Since its inception, the idea behind No Exit has been to serve as an outlet for the commission and performance of contemporary avant-garde concert music. Now in our 12th season and with well over 160 commissions to date, we have strived to create exciting, meaningful and thought-provoking programs; always with the philosophy of bringing the concert hall to the community (not the other way around) and by presenting our programs in a manner which allows for our audience to really connect with the experience……… free and open to the public in every sense.

Over the years we’ve presented music which represents the gamut of the avant-garde: from the impish and mirthful jazz stylings of Raymond Scott to the cerebral hypercomplexity of Brian Ferneyhough (and just about everything in-between). We’ve sought to give voice to those composers who we feel really have something to say, whether they be young composers at the beginning of their journey, established composers at the height of their abilities, or venturing into the past by exploring new ways of sharing the unconventional and innovative music of the early twentieth-century’s artistic vanguard, which has led to the commission of exciting contemporary re-imaginings of music by Erik Satie and Eric Dolphy, to name a few.

We have a slew of newly commissioned works which will see their world premieres during our 2020-2021 concert season, including 10 freshly minted solo pieces that showcase the extraordinary abilities of each individual member of the ensemble as well as new creations from some of Northeast Ohio’s most intriguing composers. No Exit is thrilled to be welcoming back cimbalom virtuoso Chester Englander, who will be performing with No Exit over the next two seasons as part of an ambitious project to commission and record 2 CDs of all new works. We will also continue our long-standing collaboration with Zeitgeist (our favorite partners in crime) and so much more.

"This was a captivating evening of music presented by skilled and friendly performers in an intimate setting. No Exit performs with complete commitment to its repertory but doesn’t take itself too seriously either — something that really draws an audience into what they’re doing."

— Daniel Hathaway, Clevelandclassical.com