Nief-Norf champions the creation and proliferation of new and experimental music in the southeast region primarily through its investment in concert production, local partnerships, education, outreach, and professional development. We have a rich history of commissioning and collaborating with various creators such as Michael Gordon, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Applebaum, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Alexandre Lunsqui, usually producing approximately fifteen concert events per season. We frequently partner with a variety of local venues for our Knoxville Concert Series and other events, including Ijams Nature Center, The Square Room, Jackson Terminal, and The Mill & Mine, as well as local businesses such as Lane Music, Other Hand Branding Co., the Joy of Music School, and Nothing Too Common. Nief-Norf also directly engages with the Knoxville community in collaborative endeavors such as hosting open performances of Phil Kline’s “roving sound installation” Unsilent Night every December, making regular appearances at the Knoxville Pride Festival, and frequently producing major events with our kindred spirits at Big Ears.

Nief-Norf distinguishes itself from other arts organizations in the southeast region by virtue of its annual summer festival, a robust opportunity for artistic and professional development that has produced dozens of concerts featuring hundreds of participants and over 500 contemporary works—including over 80 world premieres—throughout its ten-year history. The Nief-Norf Summer Festival is unique because of its multidisciplinary nucleus, coalescing performers, composers, and researchers under the same banner to collaborate and mutually enrich each others’ artistic perspectives and growth. In addition to staging nearly a dozen concert events and exhibitions each year, the festival also combines a diverse array of integrative pillars into its structure: an international call for scores, with winning composers receiving invitations for themselves and their work to be featured at the festival; a research summit, emphasizing a central artistic theme that is explored by the participants through the shared presentations, discussions, and performances of that repertoire; and a world premieres concert showcasing the original and collaborative works created by the festival participants.

Nief-Norf strives to keep its festival on the cutting edge of 21st century artistry by continually evolving its programs. Though it began as percussion-exclusive, over the years it has grown to include composers, researchers, all types of instrumentalists, vocalists, technologists, and composer/performers (our fastest growing addition to date). We believe it is this commitment to supporting our interrelated artistic community and rising to meet their ever-expanding needs that entices so many of our alumni to return year after year, concomitantly crafting their own unique artistic voices, vision, and creative endeavors.