there is no fixed abode, but only flows, from everywhere and in all directions: not a diaspora, but a polyaspora.

According to ICE Artistic Director George Lewis, this is already how our lives and our perception of the world are shaped today. This quality also applies to ICE itself, which Lewis describes as intercultural, intermedial and interdisciplinary, as well as conscious, collaborative, creolized, and connected, across borders of aesthetics, practices, gender, ethnicity, race, and transnational formations.

In this spirit, collaborating with the renowned Berlin-based Zafraan Ensemble, ICE is presenting two generations of Afrodiasporic Swiss composers, Charles Uzor and Jessie Cox, as well as works by major figures such as Samir Odeh-Tamimi, and younger voices such as Aida Shirazi, Raven Chacon, and Laure M. Hiendl. The aim of “Polyaspora” is to propose a new consciousness, a new identity for new music.