This event was, sadly, cancelled due to the global pandemic. Fortunately, we have rescheduled it for this fall, 2022. Notes are below, and also, a 2017 performance of Leroux’s Prelude à l’épais is posted above.

Philippe Leroux has been a long-time collaborator with Ecce. He was a guest composer at the Etchings Festival in 2017 with Raphäel Cendo, and Ecce has performed his Postlude à l'epáis on previous seasons. Now, for the first time, Ecce will perform Leroux's almost-complete l'épais cycle (the final work in the composer's series is still to be composed).

Prelude à l'épais is a work almost completely different from what will follow, in that it entertains the question of fundamental gesture. Instrumentalists, free from their instruments, are asked to choreograph the work's meters along with the conductor. The global temporal gesture as brush stroke is the composer's ingenious transformation here. And, as a prelude, the gesture asks us to consider how playful and embodied the ensuing music will also be. We are invited to contemplate the physicality of musical temporality in what appears to be almost ritualistic. Ultimately, Leroux's opening is philosophical as well as gesturally, and musically, compelling.  

à l'épais  is the center piece of Leroux's work and in that regard entertains the largest instrumentation. Accordion, Trombone and Contrasbass join the forces to ground the ensemble in a completely new, earthier sonic foundation. Here, Leroux explores a variety of timbral combinations, and the work enters into a more meditative sensibility. Clearly, Leroux is interested in great contrasts between the work's movements.

Postlude à l'épais begins with a subtle yet persistent accelerando that comes to a dramatic head to begin the multi-movement work's final statement. From there, the movement's calculated, micro-timed gestures herald a constantly shifting non-linear narrative that is at once completely gripping and always culminating. Reminiscent of an earlier work, AAA, the Postlude manages to keep steady direction to the finish while entertaining a wealth of musical diversions and instrumental flourishes.

Dominique Schafer was a founding member of the Etchings Festival and one of Ecce's earliest member composers. He and John Aylward met in 2006 while both in graduate school and became fast friends. Dominique, having had a wealth of experience in Europe and being about 12 years older than John, had a greater understanding of the world of contemporary music. Dominique imparted a great deal of wisdom to John and they also bonded through their shared Germanic heritage (John's mother was born in Berlin), their lifelong vegetarianism and their interest in meditation and Eastern spirituality (John would go on to become a licensed yoga instructor). When Dominique joined Ecce, he took a lead in developing the Etchings Festival, helping secure prominent European composers and performers. A few summers later, Dominique met his life partner, Mu-Xuan Lin, at Etchings. Mu-Xuan is also a formidable composer and the two spent nine years together. Sadly, Dominique died this year at the age of 53. He will be sorely missed in the Ecce community. We will always remember his music and are dedicated to keeping it alive through our performances.

In 2011, Dominique wrote Anima for us, to be premiered in New York by Ecce and the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society. Later, Anima received its European premiere at the Cite des Arts, where Dominique was an artist in residence, by Ecce, with Oliver Hagen conducting. The work is clearly near and dear to us and we are very happy to be able to continue to share it with our growing audiences.