NIU School of Music's Ten Years of the New Music Festival

Gregory Beyer, DMA

Music Festival Poster Collage Created in 2008 by its director, Dr. Gregory Beyer, the Northern Illinois University New Music Ensemble is a performance group dedicated to historically groundbreaking music of the 20th Century and the emerging musical voices of the 21st Century.

Each fall, the ensemble presents a multi-concert Festival featuring prominent guest composers, performers, and thematically connected compositions to expose students and the NIU community to excellence and diversity in contemporary classical music making.

With its flexible instrumentation allowing it to present diverse repertoire, the NIU NME has to date presented concerts of music by Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Olivier Messiaen, Augusta Read Thomas, Regina Harris Baiocchi, Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, Kate Soper, Shulamit Ran, Elainie Lillios, Alexis C. Lamb, Judith Shatin, Jessie Montgomery, David M. Gordon, Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Erik Griswold, Anthony Pateras, Gerard Grisey, Fred Sturm, Matt Ulery, Christopher Adler, David Lang, Dawn of MIDI, and many others.

At its festivals, student members of the NME have interacted directly with many of these composers and have performed alongside luminous guest artists such as Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC), Yarn/Wire (NYC), Clocked Out Duo (Australia), Matt Ulery and Loom, Dane Richeson and Marco Albonetti, and the nief-norf Project.

2022 NIU New Music Festival

The 10th Anniversary New Music Festival features:

three concerts of music for orchestra, wind ensemble, choirs, mixed chamber groups, solo instrumentalists, percussion ensemble, string quartet, and sound installations
music by guest artist alumnae Elainie Lillios and Alexis C. Lamb
a guest appearance by Argentinean choral composer Santiago Veros
guest artist performances by Nick Photinos, I-Jen Fang and Daphne Gerling
appearances by NIU Faculty Christopher Scanlon, Gregory Beyer, and the Avalon String Quartet
NIU student soloists Andrew Carlson, Ethan Cowburn, and Jonah Payne
NIU student ensembles including the NIU Philharmonic, the NIU Wind Ensemble, the NIU Concert Choir, the NIU Chamber Choir, the NIU Percussion Ensemble, and the NIU New Music Ensemble

LEARN MORE about the upcoming festival, November 2-4, 2022.

Historical Poster Gallery

First NIU New Music Ensemble performance

The Northern Illinois University’s New Music Ensemble was founded in 2008 and in their first year they hosted three concerts that incorporated lectures and presentations. The first was April 8, 2008 when the ensemble performed Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Electric Counterpoint.

New Music Ensemble's second concert

Next was a pre-concert lecture and performance titled, Natural Rhythm, Colorful Spirit: The Music of Olivier Messiaen

New Music Ensemble Fall 2008 performance

In October, 2022 the NIU Music Ensemble performed The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen.

New Music Ensemble spring 2009

In the spring of 2009 the New Music Ensemble performed The Music of Olivier Messiaen.

The inaugural NIU New Music Festival

In 2010, the first of what we now know as the NIU New Music Festival was held with six concerts held over four days, featuring New York City’s Wet Ink Ensemble.

NIU New Music Ensemble performs in November 2010

Later in 2010, the New Music Ensemble was back, performing music of Shulamit Ran and David M. Gordon.

Second Annual NIU New Music Festival

A little over a year after the festival debut, it returned for the 2nd NIU New Music Festival, a two-night affair with pre-concert lectures, and performances of the works of Luciano Berio, Igor Stravinsky and George Crumb.

Third Annual NIU New Music Festival

Music by John Cage and music from Down Under highlighted the two-night Third NIU Music Festival in 2012.

Fourth NIU New Music Festival

The fourth NIU New Music Festival featured three concerts and included guest artists Marco Alboneti, Dane Richardson, Matt Ulery and Loom. And the third night featured le’ noir de l’etoile, an NIU graduate student percussion sextet and a lecture on “Ten Awesome Things You Didn’t Know About Astronomy” with NIU astronomers Matt Wiesner and David Hedin.

Fifth NIU New Music Festival

In 2014, the fifth NIU New Music Festival included three concerts over two nights with four lectures.

2017 NIU New Music Festival

2017’s edition of the NIU New Music Ensemble included three concerts, one of which was focused on new music, the second celebrated the works of composer Augusta Read Thomas and featured a pre-concert talk with her, and the final night saw a performance by Duo Qattus performing new music from Brazil.

New Music at NIU - 2018

A one-night concert was held featuring new music and the artistic directors were NIU School of Music faculty members Gregory Beyer and Phillip Sink.

Eighth NIU New Music Festival

In 2019 the largest-ever NIU New Music Festival was held with five concerts over four nights, including composer LIbby Larsen, Erin Gee, Ensemble Dal Niente, Fifth House Ensemble, Avalon String Quartet, Matt Ulery, Gregory Beyer, Projeto Arcomusical and Abby Fisher, among others.

Ninth NIU New Music Festival

The 2021 New Music Festival featured Chicago-based composer Regina Harris Baiocchi and featured two concerts over two nights.

Tenth Year Anniversary of the NIU New Music Festival

The 2022 festival marks the tenth in its history and three nights of concerts. Featured artists include Alexis C. Lamb, Eleainie Lillios and many more.