Grossman Ensemble honored by Library of Congress invitation
By Rivky Mondal
Photo by Anthony Nguyen
October 30, 2025
The Grossman Ensemble has been invited to perform in the Library of Congress’s famed Coolidge Auditorium—a rare distinction that recognizes the Ensemble’s meticulous artistry and innovative model for creating new music. The performance marks a milestone for one of Chicago’s leading cultural voices. The performance was originally scheduled for November 15, 2025 but is being rescheduled for spring 2026 because of the federal work stoppage in the fall of 2025.
Part of the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition (CCCC), the Ensemble brings together virtuoso musicians across instruments to collaborate with premier composers and conductors. By 2027, it will have commissioned and debuted 107 new works by 107 composers—each rehearsed and workshopped in close collaboration—an unprecedented pace in contemporary classical music. Already, these works have received more than one hundred performances by ensembles around the world. All the works are available to stream on the Ensemble’s YouTube Channel.
This integrated model sharply contrasts with a traditional process where composers write music on their own, then deliver scores to musicians. As Augusta Read Thomas—founder of the Ensemble, Director of the CCCC, and University Professor of Composition—explains, “Our process encourages collaboration between composers, musicians, and conductors, and offers time for the music to grow in the mind of the composer and to fully inhabit the minds of the musicians.”
True to this spirit, the Library of Congress program will include works shaped through this collaborative exchange by Thomas and Sean Shepherd, alongside works by Morton Feldman and Sir George Benjamin. Rehearsals span nine weeks and include open workshops where composers, musicians, and audiences can engage in the creative process.
At UChicago, the Grossman Ensemble doubles as an incubator for the next generation of composers. Starting in their third year, Music PhD students can contribute new works, many of which have premiered alongside faculty and internationally recognized composers. Thomas is widely celebrated for her mentorship, balancing student guidance with her position as one of America’s most acclaimed living composers. The American Academy of Arts and Letters has called Thomas “one of the most recognizable and widely loved figures in American music.”
Thomas’s approach to sound, described as “poet-composer” work, reflects UChicago’s broader culture of intellectual rigor and creative risk-taking. Since founding the CCCC in 2016, Thomas has fostered a dynamic environment where scholarship, performance, and dialogue fuel each other. The Center hosts quarterly concerts by the Grossman Ensemble, and graduate and postdoctoral fellowships that empower young composers to shape the future of music.
The Grossman Ensemble stands as a vivid example of how art and scholarship intertwine at the University. By approaching rehearsals as research and program curation as pedagogy, the Ensemble expands the uses of contemporary music and advances knowledge that resonates locally and globally.
The Library of Congress invitation ratifies this impact, affirming the Ensemble’s capacity to make audiences and performers feel like “agents to the extraordinary,” in the words of percussionist John Corkill. For audiences in Washington this November 15, the concert offers a chance to experience contemporary music in its most daring, collaborative, and lively form.
See them live
Tickets are available now for the Library of Congress performance.
Audiences in Chicago can preview the Ensemble’s collaborative process at the Logan Center, with a public workshop on November 12 and open rehearsals for the tour on November 13-14. As Thomas puts it, “These workshops are interactive, creative, virtuosic, and fun”—a chance to witness the Ensemble’s inventions unfold in real time.