GABRIELLA SMITHTessellationsMISSY MAZZOLIEcstatic ScienceyMusicZebrasyMusicSober MilesyMusicFloodJUDD GREENSTEINTogetherANDREW NORMANDifference (West Coast Premiere, Cal Performances Co-commission)

Following its wildly creative video presentation as part of the Spring 2021 Cal Performances at Home season, the adventurous new-music ensemble yMusic—all members of Generation Y—returns with an exciting program of new and recent works for its in-person Berkeley debut.

Comprising “six contemporary classical polymaths who playfully overstep the boundaries of musical genres” (The New Yorker), yMusic is committed to working closely with living composers, from pop stars like Paul Simon, Regina Spektor, and Ben Folds to leading lights of the classical music world.

The centerpiece of the concert is the West Coast premiere of Difference, a Cal Performances co-commission by the Grammy-nominated and Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Andrew Norman, hailed as “the leading American composer of his generation” by the Los Angeles Times. The program also includes Missy Mazzoli’s meditative Ecstatic Science; Berkeley-born composer Gabriella Smith’s Tessellations; Together, a new work Judd Greenstein wrote for the group during quarantine; and several new pieces co-composed by the ensemble during the past year’s hiatus from live performance.