Since its founding, the Ensemble has premiered over 500 compositions, many of these commissions and collaborations spawning from their noteworthy residency programs: the 21st Century Young Composers Project and ICElab.

[5] In addition to commissioning emerging composers, the ensemble has also premiered numerous works by world-renowned composers, including Georges Aperghis, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, David Lang, Liza Lim, Dai Fujikura, Chaya Czernowin, Julio Estrada, Amir Shpilman, George E. Lewis, Anna Thorvaldsdottir,[6] and Carla Kihlstedt, among others.

The International Contemporary Ensemble has performed at the Lincoln Center Festival (New York), Musica Nova Helsinki (Finland), Wien Modern (Austria), Acht Brücken Music for Cologne (Germany), La Cité de la Musique (Paris), the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Germany), Mostly Mozart Festival (New York), as well as tours of Japan, Brazil and France.

ICE is a flexible collective of thirty-four performing artists, including strings, woodwinds, piano, percussion, voice, light and sound designers.

As an artist-run organization, most of ICE’s executive leadership, concert production, marketing, fundraising, technology and database systems are managed by members of the ensemble.