AT A GLANCE
MISSION STATEMENT

1. New Music and Contemporary Chamber Opera
Founded in 1993 by Artistic Director Nicole Paiement, Ensemble Parallèle is committed to presenting contemporary music and multidisciplinary art. Since 2005, its first year of operations as a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, the Ensemble has moved toward assuming a leadership role as a producer of contemporary chamber opera in the San Francisco Bay Area. With this focus, the Ensemble is striving to bring new music to the most diverse audience — spanning generations, socioeconomic backgrounds and cultural heritage. Strengthened by the very well received production of the world premiere of Lou Harrison's opera Young Caesar in 2007, contemporary opera will remain one of Ensemble Parallèle’s main artistic vehicles. EP plans to produce a major opera every 2 years.

2. Opera on a Human Scale
Ensemble Parallèle believes strongly in presenting opera in more intimate proportions to increase its accessibility and consolidate its status as a popular genre across various echelons of our society. The Ensemble wishes to reinstate opera in its historical role as a skillful observer of life and as a means to raise the awareness of challenges our world faces today. With opera’s current nationwide resurgence, we believe the time is right.

3. Collaborations with Other Art Forms
Striving to increase the accessibility and visibility of new music, the Ensemble also continues to foster and expand collaborations and performances with other art forms, throughout the year. These collaborations, ranging from commissioned works for silent films, to concerts with art exhibits and dance companies, appeal to the most diverse audiences. Based in San Francisco, the Ensemble has collaborated extensively over the past with other artists and art organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. These include collaborations with dancer Larry Pech and video artist Elliot Anderson; the commission of a work by San Francisco composer Carolyn Yarnell to accompany the silent movie The Smiling Madame Beudet; the commission of many performance-art works by various local composers; the American premiere of Hanna Kulenty’s Flute Concerto at the Other Minds Festival; and the collaboration with San Francisco’s Gamelan Sekar Jaya and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

4. Examples of Past Projects
Since its formation, Ensemble Parallèle has presented many world and American premieres and has commissioned composers from around the world. Under Paiement’s baton, they have completed over 10 world premiere recordings that range from music by Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, to commissioned works by Elinor Armer and Dusan Bogdanovich. The Ensemble has performed for the Pacific Rim Festival, the April in Santa Cruz Festival and has toured in California presenting the premiere of Korean-American composer Hi Kyung Kim's theater piece Rituel III. In the Summer of 2004, the group also toured in Australia and participated in the Asian-American-Australian Sound-Dance and Multi-Media Connections.