Mission

American Modern Ensemble (AME) spotlights contemporary music via lively programming and performs a wide repertoire, using a robust combination of instrumentalists, vocalists, and conductors. The ensemble often highlights house composer and founder, Robert Paterson. Since its inception in 2005, AME has performed over 250 works by living composers, and has received consistent praise in The New York Times, The New Yorker and others. Sold-out crowds at BAM, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center, the Rubin Museum, and National Sawdust are a winning testament to what is 'right' about classical music today.

AME includes on-stage chats with composers and the creative team, allowing audience members to connect with the creative process. AME provides a welcoming environment for the audience, creators, and performers. The composers we program participate and attend our shows, including luminaries such as John Luther Adams, Philip Glass, John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, Aaron Jay Kernis, Libby Larsen, Steven Mackey, Paul Moravec, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, and countless others. AME also enthusiastically performs works by America's most talented, emerging, and mid-career composers.

AME produces stellar recordings via its house label, American Modern Recordings (AMR), which has received fantastic reviews in Gramophone, the LA Music Examiner, The New York Times, Sequenza21, and New Music Box, and all our albums have made it to the Grammy® Ballot in past seasons.

AME’s summer home is at the Mostly Modern Festival, located in Saratoga Springs, New York. This festival celebrates the music of our time. It is educational, with robust outreach initiatives. Other residencies include Princeton University, James Madison University, Keene State College, the CUNY Graduate Center, Adelphi, Rutgers, and many more. AME is deeply invested in collaboration. Some examples are On Site Opera, Sing for Hope, Ember, Cutting Edge New Music Festival, American Opera Projects, and the Dance Theater of Harlem.

American Modern Ensemble is a division of Mostly Modern Projects, a not-for-profit organization. Click the links below to learn more about our other programs.

Mostly Modern Festival • American Modern Recordings • Music & Medicine • Mostly Modern Pops