Moon Young Ha (1980, South Korea/USA) has spent the past years working to redefine the new music scene in New York. As the founder and director of ensemble mise-en, Moon curates and conducts some of the most unexpected, perplexing, and widely noticed concerts of contemporary classical music in the city today. As a composer, Moon’s works are heard worldwide, commissioned by major ensembles and chamber orchestras, and featured prominently in experimental collaborations with the musicians of New York-based ensemble mise-en. The New York Times called his music “a wayward litany of pops, shivers and shrieks, by turns agitated and enervated”. But his work also emphasizes organic development, narrative structure, and close research into spectral combinations, creating audible story lines that delight the senses and spur the imagination. In the past years, Moon’s works have been premiered by groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Empyrean Ensemble, Chatham Baroque, Momenta Quartet and others.

scène iii is the third composition of my “scène” series project. Most of the works in the series were written for an ensemble I direct–ensemble mise-en. The main aim of this project is experimenting with my compositional ideas and expanding and developing my personal musical language. All scène pieces with roman numerals can be considered as sketches for the final piece that will be called ‘scène’ (without roman numerals). ‘scène’, the final piece, will combine all of these sketches to make a solid composition; however, there is no specific time frame for finishing the final piece.