About

About SICPP

Welcome to SICPP: 8 days and nights of explosive new music!

The SICPP experience is intense and demanding – each day is filled with master classes, lessons, colloquia, and rehearsals. Nearly every day is topped off by an incredible evening concert given by SICPP faculty, Guest Artists, and the Ensemble-in-Residence, the Callithumpian Consort. Evening concerts also feature works by the SICPP Composer-in-Residence. Previous Composers-in-Residence include Vinko Globokar, Rand Steiger, Christian Wolff, Roger Reynolds, Tristan Murail, and others!

For SICPP 2018, we welcome Composer-in-Residence Julian Anderson, and two Guest Artists: the incredible violinst and violist Mark Menzies, and percussionist Allen Otte. Click here to learn more about our guests and faculty.

SICPP was started in the late 1990s by Artistic Director Stephen Drury as an intensive performance seminar on music of the 20th century, and for many years enrollment was open only to advanced pianists; since 2005 the program has also been open to percussionists, finally expanding by 2009 to include vocalists and all other instrumentalists. SICPP is now a full-blown annual chamber music festival focused on works of the 20th and 21st centuries. We are pleased to also feature the Electronic Workshop and the New Works Program.

SICPP Staff

Stephen Drury, Artistic Director
Rebecca Hallowell, Program Director & Admissions Manager
Stephanie Skor, Program Coordinator
Mari Kawamura, Concert Production Manager
Beth McDonald, Digital Content Manager
Neal Markowski & Beth McDonald, Electronics Workshop Technical Assistants
Ashley Zhang, Scheduling Manager, Librarian, and Artist Liaison

Here’s what some past “Sick Puppies” have to say:

Nick [Vines] is a truly great composer, an outstanding, candid, generous and professional mentor, and has made my time [at SICPP] more than worth it! I cannot say enough glowing things about him.

I wanted again to write you and express how fascinating and special the last week at NEC was. Thank you for the rare opportunity to listen to this interesting combination of "older" and "newer" New Music during the evening concerts and experience it through such extraordinary performances.

It really was the best musical experience of my life! Being able to meet so many people that share an equal if not more exuberant love for contemporary music was invaluable to my growth as a musician and a person. The intensity of the week really helped me rise to a new level.

Hearing composers and musicians talk about new music formally (in the masterclasses and colloquia), and informally was so educational. All of the performances on the series at Jordan Hall, at the Gardner, and at the Iditarod were fantastic. There were such good vibes and an intense excitement about new music in the air!

This summer program was really motivating, and I'm going to try to find people here to start a new music ensemble at my school.

So many like-minded people creating this great artistic community, playing fantastic music all the time. I met so many interesting performers and composers with really enlightening perspectives and thoughts, and I can't wait to come back to SICPP next time... I've been raving about it nonstop to my family and friends. Thanks again for a truly inspiring week of masterclasses and colloquia and concerts.

The entire faculty was phenomenal; superb teachers all. I don't think I've ever learned so much in so little time. The master classes were the best I've ever experienced, both as a participant and as an audience member. The faculty recitals were all extraordinary. The whole experience has a wonderfully enthusiastic and positive spirit – very energizing.

For me SICPP had the aura of an being in a parallel universe, where almost everything is identical to this one, except that when you walk down the halls of a music conservatory, from room after room you hear one contemporary composition after another, and when, occasionally you come across someone practicing a Chopin Etude, you stop and say, 'What the heck is that guy doing?!

Past Guest Artists and Composers-in-Residence

2017
- Composer-in-Residence: Georg Friedrich Haas
- Guest Artists: Kim Kashkashian and William Winant
2016
- Composer-in-Residence: Vinko Globokar
- Marilyn Nonken
2015
- Composer-in-Residence: Rand Steiger
- Guest Artists: Mark Menzies
2014
- Composer-in-Residence: Roger Reynolds
- Guest Artists: John Tilbury and Nino Jvania
2013
- Composer-in-Residence: Rand Steiger
- Guest Artists: Winston Choi
2012
- Composer-in-Residence: Christian Wolff
- Guest Artists: Steffen Schleiermacher, Joseph Kubera, and Louis Goldstein
2011
- Composer-in-Residence: Tristan Murail
- Guest Artists: Ursula Oppens
2010
- Composer-in-Residence: Chaya Czernowin
- Guest Artists: Steffen Schleiermacher and Mathias Reumert
2009
- Composer-in-Residence: Jonathan Harvey
- Guest Artists: Francesco Dillon, Emanuele Torquati, and Aki Takahashi
2008
- Composer-in-Residence: Jo Kondo
- Guest Artists: Aki Takahashi
2007
- Composer-in-Residence: Water Zimmermann
- Guest Artists: Heather O’Donnell
2006 Composer-in-Residence: Michael Finnissy
2005 Composer-in-Residence: Frederic Rzewski
2004 Composer-in-Residence: Christian Wolff
2003 Composer-in-Residence: Lee Hyla
2002 Composer-in-Residence: Linda Dusman
2001 Composer-in-Residence: Paul Elwood