Great Noise Ensemble

With nineteen world premieres and counting, Great Noise Ensemble is a working embodiment of its mission to fight for the performance of new works and to promote emerging talent in contemporary music. Great Noise Ensemble was born in 2005 through a listing placed on Craigslist.org by composer and conductor Armando Bayolo. Seven area musicians united by their passion for new music answered, and from this core group the ensemble has grown into the twenty instrumentalists and two singers which now comprise its core membership. Since its first concert in January 2006, Great Noise Ensemble has become one of the most important ensembles in the District of Columbia’s bourgeoning new music scene, winning The Washington Area Music Association’s 2007 “WAMMIE” Award for Best Chamber Ensemble. In is short three-year history, the group has presented concerts in venues ranging from intimate community concert spaces like the Patricia M. Sitar Center to prestigious locales such as the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Museum. In its 2008-2009 season, Great Noise Ensemble will be the Ensemble in Residence at the Catholic University of America’s Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, presenting four concerts at the University’s Ward Hall and working with School of Music composition students to help bring their works to life though coachings and reading sessions. This season also marks the group’s debut at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in cooperation with The Congressional Chorus, presenting their co-commission, the world premiere of Daniel Felsenfeld’s Revolutions of Ruin.