ACME is dedicated to the outstanding performance of contemporary masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries. ACME programs are both avant-garde and archetypal and the dynamic ensemble's concerts are a unique blend of intelligent performance and passionate music making.

Time Out New York reports, "The ACME Ensemble is fast making a lasting impression on the New York new music landscape ...polished and playful, its programs are a broad-minded mix of rigor and eclecticism."

Since its founding in August 2004, ACME has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Charles Ives, Donald Martino, Olivier Messiaen, Nico Muhly, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Ryan Streber, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans, Edgar Varese, Charles Wuorinen, and Iannis Xenakis.

By performing and commissioning works by up-and-coming as well as established composers, ACME aims to promote classical contemporary and avant-garde music as a necessary and prevalent component of New York City's cultural scene. ACME is comprised of virtuosic musicians who excel at the performance of chamber music as well as solo repertoire and are enthusiastic advocates for new music.




ACME Artistic Director and cellist Clarice Jensen completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in cello performance at The Juilliard School, where she studied with Joel Krosnick. She is now a freelance cellist, and has performed with the New Juilliard Ensemble, Continuum, Columbia Composers, the Argento Ensemble, and the Avian Orchestra. She performed the U.S. premiere of Guo Wenjing's Concertino for Cello and Ensemble as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, the world premiere of Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky's Hearing Solution for cello and ensemble as part of the Silk Road "Artist in Residence" program, the U.S. premiere of Roger Reynold's Process and Passion for cello, violin and computer and the world premiere of Donald Martino's Rhapsody for cello, vibraphone and piano. Ms. Jensen has performed in master classes with composers Elliott Carter and Ned Rorem. She has also worked as a production coordinator for the recording and performing artist, Björk.


ACME Executive Director Christina Jensen is the founder of Christina Jensen PR LLC, a public relations firm for classical musicians. Ms. Jensen has worked previously in corporate sponsorship at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she was part of a three-person team charged with raising $3 million annually; as Director of Community Outreach with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project; and as orchestra manager and public relations assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds undergraduate degrees in violin performance and communication from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and received her master's degree in arts administration from Boston University.

Violinist Miranda Cuckson has received accolades from distinguished colleagues and audiences in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. She has performed as soloist with many orchestras, including the Indianapolis Symphony, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Virginia Symphony and the Long Beach Symphony (both with conductor JoAnn Falletta), the Asheville Symphony, El Paso Symphony, Owensboro Symphony, Lawton Philharmonic, Aspen Festival Orchestra (with Sergiu Commissiona), Shanghai Symphony, Beijing Radio Orchestra, and the Little Orchestra Society of New York at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. She also performed in Germany and Poland as soloist with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra conducted by Yakov Kreizberg, a tour that culminated in concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie and Berlin Konzerthaus. Her CD recording with the Czech National Symphony of concertos by Korngold and Ponce was released by Centaur Records to critical praise, and continues to be heard on radio stations across the United States.


Pianist Eric Huebner, has drawn world-wide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music. At the age of 17, he appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in solo performances at the LA Music Center and Hollywood Bowl. Mr. Huebner has been a member of the award winning ensemble, Antares, since 2001 and received his Bachelors and Master degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. As soloist and chamber musician Mr. Huebner has performed throughout the United States, Germany, Japan and Brazil and has served as guest orchestral pianist with the New York Philharmonic appearing in performances of Ives' Fourth Symphony and Stravinsky's Petroushka. Recent appearances include a performance of the Ligeti Piano Concerto, with David Robertson conducting, at Carnegie's Zankel Hall. In New York, Mr. Huebner has appeared with many new music ensembles, including Speculum Musicae, Ensemble Sospeso, ISCM Chamber Players, Washington Square Chamber Players, Continuum, New York New Music Ensemble, Columbia Sinfonietta and Flexible Music. He has performed numerous times at the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden Series in addition to performances at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, Carnegie Hall's Meet the Composer, at June in Buffalo and on Sunday's Live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Bing Theater. His performances have been nationally televised on PBS and heard on radio station KMOZ in Los Angeles and on the BBC and can be heard on the Col Legno, Centaur, Bridge and Innova labels.

A native of Israel, clarinetist Gilad Harel is an avid chamber music player, a new music promoter and an active klezmer/world music performer. He is co-artistic director of Fountain Chamber Music Society, New York; and the clarinetist of the Fountain and the Proteus Ensembles. He was a guest performer with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Zephyros Wind Ensemble, and the Solstice Ensemble. His chamber music festival appearances include the Music From Salem Festival, NY; Craftsbury Chamber Players Festival, VT; Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, NH; The Music Festival of the Hamptons; the Pensacola Chamber Music Festival, FL; and the Yellow Barn Chamber Music School and Festival, VT. Mr. Harel has participated in premiere performances and recordings of works by Bruce Adolph, Jonathan Keren, Harold Farberman and Israel Sharon, and has collaborated with composers Tania Leon, Joshua Fineberg, Rand Steiger, Tristan Murail, George Edwards, Menachem Zur, Samuel Adler, Thomas Z. Shepard, Ofer Ben Amotz, and Steve Burke. He is a member of the Kaprizma Ensemble for new music, Jerusalem; he is performing with the Columbia Sinfonietta, the SEM Ensemble, and has played with the Argento Ensemble, the Sospeso Ensemble, the New Millennium Ensemble and the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. Mr. Harel is a graduate of the Juilliard School, New York; the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris; and the Israeli Conservatory of Music, Tel-Aviv.

New York-based flutist Alex Sopp performs all genres of music and was recently called "outstanding" and "an admired new music mainstay" by Time Out New York. Alex has commissioned, premiered, and recorded with some of the most exciting composers and songwriters of our time, including Björk, Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, Philip Glass, Judd Greenstein, and The National, and makes professional appearances with The New York Philharmonic. Alex is a member of NOW Ensemble, The Knights, AXIOM, and has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble, and Continuum. In the not-so-distant future Alex will make her solo recording debut with an album on the newly-minted New Amsterdam label. The New Amsterdam mission "to provide a haven for the young New York composers and performers whose music slips through the cracks between genres...music without walls, from a scene without a name" is something Alex believes in deeply. A regular performer both in the US and abroad, she has performed at the Bang On A Can Marathon, BAM Next Wave Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Look and Listen Festival, MATA Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, Festival WhyNote Dijon, Carlsbad Music Festival, and the Bowdoin Festival. A native of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, Alex completed both her Bachelors and Masters degrees at The Juilliard School, where she was a founding member of the student led contemporary music group AXIOM.

Violist Nadia Sirota, (born 1982) has collaborated with artists such as Joseph Kalichstein, Itzhak Permlan, and the Silk Road Ensemble, and has performed extensively in New York and abroad. She has commissioned and premiered dozens of new works for solo viola and for chamber ensemble, including music by Nico Muhly, Ryan Streber, Judd Greenstein, Marcos Balter, and Milica Paranosic. While completing both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Juilliard, Nadia started many programs dedicated to New Music, including Juilliard Plays Juilliard, an initiative that pairs interested performers with composers with the goal of creating compelling and informed performances of new works, and The New Music Project in the Castleman/Amory/Huang studio, as well as being a founding member of the AXIOM ensemble. In the fall of 2008, Nadia will join the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music for its new Graduate Program in Contemporary Music Performance. Nadia is a member of the Tetras String Quartet, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), and the collaborative, multimedia group VisionIntoArt (VIA). Highlights of her 2007-08 season include performances in Milan, Reykjavik, Sicily, The Whitney Museum and The In Your Ear festival in Carnegie's Zankel Hall. Nadia has recorded for MTV2, Neuma, Bedroom Community, Royal Academy of Music, and 11:11 records and has performed on NPR's Morning Edition, BBC Radio 3, CBS Morning Edition and A&E Breakfast with the Arts. Visit nadiasirota.com for more.

Originally from the San Francisco bay area, percussionist Chris Thompson performs an eclectic mix of orchestra, chamber, and solo music on both coasts and abroad. In the past year Chris has toured performing Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion led by the renowned soloist Jean- Claude Pennetier, performed on stage in the world premier of Tan Dun's The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera, and toured with the critically acclaimed contemporary chamber music ensemble Alarm Will Sound. As a founding member of the percussion quartet Line C3, Chris has toured Japan, commissioned works from some of New York City's best young composers, and twice been in residence at the Juilliard School Summer Percussion Seminar. He is also the solo percussionist for the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. In early 2006 he composed, performed, and did post-production for the score to the short film Mata, directed by Will Graham. Chris is active in New York City as a freelancer in orchestral music, contemporary chamber music, and theater, and has performed with the Lincoln Center Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Chamber Soloists, New York City Master Chorale, Stamford Symphony, Axiom Ensemble, EOS Orchestra, Continuum, Dimpho Di Kopane, and VT Mozart Festival, among many others. He has recorded for numerous chamber music projects, as well as for BET and A&E Networks. He holds a Master's Degree from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Daniel Druckman, a Bachelor's Degree from UCLA in percussion performance and composition as a student of Mitchell Peters and Roger Bourland, and a Specialists Certificate in Electronic Music Production from the Berklee School of Music. Chris currently resides in Brooklyn where he spends his free time inventing funny techno music and trying really hard to read Japanese comics. Visit thisischristhompson.com for more.