Essential Music - About Us

Essential Music is available for tour concerts as well as university, school, and community residencies. We have programs available to suit a variety of budgets, starting with an ensemble as small as two musicians and growing as large as a full orchestra. We can offer a tremendous variety of programs for your concert series, and depending on the personnel configuration chosen, can perform more than one program of repertoire in a visit to your city.

You are free to look through our repertoire database and custom-design a concert from this list. Better yet, give us a call to discuss what you're most interested in, and we'll be able to suggest a configuration and programs that meet your programming goals and budget. We'll also be able to tell you about the new pieces being written for Essential Music that will be joining our repertoire in the coming months and years that might coincide with the timeframe you have in mind.

The following programs are among our most popular:

New Work for Essential Music
Recent works by William Duckworth, David First, Kyle Gann, Peter Garland, John Kennedy, Larry Polansky, and Charles Wood. Coming soon will be new pieces by Eve Beglarian, Jon Gibson, Elodie Lauten, and others.

American Experimental Tradition Past and Present
Showing the thread that connects new music to a fertile tradition, this concert features works from the 1930's to the present, and can include music by Beyer, Cage, Cowell, Harrison, and Russell, to recent works by Robert Ashley, Morton Feldman, James Tenney, and others.

John Cage Retrospective
A wide-ranging survey of Cage's work including rare and unrecorded works from his early years, including the Four Dances and Fads and Fancies in the Academy.

Late Cage
Works from the last ten years of Cage's life, including Four3, Four4, and Five.

Europera5
John Cage's final opera, a chamber opera for ensemble of five that juxtaposes the immediacy of opera and the European past with the intrusions of American and electronic culture.

The City Wears a Slouch Hat
John Cage's infamous radio play with text by Kenneth Patchen, that Essential Music has resurrected and restored.

Music of William Russell
Delightful and iconoclastic avant garde classics from the 1930's that cross over into Chicago and New Orleans jazz.

Music of Johanna Beyer
Essential Music resurrected Johanna Beyer's music in 1988, and wherever it is heard, people are astounded by the innovative and appealing work of this 1930's pioneer.

New Music for Children
Over ten years of concerts for kids has made us a favorite in the New York area. These concerts feature real new music by Ashley, Cage, Riley, and others, and involve ear-opening participation for children "of all ages".