The New Nine Ensemble

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
-Emma Lazarus
The New Nine Ensemble was created by Patrick Sheng and Andres S. Trujillo. Initially it was created to perform the music of Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ groundbreaking album “The Birth Of The Cool”. Since the inception of NNE, we have performed in several prominent venues and in educational settings.
In the past few years, our goals have matured, and our tenants have begun to take shape. Our values that we have cultivated and will continue to pursue are:
• Collaborating with musicians in our communities to create music in a medium that combines Black American Music with the eclectic orchestration of our ensemble.
• Commissioning music from composers with diverse backgrounds, including people who identify as woman, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, people who have immigrated to foreign lands, people who are currently or formerly unhoused, people who are economically disadvantaged, and people of color.
• Making our music accessible to audiences in communities who are both familiar and unfamiliar with our sound. Reaching out to the audiences of those in The Midnight Mission Community and to the audience of people in the currently or formerly in the justice system.
• Participating in educating the youth in these communities, not only sharing the historical significance of Black American Music and of this particular ensemble, but the overall importance of the role of art in the human experience.
Our goal in the immediate is to be able to give back to our community with concerts that will be aided by funding and to be able to present our art without restrictions of the traditional music venue. Our goal for the future is to participate in the canon of significant musical history, by recording and by finding a residence in an academic institution.
If we are chosen as a California Creative Corps partner, we will conduct a series of seven concerts in Los Angeles, Orange County, Long Beach and potentially beyond. We will provide masterclasses at educational institutions as well as interviews and public forums. We will collaborate and commission new works from composers who share our values and tenants.
As we continue to grow as an ensemble, we reflect on the Emma Lazarus poem written at the bottom of the Statue of Liberty and we wish to represent ourselves in the true American spirit. Black American Music is the synthesis of the ideals, struggles and perseverance of that. We will continue to engage in conventions that acknowledge the past (and the foundations that were created) to propel us into the future.