CMA Ensembles
2025/2026

CMA ENSEMBLES 2025/2026

CMA Ensemble Manager, Farayi Malek

Ensemble assignments are made based on your requests, our input, and ensemble needs. Usually, students participate in 2 ensembles each semester (including non-CMA ensembles) but if this feels like too many or not enough, please let me know and I’ll do my best to accommodate.

Fall ensemble rehearsals begin on September 8. Please note that students are not allowed to “drop” or “withdraw” from ensembles after the first week of rehearsals. You may make a change request up until noon on Friday, September 12. After that, dropping out of an ensemble will result in a failing grade, barring special circumstances.

You may direct any questions about CMA ensembles to farayi.malek@necmusic.edu.

Contact Ken Schaphorst to audition for a jazz ensemble, Margie Apfelbaum to audition for the orchestra, Erica Washburn to audition for the chorus/chamber singers, and Elizabeth Van Voorhis to audition for a classical chamber music ensemble. 

FALL 2025 DRAFT (schedule/room assignments may change) 

Mon 10:00-11:50a Ted Reichman Electronic Ensemble (Ted Reichman) SB G01

Mon 6:00-7:50p Open Form Ensemble (Anthony Coleman) JH 358

Mon 6:00-7:50p Chorinho Ensemble (Amir Milstein) 33G 613

Tues 10:00-11:50a Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (Farayi Malek) JH 367

Tues 6:00-7:50p Early Jazz (Anthony Coleman) - full year commitment JH 358

Wed 10:00-11:50a Mandé West African Music Ensemble  (Balla Kouyaté)    JH 367

Wed 6:00-7:50p Persian Music Ensemble (Nima Janmohammadi) 33G 710

Wed 6:00-7:50p Indie/Punk/Art Rock Ensemble (Lautaro Mantilla) SB G-01

Wed 6:00-7:50p Songwriters’ Workshop (Steve Netsky) JH 358

Thur 10:00-11:50a CMA Chamber (Eden MacAdam-Somer) Eben Jordan

Thur 10:00-11:50a World Music Ensemble (Akram Haddad) SB G-01

DESCRIPTIONS

Ted Reichman Ensemble (Ted Reichman) - This ensemble performs music written by composers working today, primarily from the jazz tradition, who have proposed new models for integrating improvisation and composition, and who embrace new ideas about structure, groove and texture. Repertoire will range from completely notated music to open forms, and from complicated rhythms to ambient soundscapes.

Chorino Ensemble (Amir Milstein), you will have the chance to explore Chorinho, often regarded as the "Cultural DNA" of Brazilian music. It contains elements from different cultures and musical traditions which have influenced Brazilian music over the centuries. African rhythms, Eastern European dances and Western Classical music forms have evolved into a virtuosic yet lyrical music style, played throughout the Cafes of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century to today's concert halls and jazz festivals worldwide. There will be two sections of this ensemble meeting on Monday evenings - students will be assigned to one.

Early Jazz (Anthony Coleman) - full year commitment  - We’re going to work on the vocabulary that formed the basis for this music that has been the backbone of so much of American and world culture over the last hundred years, and yet is relatively little understood. We will particularly focus on rhythm and gestural concepts that were prevalent between the late teens and mid 1930’s. The idea of the collective ensemble is key. Specific to the CMA version of this group, I will try to focus to some degree on what has been called the “Avant-garde” of early jazz (our ability to do that will depend upon you!).

Contemporary Vocal Ensemble (Farayi Malek) This is an acapella ensemble that will study and perform arrangements and compositions by Malek, students in the ensemble, and contemporary writers such as Kerry Marsh and Caroline Shaw. The group will study genres including (but not limited to) African American Spirituals, Contemporary Classical, Jazz, and Pop, with the goal of examining and celebrating the unique and vast capabilities of the human voice.

Mandé West African Music Ensemble (Balla Kouyaté) - Mandé Music ensemble is an introduction to West African history and culture through the music. There are two sections of this ensemble, each rehearsing a separate night.

Irish Ceol Ensemble (Liz Knowles) -  In this ensemble, meeting only in the fall semester, students will work with renowned Irish fiddler Liz Knowles to learn tunes from the tradition, explore stylistic nuances, improvisation, and arrangement ideas.

Persian Music Ensemble (Nima Janmohammadi) - This ensemble offers an introduction to Persian Music traditions.

Songwriters’ Workshop (Steve Netsky) - This ensemble offers a framework for songwriters to work on creating original songs drawing on a variety of contemporary genres. You do not need to have written songs before, but you should have some experience playing and singing songs by others.

Indie/Punk/Art Rock Ensemble (Lautaro Mantilla) - This ensemble is an introduction to the diverse repertoire of underground music of the 1970s and 1980s. This music was created in opposition of mainstream culture and often contributed as a medium to bring about a radical awareness to any form of discrimination and used as a platform for political and social protest. By arranging and recomposing music from Dead Kennedys, Frank Zappa, Black Flag, The flat duo Jets, among many others, students gain knowledge of different compositional and improvisational approaches and explore what Bertolt Brecht may or may not have been loosely quoted as saying, “Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it.” This fall, the ensemble will focus on music for the 1923 department production. 

CMA Chamber (Eden MacAdam-Somer) - This interdepartmental ensemble explores the boundaries between composition, improvisation, and international music traditions, through written and aural paths. Past projects have included engaging with works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Ran Blake, Charles Ives, Gustav Mahler, Pauline Oliveros, Scott Joplin, JS Bach, and Lully as well as traditional folk music, workshopping student compositions/concepts, and performing new works by students, faculty, and other contemporary artists. 

World Music Ensemble (Akram Haddad) - This ensemble provides an introduction to repertoire from many international musical traditions, with a focus on aural learning, developing a solid groove, working out ensemble arrangements, and learning how to accompany and solo in different styles.

Spring 2026 DRAFT (schedule may change)

Mon 10:00 - 11:50am Middle Eastern Music (Mal Barsamian)

Mon 10:00 - 11:50am Jewish Music (Hankus Netsky)

Tues 6:00 – 7:50pm Early Jazz (Anthony Coleman) - same personnel

Tues 6:00 – 7:50pm Joe Morris Ensemble (Joe Morris)

Wed 10:00 - 11:50am Mandé West African Music Ensemble (Balla Kouyaté) - see above

Wed 9:00 - 11:50am Irish Ceol Ensemble (Liz Knowles)*

Wed 6:00 – 7:50pm Indie/Punk/Art Rock Ensemble (Lautaro Mantilla)

Wed 6:00 - 7:50pm Songwriters Workshop (Steve Netsky)

Thur 10:00 - 11:50am Non-majors Ensemble (Farayi Malek)

Thur 10:00 - 11:50am American Roots (Eden MacAdam-Somer)

Thur 10:00 - 11:50am World Music Ensemble (Akram Haddad)

Thur 6:00 - 7:50pm Interdisciplinary Ensemble (Linda Chase)

Thur 6:30 - 8:20pm R&B Ensemble (Joseph Copeland)

Middle Eastern Music (Mal Barsamian) 

This ensemble explores a variety of Middle Eastern traditions.

Early Jazz (Anthony Coleman) - full year commitment  - We’re going to work on the vocabulary that formed the basis for this music that has been the backbone of so much of American and world culture over the last hundred years, and yet is relatively little understood. We will particularly focus on rhythm and gestural concepts that were prevalent between the late teens and mid 1930’s. The idea of the collective ensemble is key. Specific to the CMA version of this group, I will try to focus to some degree on what has been called the “Avant-garde” of early jazz (our ability do that will depend upon you!).

Joe Morris Ensemble  - Explores the methodologies Harmolodics, Unit Structures, Tri-Axiom Theory and European Free Improvisation. We will play works by Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler and examine the music of Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Barry Guy and others. We will also use graphic scores and conduction. The goal is to build skills and foster individual creativity in the open- form music setting using specific methods and materials.

Songwriters’ Workshop (Steve Netsky) - This ensemble offers a framework for songwriters to work on creating original songs drawing on a variety of contemporary genres. You do not need to have written songs before, but you should have some experience playing and singing songs by others.

Mandé West African Music Ensemble  (Balla Kouyaté) - Mandé Music ensemble is an introduction to West African history and culture through the music.

Indie/Punk/Art Rock Ensemble (Lautaro Mantilla) - This ensemble is an introduction to the diverse repertoire of underground music of the 1970s and 1980s. This music was created in opposition of mainstream culture and often contributed as a medium to bring about a radical awareness to any form of discrimination and used as a platform for political and social protest. By arranging and recomposing music from Dead Kennedys, Frank Zappa, Black Flag, The flat duo Jets, among many others, students gain knowledge of different compositional and improvisational approaches and explore what Bertolt Brecht may or may not have been loosely quoted as saying, “Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it.” This fall, the ensemble will focus on music for the 1923 department production. 

Interdisciplinary Ensemble (Linda Chase) - This ensemble explores the connections and relationships between music, improvisation, and other forms of artistic expression including composition, poetry, visual art, and dance. We utilize a diverse repertoire of musical models and experiment with techniques including conduction, incorporation of spoken word, partially composed improvisation, sound painting and story-based pieces to serve as springboards for improvisation. We will also explore relationships in music, nature and transformation.

Jewish Music Ensemble (Hankus Netsky) - The NEC Jewish Music Ensemble offers students an opportunity to perform and arrange repertoire from a variety of Jewish traditions, including Klezmer, Cantorial, Middle Eastern, Hassidic, Yiddish Theatre and folksong.

American Roots (Eden MacAdam-Somer) – This group provides an introduction to some of the many styles, genres, and regions that contribute to music traditions of the United States. Past projects have included old-time fiddling, balladry, jug band music, honky tonk, early blues, music of the Georgia Sea Islands, percussive dance traditions, early country, spirituals, Cajun music, and more…