On March 28, 2014, I attended the New Ensemble of Grand Valley State University concert at the beautiful Detroit Institute of Arts. The concert was exclusively new music, so the ensemble was experimenting with new musical styles. The New Music Ensemble at Grand Valley State University is a very new ensemble as it has only been in operation since 2006. The founder and director of this ensemble, Bill Ryan, is an educator in the music program at Grand Valley State University and has studied music virtually all his life. The pieces composed by Ryan have been written over the past twenty years, including music written by the ensemble musicians themselves. The ages of the composers ranged from forty-six to twenty-two, but all the artists were at university. The new musical ensemble included only seven young university musicians, and their performance was extremely impressive, as each musician played with such ease, as if these university students had been playing these pieces for years. The ensemble used only a minimal amount of instruments: piano, cello, percussion, clarinet, saxophone, flute and violin. Despite the minimal number of instruments, the ensemble played with beautiful dynamics and a pleasant tone. All together the artists achieved greatness in my eyes. The concert featured six new pieces of music and each piece lasted approximately five minutes. The first song was "Tight Sweater", composed by Marc Mellits, and other than the strange name of this song, the music was not something I had ever heard. To me the song sounded almost electronic and was terribly repetitive. This piece includes four excerpts and the first was similar to the last at least...... middle of the paper...... country with the music of our time. In his efforts to engage audiences, he won the 2008 Michigan Governor's Award for Arts and Education, as well as winning the American Composers Forum's Champion of New Music Award. This man is a true expert when it comes to music from this period, and his song "Sparkle" proves just that. The New Music Ensemble at Grand Valley State University definitely left me on the fence about what to really think about contemporary music. I like the sounds of the instruments, however I don't like the electronic touch in the style of the music. To get my true opinion on contemporary music, this would include listening to additional pieces written by different composers. However the ensemble performance was fantastic and the venue was equally fantastic. I congratulate the members and Bill Ryan for putting on an interesting performance.