The University of Arkansas New Music Ensemble will hold its inaugural concert in the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov 20. The public is invited and tickets can be purchased online.

The Arkansas New Music Ensemble, part of the Department of Music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, is focused on performing music by current composers that taps into the events and happenings of today.

"The ensemble is about art commenting on the times in which we live," said Jamal Duncan, director of the New Music Ensemble. "It's about the experience we have as humans and how music connects to it."

"Performing new music has expanded my understanding of instrumental music. It doesn't all have to be classical music; instruments can be used to make exciting, rhythmic, and modern music that can intrigue an audience without following the typical standards of music" said flute music major Emily Johnson.

Johnson will be featured in a solo performance of Ian Clarke's TRKs. "New music has allowed me to explore the many ways of interpreting music, and how that music can relate to different people and their emotions," said Johnson. "It has also helped me understand that no matter what your preference in genre may be, music is still music."

The ensemble membership varies in size and makeup from solo performers to mixed chamber ensembles of winds, strings and percussion.

Concert repertoire includes:

• "Chicago, 2012" by Mason Bates
• "TRKs" by Ian Clarke
• "Test Drive" by Michael Goodman
• "Trying" by David Skidmore
• "Christian Zeal and Activity" by John Adams