“All three works, though quite different in style and intensity, are beautifully crafted, and under Bayolo’s sure leadership Friday, all three got the kind of focused, intelligent performances a composer dreams of.“ Joan Reinthaler

The Washington Post

“But the star of Mr. Andriessen’s opera is the orchestra. Mr. Bayolo vividly brought out the music’s ability to project visual images, whether in the downward tumbles of the first movement, the gondola-bobbing lines of the fourth, or the blinding brightness of Paradise, where harp, bells and the airy voices of the Children’s Chorus of Washington floated in gleaming contrast to the dark timbres of hell.” Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim

The New York Times

“Great Noise Ensemble has found a new home in H Street’s Atlas Performing Arts Center, and there couldn’t be a happier collaboration. Both are adventurous, imaginative and fiercely committed, and the center is smack in the middle of one of the most vibrantly developing neighborhoods in the city,” Joan Reinthaler

The Washington Post

“We tend to be a little buttoned down here in Washington — our suit-to-hipster ratio is a zillion to one, at last count — so outsiders are sometimes surprised to find that the District has one of the most interesting and adventurous contemporary music scenes on the East Coast.

Part of the credit goes to Great Noise Ensemble, a virtuosic outfit that — in a must-hear series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center over the past year — has showcased more than a dozen rising young American composers and revealed some spectacular talent.” Stephen Brookes

The Washington Post

“Go to a concert of the classics and you commit yourself, at least for a couple of hours, to the special but removed world where great music resides. Those who went to Great Noise Ensemble’s concert at Catholic University’s Ward Hall on Friday, however, were brought face to face with music as life.

…the music was put out there with enormous exuberance and good humor, all tempered by moments of delicacy and restraint.” Joan Reinthaler

The Washington Post

“This is modern composed music at its best; nimble, expressive, ear-turning and strange in an accessible way, highly virtuosic (7/4 time, anyone?) but never pretentious.

…If the idea of avant-garde music (referred to by the Ensemble simply as ‘contemporary music’), or even 7/4 time, frighten you, consider this a chance to dip your toes in; you might find that it can match pop music for emotiveness, ambient techno for fragility, R&B for sheer fun. Even the performers are a joy to watch; the young ensemble is focused and clearly enjoying themselves.” Brett Abelman

Washington City Paper