Dedicated exclusively to the performance of contemporary classical music, the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players (Contempo) is one of the oldest and most successful professional new music groups in the nation. Over its 40-year history, the CCP has earned a reputation for its outstanding performances of music by living composers. Contempo has given over eighty world premieres, and even more Chicago premieres, of works by both established and emerging composers, including Roger Sessions, John Harbison, Ralph Shapey, George Perle, Pulitzer Prize-winning faculty member Shulamit Ran, and MacArthur fellow and former Chicago faculty member John Eaton.

Under the artistic direction of Shulamit Ran, Contempo continues the legacy of its founder, composer/conductor Ralph Shapey, by introducing Chicago to some of today’s most compelling music, performed in some of Chicago’s finest concert venues. Conductor Cliff Colnot anchors this top-level ensemble dedicated to presenting the best of contemporary chamber music in concert and to performing a central curricular function for Chicago’s Music Department. For more information, visit contempo.uchicago.edu.