Third Angle New Music
Mission
Third Angle New Music (3A) creates multi-disciplinary musical experiences that illuminate the music of our time and reflect the spirit and vitality of our community. Our mission is to perform and record masterworks of the 21st century while commissioning new works from regional and nationally celebrated composers.
Bottom Line for Portland
3A is known for redefining the concert experience, producing site specific collaborations that respond to the unique architecture and cultural history(s) of the region. 3A challenges the conventions of classical and contemporary music by foregrounding marginalized voices, building diverse partnerships, and bringing music to spaces, outside of the concert hall or opera house. Since founding in 1985, 3A has produced over 200 events and released 15 recordings that challenge what contemporary music looks like, where it happens and who it is for.
Quote
As Critic Brett Campbell attests, “[Third Angle] has given Northwest audiences a reliable source of contemporary, accessible, avant-garde music.”
“It is not enough to merely listen, but to listen with open ears and minds and really absorb what is being said and turn that into concrete actions and results.”—Charles Rose, Oregon ArtsWatch
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Our programming and artistic relationships challenge the narrative that new music is Eurocentric and male-dominated. Our seasons continue to highlight composers of color and 50% of the artists we contracted with over the last 2 years were BIPOC. This equity lens informs our programming in two significant ways: curation of projects addressing issues that especially impact BIPOC communities (mental health, climate), and stewarding BIPOC-led projects that are not explicitly about social justice and/or race. We recognize that BIPOC artists need platforms to share stories that are not only related to racial trauma.
In January 2021 3A’s board signed on to the New Music Equity Action Pledge, which 3A staff have helped to craft in conversation with other national leaders in our field. Through town halls and Slack forums we have worked together to process the pandemic and recent civil rights uprising, and imagine a more equitable future for new music. By signing the pledge we have committed to working to “rectify the legacy of White supremacy and injustice and to actively participate in its replacement with a more diverse and equitable future” by disrupting cycles of privilege and acting in solidarity with disenfranchised populations.
To read the full pledge go to: https://newmusicequityaction.org/pledge.html
Additionally, for the 22/23 season, 3A is launching an initiative called Access 3A, to make our programming more accessible to the disabled community. The initiative includes hiring an Access Outreach Coordinator and ASL interpreters as well as providing audio description, and sound reactive light technology at several programs.
Incentives
Donors who give on Giving Tuesday will be entered into a drawing to receive two full season subscriptions to the Third Angle Season.
Third Angle New Music is in the Creative Expression category which is sponsored by The Oregon Cultural Trust