Ensemble Pi

Ensemble Pi is a New York-based contemporary music group with the stated goal of using music to foster critical conversations and incite social change. The group's performances are often interdisciplinary, created in collaboration with activists and artists addressing contemporary social issues. Ensemble Pi was formed by pianist Idith Korman in 2002. Now Idith Meshulam, she remains the group's pianist and artistic director. Other members include clarinetist Moran Katz, cellist Alexis Gerlach, violinist Airi Yoshioka, percussionist Bill Trigg, and narrator Damian Norfleet. Jasna Radonjic is the ensemble's artistic advisor and producer. The name also appears sometimes as Ensemble π. Ensemble Pi creates thematic concerts devoted to a specific social issue or sometimes to a specific contemporary composer. Beginning in 2006, the group presented an annual Peace Concert (sometimes titled Concert for Peace and Civil Rights) at Cooper Union in New York. In 2010, Ensemble Pi released its debut album, Keep Going: The Music of Elias Tanenbaum, on the Ravello Records label. Several concerts were devoted to the music of composer Laura Kaminsky, and Ensemble Pi released the live album Music by Laura Kaminsky on the Albany label in 2013. The group presents several concerts annually at various New York venues; many are devoted to the work of women composers. Some of Ensemble Pi's concerts are presented in conjunction with the Association for the Promotion of New Music; a 2018 concert with that group, held at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, was entitled Saving the Earth. The group presented the concert Reparations Now!, inspired by writings and speeches on the subject of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Africans by Ibram X. Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates, on October 29, 2020, at the Center at West Park. A recording based on that concert was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in 2023.
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