About Us

“The Metropolis Ensemble is a great addition to the U.S. music scene.”

—Esa-Pekka Salonen, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Music Director and Composer

“Andrew Cyr and his virtuosic Metropolis Ensemble are the future of what we know as classical music. Their approach is fresh, and so is their music making. New ideas on presenting older music are combined with definitive performances of music by today's younger composers.”

—John Corigliano, Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer

The Metropolis Ensemble is a professional chamber orchestra that has quickly established a reputation for presenting "new music played with the same kind of panache and bravura we usually experience only in performances of standard repertoire" (Esa-Pekka Salonen). Metropolis Ensemble concerts feature major new commissions from the freshest voices in composition today, programmed alongside imaginative and unorthodox masterpieces of the 20th Century that illustrate and embrace the fluid state of contemporary music. The Metropolis Ensemble enables young composers to engage their artistry with a top-notch flexible musical ensemble composed of musicians of their generation.

The musicians of the Metropolis Ensemble represent some of the finest young artists now performing. Our musicians include recent national and international competition winners and finalists, as well as current participants in the most prestigious young artist programs and new music ensembles, such as Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two, The Academy of Carnegie Hall, Marlboro, Alarm Will Sound, The Silk Road Ensemble, ICE, Concert Artists Guild and others. The enthusiasm and skill of these young musicians ensure concerts that are vital with artistic energy.

The Metropolis Ensemble performs to capacity crowds, attracting young, diverse urban audiences and promotes an atmosphere of openness, discovery, and excitement about the process of creating and performing new music.

Founded in 2006 by conductor Andrew Cyr, the Metropolis Ensemble has commissioned and performed new music from the next generation of composers, including Timothy Andres, David Bruce, Jakub Ciupinski, Avner Dorman, Ryan Francis, Ryan Gallagher, Ray Lustig, Ricardo Romaneiro, Cristina Spinei, and Michael Ward-Bergeman, in addition to presenting some of the most influential works of the 20th Century from composers such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stravinsky, Ravel, Shostakovich, Britten, Osvaldo Golijov, Ligeti, Copland, David Schiff, Weill, John Adams, Satie, and Bartok.

In 2008, as part of the acclaimed Wordless Music Series and the Celebrate Brooklyn Festival, the Metropolis Ensemble was paired with the forward-thinking indie rock sensation Deerhoof, and performed a new version of Stravinsky's epochal The Rite of Spring for an audience of 10,000. The Rite: Remixed was featured in a live, nationally promoted web-cast on National Public Radio as well as a New York City metropolitan area broadcast in prime time on WNYC Radio.

The Metropolis Ensemble recently recorded its debut studio album with the Grammy-winner Classical Producer of the Year (2005) David Frost, featuring the chamber orchestra concerti of composer Avner Dorman (b. 1975). The album is set for international release in 2009.

The Metropolis Ensemble has performed in such unique venues as The Times Center, Angel Orensanz Center for the Arts, the Chelsea Art Museum, Prospect Park Bandshell, the Scandinavia House, and the Manhattan Penthouse, and was recently invited in July to appear at Le Poisson Rouge, a new multimedia art cabaret located in the site of the historic Village Gate. Recently, the Metropolis Ensemble was invited to perform at a Meet the Composer Foundation concert-gala, in honor of soprano Dawn Upshaw.

In addition to its active concert schedule, the Metropolis Ensemble runs Youth Works, a 40-week after-school education program at Public School 11, teaching music composition and creativity to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders.

Mission and Vision

The Metropolis Ensemble is dedicated to sharing artistic connections between emerging composers and performers with audiences in settings meant to inspire a new generation of music lovers.

The Ensemble is rooted in the conception of music as a living art form, continuously refreshed and renewed. New works by emerging composers provide the focal point of each concert and marketing initiative, while the associations and ramifications from sources that inspire new works are also explored in Metropolis' programming. By closely working with young composers whose points of inspiration come from diverse musical spheres - pop, electronica, jazz, world, rock, classical, modern and folk - each concert promises to display a kaleidoscopic sense of intertwined musical collaboration between artists and genres present and past.

The Metropolis Ensemble provides vital support to the next generation of composers by fostering the commission, creation, recording, radio and television broadcasting, online video and audio streaming, free digital downloads, and live performances, of new music.

Recognizing that New York City's cultural organizations have the enormous potential to make a special contribution to the quality of life of the city's school children, The Metropolis Ensemble is equally devoted to educating a new generation of composers, musicians and listeners.