SONIC Festival
festival curator (ongoing)

"Over the past decade, a new generation of composers and performers has arisen, refusing to submit to genre boundaries or dusty ideological battles, jacking up the cool quotient on New York’s new-music scene. The SONiC Festival…aims to immerse audiences in this new paradigm. ."
 
–Time Out New York

Curated by Derek Bermel and Anna Clyne, the SONiC festival was heralded in its 2011 inauguration as “a brilliant and unpretentious showcase for music in the new millennium” (The Guardian). SONiC returned again in 2015 with a mission to explore the soundscape of the time through the lens of works by 80+ up-and-coming composers, including over 20 world premieres in every conceivable style. SONiC doesn’t attempt to define this moment in music, but brings composers, performers and audiences together to explore the richness, vitality and diversity of the Sounds of a New Century.

SONiC is curated by ACO Artistic Director Derek Bermel (main stage concerts) with Associate Curator Anna Clyne (AfterHours concerts), and is presented in collaboration with Carnegie Hall, Arts Brookfield, National Sawdust, Kaufman Music Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, DROM, ShapeShifter Lab, and Americas Society, with lead support from The Fromm Music Foundation and additional support from the Howard Gilman Foundation. Q2 Music, the new music online stream of WQXR, is the digital media partner for SONiC.

"Rarely has this city’s vibrant new-music scene produced an endeavor as ambitious as SONiC: Sounds of a Century."
 
–Musical America