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The Wordless Music Orchestra is the house band of New York City's Wordless Music series, which was founded by non-musician Ronen Givony in 2006 and has since presented dozens of concerts in churches, museums, nightclubs, and out of doors, pairing artists from the sound worlds of so-called classical, electronic, and rock music. Comprising some of New York's most omnivorous young musicians and members of groups such as Ensemble Signal, Alarm Will Sound, ACME, and Bang on a Can, the orchestra presented its first concerts over two sold-out nights in January 2008 under conductor Brad Lubman with the U.S. premiere of composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver, on a program with music of Gavin Bryars and John Adams. In 2009, four months after its world premiere by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Arvo Pärt's Symphony No. 4 ("Los Angeles") had its New York/East Coast premiere by the Wordless Music Orchestra under conductor Jeffrey Milarsky in two sold-out concerts at which the orchestra also performed alongside the Japanese instrumental noise-rock band MONO. These performances with MONO were recorded and released by Brooklyn's Temporary Residence label as Holy Ground: NYC Live with the Wordless Music Orchestra, a limited-edition CD/DVD/LP set. Also in 2009, the orchestra recorded with former Battles multi-instrumentalist Tyondai Braxton for Central Market, the composer's solo debut on Warp Records. In 2010, the Wordless Music Orchestra performed alongside The Hilliard Ensemble and Latvian National Choir as part of Lincoln Center's White Light Festival, with world premiere compositions for orchestra and voices by Kjartan Sveinsson and Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Rós with his partner, Alex Somers, again under the baton of Jeffrey Milarsky, and the following year at the Guggenheim Museum rotunda in a unique collaboration with visual artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster for Gavin Bryars' The Sinking of the Titanic. In March 2011, the orchestra embarked with Tyondai Braxton on its first-ever mini-tour--to Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis--to perform new works and world premiere live arrangements from Braxton's Central Market in addition to music by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, and composer/conductor Caleb Burhans. For further information, please visit wordlessmusic.org.

The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) is dedicated to the outstanding performance of contemporary masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries. With Artistic Director and cellist Clarice Jensen at the helm, 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, "ACME was causing quite a stir in the crowded New York new-music scene . . . polished and playful, its programs are a broad-minded mix of rigor and eclecticism." By performing 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. Since its first New York concert season in 2004, the ensemble has performed works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Caleb Burhans, John Cage, Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Jacob Druckman, Jefferson Friedman, Charles Ives, Ingram Marshall, 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. ACME has also performed and or recorded with artists such as Matmos, Grizzly Bear, Craig Wedren and Hauschka.

Soprano Martha Cluver has been hailed by the New York Times for her "soulful soprano" voice. Focusing on contemporary music, Cluver performs frequently with the ensembles Alarm Will Sound, Roomful of Teeth, Signal, SEM, So Percussion and the Vox Vocal Ensemble. In 2006, she performed the US west coast premiere of John Zorn's Evocation of a Neophyte for soprano, choir and small ensemble at UC-Berkeley and was praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice for her "ethereal soprano loveliness". Cluver traveled to the Czech Republic in the summer of 2007 for the Ostrava Days New Music Festival, where she performed Neither by Morton Feldman, with conductor Peter Rundel and the Janáček Philharmonic. She "mastered the extremely difficult part with elegance and lightness and delivered an astonishing performance" and "brought the house to a tumultuous applause" (2007 Ostrava Days Festival News Letter). She has since then returned to the Czech Republic, where she performed the demanding soprano role in George Benjamin's opera Into the Little Hill. In September of 2009, Cluver will be premiering a new opera called La Douce by Emmanuel Nunes with the Remix Ensemble in Porto, Portugal. As a chamber musician, Cluver has premiered works by John Zorn, O&A, Caleb Burhans and Brad Lubman. She sings regularly with the Vox Vocal Ensemble, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Clarion, and Holy Trinity Bach Choir. Cluver's discography includes Nonesuch, Sweet Spot DVD, Cantaloupe, and Tzadik. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Eastman School of Music in viola performance.

American conductor Jeffrey Milarsky is highly acclaimed worldwide for his impeccable musicianship, exhilarating presence and innovative programming. His wide ranging repertoire, which spans from Bach to Xenakis, has brought him to lead such accomplished groups as the American Composers Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, The Milwaukee Symphony, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York New Music Ensemble, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Speculum Musicae, Cygnus Ensemble, Fromm Players at Harvard University, and the New York Philharmonic chamber music series. In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works by groundbreaking contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Fred Lerdahl, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi Nono, Mario Davidovsky and Wolfgang Rihm.