BlackBox Ensemble Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Described as "ambitious" by TimeOut and The New Yorker, the New York City-based BlackBox Ensemble creates immersive, interdisciplinary, and site-responsive performances that engage deeply with classical traditions while reimagining them through contemporary lenses, opening space for new ideas, collaborations, and ways of listening. BlackBox has presented work at leading museums, festivals, and performance spaces across the U.S., including the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, The Whitney Museum, Bang on a Can's Long Play Festival, National Sawdust, Roulette Intermedium, the Clark Art Institute, the Noguchi Museum, and PS21. The ensemble has toured nationally and held residencies at universities including NYU, University of Chicago, Penn State, George Washington University, UC Davis, University of Richmond, University of Michigan, University of Florida, and San Francisco State University, among others. Recent highlights include a three-performance run of Speculative Listening: The Sonic World of Julius Eastman, a program exploring Eastman's influences curated by Eastman scholar Isaac Jean-Francois in collaboration with Kyle Marshall Choreography, as well as The Sound of Space Between Us, a site-specific outdoor music and dance performance at the Clark Art Institute conceived by flutist Annie Nikunen. Our name, BlackBox, comes from the many meanings the term holds. In theatre, a black box is a bare, flexible space-four dark walls that can transform into anything, creating an environment ripe for bold experimentation and intimate connection. In science and technology, a black box is a system with known inputs and outputs, but the mystery of what happens inside makes it compelling. For us, we believe music, as a cultural medium, lives in that same space-enacting an ambiguous but vital relationship between artistic expression and social life, where sound, expression, and human experience collide in ways that can't always be explained, but always resonate. Guided by the spirit of the theatrical black box, we create programs that invite risk, innovation, and connection, presenting contemporary classical music in ways that feel fresh, human, and alive. Our performance highlights in FY24-25 include: May 11th, 2025 - performance of music by and inspired by Julius Eastman at Whitney Museum in NY. May 4, 2025 - performance of music by and inspired by Julius Eastman on Bang on a Can's Long Play Festival, Brooklyn, NY. November 23, 2024 - performance at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Brooklyn, NY including 7 New York City premiere compositions October 4, 2024 Performance at the University of South Carolina Southern Exposure Series, Columbia, SC., and etc.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 77.7%; rating input score 78
• Program expense ratio: 79.8%; rating input score 80

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 2.6%; rating input score 51; 51st percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.04; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 17%; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: Limited
• Asset growth: Limited