The atmosphere of doom and gloom hanging over the music business isn’t specific to pop—over the past couple years the classical-music world has contributed its fair share of the-end-is-nigh stories too. Since they’re the only stories about classical music that most people hear, it’s easy to think of the entire classical world as teetering on the edge of extinction. So it’s a relief to read Peter Margasak’s feature this week on the International Contemporary Ensemble, a Chicago-born collective that has grown exponentially in its short lifespan, in the process earning high praise from the likes of New Yorker critic Alex Ross and composer John Adams.
