MISSION
The Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble performs, and commissions underrepresented experimental works in order to open ears and minds. We work to expand the definition of what music can be and what music is capable of achieving, as well as who is capable of achieving it.
HISTORY
EDME was started in 2019 as a trio (soon turned quartet) that performed bizarre music in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Pre-COVID, we co-curated new music nights at venues not normally associated with composed music. We bridged the worlds of trained and untrained musicians, demonstrating the ways music unites us. These shows diligently provided program notes about composers and scores to audience members, whether performing in yoga studios, dive bars, game shops, or concert halls. Our Graphic Score Evocations, involving collective music-making through non-traditional notation, began drawing a following before COVID struck.
Our group maintained a commitment to music as a medium for all throughout the pandemic. We started a YouTube channel, now hosting 29 videos, and performed at outdoor events like LAC’s Open Air Studios, three ArtCity BEAM events, and First Fridays. We provided the soundtrack to a video installation at the Gordon Hotel’s Dimensions Between exhibition in June 2021. Our 2021 and 2022 Porchfest concerts featured the works of non-white and LGBTQ+ composers. Our livestreamed performance for Seattle’s New Works Project in September 2020 invited audience participants to a Zoom-style Graphic Score Evocation.
In May 2021, our Eugene Garbage Project livestreamed to a global audience. This event turned local residents into artistic contributors. We collected trash from the community and recorded sounds and visuals with it. This media became a concert-length work for voice and electronics broadcast from Eugene Contemporary Art on YouTube, and rebroadcast as part of BrainRave in July 2021. In October 2021, we converted the work into an interactive installation for BEAM. Audience members controlled the sounds and visuals on their own through motion-capture technology. We participated in BEAM the following year with our prepared light-up piano, programmed and installed with lights by EDME.
Since October 2022, our annual New Music Festival has brought guest artists, audience participation pieces, and novel experimental concert music to Eugene residents at various downtown locations. Female-identifying, LGBTQ+, and non-white composers are featured strongly among the nearly four dozen selected individuals so far. Our performers and guest musicians served over 150 audience members during the three-concert series its first year and over 200 its second. In 2024, we expanded to four concerts, including one hosted by Impulse Ensemble, and nearly doubled our audience size, and in 2025, we will host five concerts.
In May and June of 2025, we premiered our first ever Ambient Ecology series. This three-concert event brought calming, ecologically inspired works to Maurie Jacobs Park. Each concert opened with a Sonic Meditation by Pauline Oliveros. We plan to bring back the series in 2026.
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