By Michael Avitabile

On Saturday December 13, 2014 the Boston Young Composers Ensemble (BYCE) will launch a new performance  project called Composium at 4PM at St John’s Episcopal Church in Jamaica Plain, MA. An amalgam of “composer”  and “symposium,” Composium incorporates live interviews, musical demonstrations, audience participation, and  performance into one event that brings the community behind the scenes of contemporary music. This new project  provides audiences with the full scope of writing, rehearsing, and presenting a new composition, showcasing a piece’s  lifespan from conception to performance.

This afternoon’s event will feature the works of composers Robert Honstein, Spencer Topel, and Missy Mazzoli, composers all of whom have affiliations with Boston and the greater New England area. A native of Jamaica Plain, Mr. Honstein has been hailed for his “daring innovations, stylistic range and acute attention to instrumental nuance.” (WQXR) Mr. Topel serves on the faculty at Dartmouth College and is the only American composer to receive a Danish International Visiting Artist Residency (DIVA). An alumnus of Boston University, Ms. Mazzoli has been described by Time Out New York as “Brooklyn’s post-millennial Mozart.”

About the Ensemble

The Boston Young Composers Ensemble (BYCE) is a dynamic collective of artists focused on the next generation of local contemporary chamber music. We believe playing the music of local composers is intrinsically connected to building a strong community. BYCE is a self-managed group seeking to dissolve the boundaries between artist and administrator. In pursuing this goal, members of the ensemble take on their own administrative responsibilities alongside their duties as performers. By melding arts interpreter with arts entrepreneur, BYCE creates a unique product where musicians take part in all aspects of the creative process.

Michael Avitabile is a Boston based flutist, arts entrepreneur, and educator dedicated to the music of our time. He is Artistic & Executive Director of BYCE, a chamber music collective devoted to building community through music by the latest generation of local composers. In his free time, Michael is a total foodie and can be found reading a recipe blog at any given moment.