International Centre for Contemporary Music launched to promote the performance, production and commissioning of contemporary music

The newly launched International Centre for Contemporary Music is a London-based organisation devoted to the performance, production, and promotion of contemporary music, encouraging audiences to experience new or recent works.

With Croatian-American conductor Zvonimir Hačko as artistic director and music director the ICCM is announcing its first London concert season, scheduled for Spring 2022 and the 2022/23 concert season and featuring a number of world and UK premieres.

Among the performing ensembles are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Sinfonietta, and the themes are contemporary music from Eastern Europe and the US. The Spring 2022 series, Leaning East, will include works by, among others, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski and Pēteris Vasks (a UK premiere); the Spring 2023 series, America’s High Cotton, will include John Adams, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Reich, Osvaldo Golijov, Philip Glass and Missy Mazzoli.

Krzysztof Penderecki, who died aged 86 in March 2020, will be a major focus for ICCM as it Penderecki Retrospective in Autumn 2022, a series of seven concerts featuring the composer’s major orchestral works.

Art and music director Zvonimir Hačko said: ‘Every age has its prophets and ours does too. Our job is to find them and perform their works because they speak the truth of our time. That is what ICCM is about.’

ICCM’s commissioning programme has been active for the last 18 months before launching so that major symphonic works are ready to be programmes by leading orchestras. Additionally, ICCM’s recording programme, masterclasses and workshops are in operation. An international music academy will also be launched that will give young musicians the opportunity to work beside established artists.

Scheduled for 2022 is Meet the Composer, a free programme providing opportunities to interact with composers featured in ICCM’s concert series. It will comprise public forums, open rehearsals, panel discussions, lectures and interviews. The three composers announced for 2022 are French composer Thierry Escaich in March, Polish composer Paweł Mykietyn in April and Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad in November.

Find out more about the ICCM here.