EMPAC Announces Spring 2025 Programs

Troy, NY: EMPAC / the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announces the public events of its spring 2025 season. Beginning January 16, 2025 through May 2, the curatorial program welcomes audiences to the center for 16 presentations. Each is a singular opportunity to connect with unflinchingly adventuresome artists whose current inquiries are pushing the boundaries of dance/theater, music/sound, film, and time-based visual arts.

Artists come to EMPAC to develop and test their newest works. Audiences join in to explore the nuances of artistic production from an ever-changing line-up. This season calls us together for 2 world premieres and 1 retrospective, 7 artist talks and in-progress presentations, and 6 concert performances. The centerpiece of the season is the two-day Ephemeral Organ Festival of choreography and new media works.

Highlights

• Writer, choreographer, and performer Jack Ferver contextualizes (January 22) then premieres My Town (March 21), a commission with NYU Skirball.
• Korakrit Arunanondchai turns Studio 1—Goodman into an atmospheric cinema where footage coalesces on clouds of fog and disperses into air. (February 13)
• Victoria Shen and Mariam Rezaei push the musical limits of turntablism in a concert of new music for unorthodox instruments and objects. (April 25)
• Rama Gottfried and Yarn/Wire close the season with the world premiere of Ontopoiesis, a commissioned work of experimental music theater. (May 2)
• Artists Steffani Jemison, Leslie Cuyjet, and others convene for the Ephemeral Organ Festival, culminating the year-long series from curator-in-residence Tara Aisha Willis. (April 17 & 18)

Artists

Korakrit Arunanondchai
Being & Becoming
DeForrest Brown Jr.
Justine A. Chambers
Leslie Cuyjet
Jack Ferver
Rama Gottfried
Steffani Jemison
Ruba Katrib
Katie Kirkland
A.J. McClenon
Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi
Claudia Pagès
Katherine Simóne Reynolds
Mariam Rezaei
Jewyo Rhii
Tara Rodgers
Victoria Shen
Louis Chude-Sokei
P. Staff
Yarn/Wire

Location

All presentations take place at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), located on the corner of 8th Street and College Avenue, on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.

Four venues under one roof, each equipped with advanced technological infrastructure, include a 1,200 seat concert hall, a 250 seat proscenium theater with cinema screen, and two studio spaces with variable seating, each differentiated for rewarding experiences of the experimental media and performing arts.

Tickets & Registrations

Purchase tickets or register through the EMPAC box office, located at 50 8th Street and by calling 518.276.3921, or online at empac.rpi.edu.

Free programs require registration.

The all-access Festival Pass is $20, required for entry to the presentations of the Ephemeral Organ festival.

Single tickets for all performances and premieres are $20, with no added fees.

EMPAC offers $15 reduced price tickets for people ages 55+, students, and RPI faculty and staff.

Single tickets for the film/video screening program with P. Staff are $10.

RPI students can purchase advance tickets for any event at a reduced rate of $6, or access free student rush ticket with campus ID at doors.

Curators

Amadeus Julian Regucera, Music
Katherine C.M. Adams, Time-based Visual Arts
Tara Aisha Willis, Curator-in-Residence, Dance & Theater

Special Thanks

EMPAC 2025 SPRING is made possible by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. EMPAC’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. 

Media Contact

An extended version of this announcement is available by email. For media inquiries, or to subscribe to the EMPAC press list, please use our Contact form.