Named as “ambitious” by TimeOut & The New Yorker, we strive to ensure our work continues to live up to that word. 

NYC-based BlackBox Ensemble is a collective of contemporary music performers founded in 2018 dedicated to exploring the wide-ranging world of the music of our time. Our 2025-2026 season includes a return to The Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, debuts at National Sawdust and Bowerbird, and residencies at Penn State, George Washington University, UC Davis, SFSU, Williams College and a year-long appointment as Ensemble in Residence with University of Richmond, along with more in store. 

Our name, BlackBox, comes from the many meanings the term holds. In theatre, a black box is a bare, flexible space—four dark walls that can transform into anything, creating an environment ripe for bold experimentation and intimate connection. In science and technology, a black box is a system where you see the inputs and outputs, but the mystery of what happens inside is what makes it compelling. For us, we believe music, as a cultural medium, lives in that same space—enacting an ambiguous but vital relationship between artistic expression and social life, where sound, expression, and human experience collide in ways that can’t always be explained, but always resonate. Guided by the spirit of the theatrical black box, we create programs that invite risk, innovation, and connection, presenting contemporary classical music in ways that feel fresh, human, and alive.