The 2025 Dwight & Ursula Mamlok Prize Winners Concert in Review
BlackBox Ensemble; Dice Trio
DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York, NY
May 10, 2025
On a beautiful afternoon in New York City, a small but dedicated group of supporters of contemporary music gathered at the DiMenna Center to listen to a prize winners’ concert. The Dwight & Ursula Mamlok Prize is awarded every year to a soloist and/or an ensemble making a significant contribution to the performance of contemporary music, with a special focus on Ursula Mamlok’s compositions; the presentation of the prize alternates between New York and Berlin.
We were treated to the performances of two groups of talented musicians: the BlackBox Ensemble (who performed in the first half of the concert) and the Dice Trio (who closed the evening, after the award giving ceremony took place in the middle).
BlackBox Ensemble is a group of ten performers: soprano Amber Evans, flutist Annie Nikunen, clarinetist Tyler Neidermayer, violinists Lauren Conroy and Teagan Faran, cellist Jordan Bartow, pianist Yifei Xu, percussionist J Clancy, double bassist Sam Zagnit, and conductor Leonard Bopp, who sometimes does double-duty as a trumpeter. They play in perfect synchrony of sound and musical intention, as if they have been working together their entire lives. They produce a fascinating palette of colors and timbres which help them create a dream-like atmosphere, particularly effective in the intimate concert space at DiMenna.
The first piece on the program was Ursula Mamlok’s Die Laterne, in which Ms. Evans’ beautiful German diction was a pleasure to listen to, and Mr. Bopp led all performers with exceptional precision and grace. The work, though quite short, makes highly effective use of many different techniques of sound production, and my only quibble was that I would have liked to have an English translation of the text (some of the pieces on the program did have one, but not all).
Didi Gu’s Where Quiet Lives Gather is filled with whispers and squeaky sound effects, evocative of the small living creatures it depicts. With absolute clarity and a seemingly infinite array of shades, the ensemble yet again created a magical sound world brought to life with extraordinary vividness. While I enjoyed the ability to “get intimate” with this music in such a small space, I couldn’t help wondering how it must feel to listen to it on a larger stage, with more generous acoustic, where the mysterious and mystical quality of Ms. Gu’s language could have made an even greater impact.
BlackBox finished their set with Arcades by George Lewis which was – or at least seemed to be – the longest piece on their program. To my ears its structure seemed almost cacophonous, maze-like, and vertigo-inducing. Perhaps a few program notes about the work would have helped identify its meaning, or at least offer a starting point for understanding it better. I felt that – yet again – the performers did their best (Ms. Xu’s repeated notes and trills a particular standout!) but after the first two works, Mr. Lewis’ effort felt a bit like a letdown.
Much as I enjoyed the BlackBox ensemble, I can’t quite get rid of the feeling that they still represent a somewhat established version of the “classical musician,” anchored more in the past tradition than gazing forward towards innovation. They look and sound exceedingly professional and the way they approach music is with reverence and minute attention to detail – all of which is meant to be high praise! However, if we are looking to be surprised, intrigued, perhaps even a little shocked, we should direct our listening gaze towards the second group featured on this program: the Dice Trio.
Adeline DeBella (flute & others), Grace Pressley (saxophone & others) and Sam Friedman (trumpet) seem very, very young. They are dressed in (chic) street clothes, suggesting more a “Sunday-afternoon in Central Park” performance group than a “serious” classical music ensemble. Their choice of repertoire is also quite different in tone and style, the Mamlok piece notwithstanding. They seem to enjoy creating sound effects more than shaping melodies and harmonies. When I glimpsed at one of the performers’ iPad, I almost couldn’t recognize any traditional musical notation; to my “middle-aged” eyes the score looked more like an MRI than sheet music. More than once during their performance I was wondering if I were listening to music, or rather to extremely well organized noises. And yet, unsure as I might have felt about my own level of enjoyment, I can’t help but feel that, with the Dice Trio, we actually did cross into the 21st century – musically and artistically.
Meiling Wu’s Ebb and Flow sounded to me like a “Jurassic Park” soundtrack: exciting, noisy, sometimes scary, always suspenseful, and a tad too long. Mamlok’s Haiku Settings (arranged from the original soprano and alto flute version) is a group of short musical sketches which act as dialogue pieces between two or three instruments. Highly dissonant and eerily atmospheric, the set showcased Ms. DeBella’s and Ms. Pressley’s great versatility in switching between different instruments.
Luis McDougal’s I acknowledge no master is meant to be a musical commentary on some of the questions asked by philosopher Peter Abelard in his work Sic et non. I confess I failed to see how Mr. McDougal’s musical choices illustrate or offer any deeper understanding of these existential questions, in spite of the usual prowess and enthusiasm displayed by the players, who once again showed the highest level of communication and artistic communion between them. I found the composer’s language all too similar with Wu’s Ebb and Flow, and I wonder if that is a result of the writing or perhaps an interpretive choice on the part of the performers?
The last piece on the program was To Build a Fire by Sam Friedman (yes, the same Sam Friedman who is the trumpet player of the group!). House lights were dimmed, an electric light bulb was placed between the three performers who gathered and sat “around the fire,” several light strobe effects were used and a pre-recorded tape of voices and electronic sounds accompanied the experience. Mr. Friedman took a very literal approach to the title, but also a highly original one for a concert stage. Yes, it did sound more like a chilling horror movie soundtrack than a piece of music and I’m not sure I would want to listen to it again, but I certainly felt that we are exploring new territory and that the creative power of this young group of artists is intoxicating (for better or worse).
As I was leaving the concert hall, I felt puzzled by the effect the Dice Trio had on me: on one hand, I still sense a certain predilection (not uncommon among my younger colleagues) to find exceptionally clever ways to say nothing much; I genuinely question whether anyone would like to re-visit a piece such as To Build a Fire a second or third time (perhaps listening to a recording might still prove interesting, even after several plays). And yet, how could I not give in to their youthful enthusiasm, and how can I not respect and admire their courage to depart from the established norms, and to break free from the many constraints placed for centuries on the shoulders of “classical” music?…
