About

NEWSPEAK is an eight-piece amplified ensemble working under the direction of composer David T. Little and clarinetist Eileen Mack.  Named after the thought-limiting language in George Orwell’s 1984, Newspeak explores the grey area where art and politics mix.  Through their programming, performances, and commissions, they seek to reconsider, redefine, and ultimately reclaim the notion of socially engaged music and its place in contemporary society. Embedding elements of a rock band into a classical new music ensemble, Newspeak confronts the boundaries between the classical and the rock traditions.

Newspeak is utterly committed to the music of living composers; to commissioning, work-shopping, developing and performing new works, and to encouraging composers to find their own voice in engaging with musical and social issues.  Since 2004, they have commissioned and premiered more than thirty works, each engaging differently with the problem of the political in music, and primarily from American composers.  Intent upon building a community through their innovative concerts, they have proudly shared bills with such diverse groups as The Fiery Furnaces, Anti-Social Music, Pit Er Pat, Electric Kompany, STATS, Time of Orchids, The Motion Sick, Massey, NOW Ensemble, So Percussion, ACME, and Corey Dargel.  They are currently preparing to record their first studio album for New Amsterdam Records.

Newspeak Is:

Caleb Burhans, violin, voice
Mellissa Hughes, voice, electronics
James Johnston, synthesizer
Taylor Levine, electric guitar
David T. Little, director, drums
Eileen Mack, co-director, clarinets
Brian Snow, cello, bass
Yuri Yamashita, percussion

Advisory Board

Elizabeth Bergman – Musicologist, Author Music for the Common Man
Derek Bermel – Composer-in-Residence, Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies
Martin Bresnick – Professor of Music, Yale University
Osvaldo Golijov – Grammy Award-winning composer
Lisa Moore – Curator, Sounds Alive 08, Canberra International Music Festival
Anne Waldman – Poet; Distinguished Professor of Poetics, Naropa University

Board of Directors

David T. Little – Artistic Director
Eileen Mack – Co-Director
Jeffrey Edelstein – Director, New Music at Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Rachel Sokolow – Program Manager, Carnegie Hall
Jason Masimore