Called “contemporary chamber trailblazers” by the Boston Globe, Hub New Music—composed of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello—is forging new pathways in 21st-century repertoire. The ensemble’s ambitious commissioning projects and “appealing programs” (New Yorker) celebrate the rich diversity of today’s classical music landscape. In recent seasons, HNM’s performances have been described as “gobsmacking” (Cleveland Classical), “innovative” (WBUR), and “the cutting edge of new classical music” (Taos News).

Highlights for the 2020/21 concert season include performances presented by Williams Center for the Arts, Texas Performing Arts, Celebrity Series of Boston, Sacramento State Festival of New American Music, and its European debut at the Alba Music Festival (Italy). The ensemble will premiere new works by Christopher Cerrone, Eric Nathan, and Carlos Simon, and tours recent commissions by Hannah Lash, Kati Agócs, Takuma Itoh, and Michael Ippolito.

Hub New Music brings its passion for adventurous and relevant programming to global audiences as both a quartet and as collaborative artists. Recent projects include Matsuri with shakuhachi player Kojiro Umezaki and the Asia / America New Music Institute (AANMI); The Nature of Breaking, a 30-minute collaborative work with composer/harpist Hannah Lash; Requiem for the Enslaved, an evening length mass by Carlos Simon supported by Georgetown University’s GU272 Project that honors the lives of 272 African American slaves and their descendants; and a choreographed production of Robert Honstein’s Soul House with Boston’s Urbanity Dance.

Hub New Music is a group of passionate educators whose approach to teaching melds the artistic and entrepreneurial facets of modern musicianship. Working with student performers and composers at residencies across the country, HNM empowers younger generations of musicians through workshops on building an arts organization, commissioning new work, and developing meaningful collaborations. In 2020/21 the ensemble introduces HubLab, a K-12 residency program that uses graphic scores and improvisation to create group compositions with students of all levels.

MICHAEL AVITABILE, flutist, founder, and executive director of Hub New Music, holds degrees from the University of Michigan (BM) and New England Conservatory (MM), graduating with top honors from both schools. At Michigan, he was a Shipman Scholar, one of the highest awards given to an incoming student university-wide. While at NEC, he received the John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music. In his free time, Avitabile enjoys developing recipes, practicing yoga, and exploring Boston’s many coffee shops.

Originally from Portland, ME, NICHOLAS BROWN is Second/Bass Clarinet with the Boston Lyric Opera, Principal Clarinet with the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Clarinet of Phoenix. He has performed with such groups as Chicago Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, and New World Symphony, and regularly appears with many other orchestras throughout New England. Mr. Brown received his Bachelor of Music from Boston University and a Master of Music from New England Conservatory of Music.

ALYSSA WANG completed two Master’s Degrees in violin performance and conducting at the New England Conservatory. She has won fellowships as a violinist with the Grammy-nominated ensemble, A Far Cry, and the Boston Chamber Music Society. During the summers she has been assistant conductor for the Colorado College Summer Music Festival with Scott Yoo and a conducting fellow at Eastern Music Festival under the tutelage of Gerard Schwarz.

In addition to his work with Hub New Music, JESSE CHRISTESON travels to serve as Principal Cellist of the Huntsville (AL) Symphony. He held the same position in the Mississippi Symphony for several years prior and is a founding member of the Inaugural Piano Trio in Jackson, MS. Mr. Christeson received his MM from Rice University (studio of Norman Fischer), and his BM from Stetson University in DeLand, FL, where he studied cello (studio of David Bjella), voice, and philosophy.

We welcome Hub New Music to its first concert with AFCM.

Christopher Cerrone is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations. Balancing lushness and austerity, immersive textures and telling details, dramatic impact and interiority, Cerrone’s Grammy-nominated music is utterly compelling and uniquely his own.

Among his awards, Mr. Cerrone was the winner of the 2015–2016 Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition and was also a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his opera, Invisible Cities. He holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. His compositions are published by Schott NY and Project Schott New York, and Mr. Cerrone was a guest composition faculty member at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University for 2019–2020. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, writer Carrie Sun

Christopher Cerrone writes of his recent composition: “The title New Addresses was suggested by a collection of poetry by Kenneth Koch, a member of the much-beloved New York School. I was inspired by the emotional immediacy of Koch’s work and wanted to echo that in my quartet for the fabulous Boston-based quartet, Hub New Music. The poems in Koch’s collection are addressed, in the second person, to a specific object or person of interest (‘The Italian Language,’ ‘My Father’s Business,’ ‘Piano Lessons’).

“Each of the three interconnected movements in New Addresses are inspired by one of the poems from the eponymous collection. The first, ‘To Breath,’ features the insisting chuffing of the flutist. The second ‘To My Heart at the Close of Day’ evokes, via a long violin solo, the protagonist’s melancholic mood at dusk. And the last, ‘To “Yes,”’ is a rhythmic, energetic march that insists—affirmatively—on the same note. It is dedicated, with affection, to Hub.”