Submissions for scores and applications for guest artists are open on our website! Click here if you have a score you'd like us to play for our New Music Festival on October 15th-16th, 2022, and click here if you're interested in performing a 30-minute set on one of the concerts. The Festival will feature three concerts in downtown Eugene, from the Park Blocks to the First Christian Church and the New Zone Gallery. The Light and Art show in the Park Blocks will draw on the energy of ArtCity's BEAM, with amplified music and an interactive light exhibit for audience members. Our audience participation concert draws trained and untrained musicians alike into a collective sound-making space at the First Christian Church, and our concert at New Zone will set pieces for the ensemble in an inviting visual atmosphere. The Call for Scores closes June 1st, and the Guest Artist Application closes July 1st.
ABOUT US
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.
Our Ambient Ecology Music series is set to premiere in May and June of 2025. We plan to make it an annual event!
ADMINISTRATION
JP LEMPKE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
JP Lempke is a composer and creator of bizarre things, many of which have been performed by individuals and groups like unassisted fold, Kanae Mizobuchi, and WasteLAnd. A winner of the American Guild of Organists Student Commissioning Project and a nominee for the Destellos Foundation Electroacoustic and Video-Music Competition, his works have been featured throughout the United States, Europe, and South Korea. In February 2020, he became executive director of the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble, and he started up the Eugene Garbage Project that same year. He is currently teaching piano, theory, and composition at the Pavilanis School of Music in Eugene.
LEE SPARKS PEMBLETON TREASRURER
Lee Pembleton has been composing and performing music for over forty years. The bulk of that time has been spent investigating sound environments and performative installations. He has been a member of several contemporary music/performance ensembles, jazz bands and the occasional rock, psychedelic and folk group. He has performed at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum, Roulette Intermedium, Issue Project Room, Mills College’s Littlefield Concert Hall, Milk of Burgundy, 55 Bar, Czar Bar, Flux Factory, Old Nick's, and many other obscure venues.
ADRIAN CERVANTES MENDEZ SECRETARY
The work of Adrian Cervantes engages with themes related to memory, consumption, and cybernetic Pan-American identity. Employing varying mediums–including collage, writing, sculpture, sound, performance, and installation–he exhumes dialectical relationships, then subsumes them into new forms to examine the liminality of cultural transmission. Adrian is currently based physically in Eugene, OR and digitally on Instagram @firstnamelastna.me. He is currently pursuing a BA in Music History and Culture from the University of Oregon.
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MEMBERS
FEDOR CHAYKA FLUTE
Fedor Chayka is a sophomore music minor and chemistry and math major at the University of Oregon, and a student in Dr. Cordova-Arrington's flute studio. Previously, he studied with Corrie Cook, Galina Yaroshevskaya, and Tatyana Mozdikova. He played in ensembles of the Portland Youth Philharmonic for five years, and studied in summer programs including Summer@Eastman and the Gnessin Summer School. Equally passionate about music and science, he pursues an academic path of two concentrations; through the music minor and extensive independent study, he is preparing to attend graduate programs both in music and chemistry.
MAX MABRY CLARINET
Max Mabry is an American composer and performer that was raised in Oregon. He recently completed a degree in Music Composition and Music Performance at the University of Oregon. On clarinet, Max has received the Louis Armstrong Jazz Excellence Award and was the primary bass clarinetist for the UO Wind Ensemble until 2022. He is currently a performer and assistant director of the IMPULSE new music ensemble. As a composer, Max describes his style as a fusion classical artist, striving to bring in elements of music from other genres into more classically oriented instrumentations. The goal of Max’s composing and performing is to move people and make connections between himself, the audience, and performers, as well as to continually develop his musical voice.
ZICHAO LIU TRUMPET
Zichao Liu is a trumpet performer and music educator from China currently pursuing a DMA at the University of Oregon. He holds an MM in Trumpet Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a BM from the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. Zichao has extensive experience as a teaching artist, private instructor, and ensemble performer, with a passion for connecting communities through music. He has worked as a music camp director at annunciation Church in New York and Kenan fellow at the Lincoln Center of Performing Arts. As a performer, he has participated in groups like the Brooklyn and Chelsea Symphony Orchestras in New York. Zichao is also engaged in research and arts administration, including serving as educational coordinator at Lincoln Center. He is committed to inspiring young musicians through expressive artistry and inclusive teaching.
LUKE ZITTERKOPF TROMBONE
Luke Zitterkopf is a freshman student in the University of Oregon’s trombone performance program. Their musical backgrounds are in western classical and jazz music, as well as experience with music journalism and composition. They are very excited to be a part of EDME and help out with things and are forever indebted to the UO career fair existing for letting them sign up for the group. It was basically their destiny.
THOMAS CALLETANO GONZALEZ Violin
Thomas is a violinist, performer, and composer studying music education at the University of Oregon. Born in Oregon, his Hispanic heritage guides him toward exploring new perspectives in both music and communities. Having studied classical music and playstyles most of his musical career, he has recently been able to explore more modern contemporary projects involving dance and original music within the school of music and dance. He believes in the expansive nature of music that explores diverse identities while providing opportunities for collaboration in the arts and beyond.
ELLEN LAMORA Violin
Ellen LaMora is currently studying violin performance and music education at the University of Oregon. She is interested in pursuing a career performing as well as teaching violin and other string instruments and ensembles. She is a member of the University of Oregon symphony orchestra and has performed other chamber and solo works on campus. In her free time, Ellen enjoys hiking, reading, and crocheting.
ELLIE JAKES Cello/Composition/Electronics
Ellie Jakes is a composer, cellist, and synthesist whose work encompasses classical, electroacoustic, jazz, free improvisation, and film scoring. She is a frequent collaborator of Fermata Ballet Collective and has had her compositions performed by the Oregon Jazz Ensemble, participated in the Westben Performer-Composer Residency, and had a sound installation on display at the Studio Gallery in Washington, D.C. She graduated from Lawrence University in 2015 with Bachelor's Degrees in Music Performance and Physics, and received a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon in 2019.
JAYNE CRONIN Double Bass
Jayne Cronin is a music education student and double bassist from Mundelein, Illinois. Jayne’s accolades include winning a Leonard Bernstein Award, performing as a senior soloist, and being elected as her high school’s symphony orchestra president. Outside of performance, she is most fascinated by music history, specifically the influence and contributions of Islam on western Europe. She is very excited to get back into performing with others after taking a year long hiatus.
K.C. ISAMAN Double Bass
K.C. Isaman is an active performer as a multi-genre bassist. An orchestral bassist, chamber musician, jazz bassist, collaborator, and improviser, K.C. thrives in creating a rich musical landscape for listeners. A thoughtful and engaging player that is fun to watch and even more fun to play with, K.C. enjoys performing and learning about all genres of music and strives to be a reliable, trustworthy, and dynamic performer. K.C. is pursuing a Master's Degree in Music Performance with a specialization in Historical Performance Practice at the University of Oregon, studying under Tyler Abbott. K.C. graduated from the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music in 2023 with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance and a minor in Jazz Studies, where he studied under Joshua Skinner, Vern Sielert, Kate Skinner, and Daniel Bukvich.
KEEGAN VAUGHAN PERCUSSION
Keegan Vaughan is a percussionist from Dallas, Texas. His musical career began at age 9, playing drumset at his local “School of Rock”. This love for drumming spiraled and let to his studying at the University of Oregon with Pius Cheung. He has played with a plethora of groups, such as Portland-Columbia Symphony and Orchestra Next, he is also a frequent pit musician for the Shedd’s fall theatricals. Keegan has traveled extensively because of his musical career, marching Drum Corps took him across the United States, he had the opportunity to travel to Tokyo to study marimba with Keiko Abe, to Denmark to study with Johann Bridger, and to Spain to play in the Edeta Arts Festival.
OWEN ATLANSKY ELECTRIC GUITAR/AUDIO ENGINEERING
Owen is a performer, producer, composer, and radio jock from Portland, OR. He knew he wanted to devote his life to music when he played Guitar Hero as a toddler. Owen releases music under the name XDL and is inspired by hip hop, electronic music, jazz, video game soundtracks, and all music and sounds. He placed 1st in the University of Oregon’s 2023 Electronic Music Composition Competition and was recognized as a “School of Music and Dance Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar in Music Technology” when he graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in Music Technology. He has performed in the Oregon Electronic Device Orchestra and has run live sound for events at the University of Oregon and the Jazz Station. He works full-time in radio and can be heard on 104.7 KDUK. In his free time he enjoys kicking it, chilling, hanging out, and relaxing.
