This is a multi-media performative lecture from a QSN-TV news anchor covering the latest global legal developments governing the uses of ‘land’—or any material that can be commodified as property and extracted for private gain—in outer space. QSN-TV is a subsidiary of Queer Space Network (QSN), which is a collaborative media and performance space laboratory that uses technology to create audio-visual investigations through queer drag performance, media production, and queer techné.

Deep space is the frontier of the 21st century. State and private actors are in a new race to stake formal territorial claims to ‘land’ in space. Outdated international agreements have created a diplomatic grey zone that allows state and non-state actors to frame space/land in neocolonial terms, creating new political, military, and commercial spheres of influence contrary to the ‘heritage of humankind’ principle of existing space treaties.

Frontiers like deep space have important visual components, and technology and media have historically played crucial roles in framing and reinforcing colonial narratives through the production and circulation of images. This research-creation project will use space/land as an entry point for examining international and national space law from an anti-colonial perspective, emphasizing issues of rights and access based on gender, sexuality, economic background, and residual dominance from the Western colonial period and the Cold War era.

The new deep space cultural and political frontiers are a site where subject-hood, ownership, and embodiment are presently being redefined. This research-creation project exposes underlying coloniality in Western narratives of ‘land’ in space through an interdisciplinary use of art, science, and international relations. This continuous, iterative, and collaborative process creates a queer counter-public in space: a new inclusive futurity that is both horizontal and plural rather than embedded in established norms of possession, extraction, and political dominance. The project aims to expand our theoretical and practical imaginary of space beyond the race for resources and a new habitat for white, cis-gender futurity.

In this talk presentation, renowned artist and musician Laurie Anderson reveals the process behind her newest music-theater work, ARK, while at EMPAC for a final production residency in preparation for its world premiere in Manchester in November 2024.

An opera starring a host of mythical and contemporary figures, Anderson’s subjects—apocalyptic climate events, technology and information overload, American history—are warped into a story that plays with the flow of time and poses questions about the survival of the human spirit. How does humanity need to change in order to be saved?

Laurie Anderson was at EMPAC for her first residency in 2009. She was Distinguished Artist-in-Residence for three years from 2012 through 2014. In all, Anderson has developed 10 projects during residencies at EMPAC, including this season's ARK.

One of America’s most renowned performance artists, Laurie Anderson’s genre-crossing work encompasses performance, film, music, installation, writing, photography, and sculpture. She is widely known for her multimedia presentations and musical recordings and has numerous major works to her credit, including United States I-V (1983), Empty Places (1990), Stories from the Nerve Bible (1993), Songs and Stories for Moby Dick (1999), and Life on a String (2001), among others. She has taken part in countless collaborations with an array of artists, from Jonathan Demme and Brian Eno to Bill T. Jones and Peter Gabriel.

Join Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for Storytelling & Memory, a concert featuring Tanglewood Music Center’s Fromm Quartet. The event, free and open to the public, includes works by composers Tania León and Steven Mackey, as well as a conversation on the latest advances in Alzheimer’s research, and on translating memory into music, with Rensselaer faculty Dr. Chunyu Wang and Dr. Robert Whalen.

Tania León and Steven Mackey serve on Tanglewood's composition faculty and are co-directors of the Festival of Contemporary Music. Chunyu Wang is professor in the School of Science at Rensselaer, and is nationally recognized for his research in Alzheimer’s. Robert Whalen is lecturer of music and conducting at Rensselaer, where he directs the Rensselaer Orchestra, Concert Choir, and Wind Symphony.

Amadeus Julian Regucera, music curator at EMPAC, introduces the program’s discussion.

• Fromm Quartet
• James Gikas, violin
• Tiffany Wee, violin
• James Cunningham IV, viola
• Benjamin Lanners, cello

Program

• CUARTETO NO. 2 (2011) — Tania León (b. 1943)
• I. Soy (I am)
• II. De vez en cuando (Once in a while)
• III. Son retazos (They are fragments)
• THE GIFT OF TIME
• A conversation between Dr. Chunyu Wang and Dr. Robert Whalen on the latest advances in Alzheimer’s research and translating memory into music. Introduction by Dr. Amadeus Julian Regucera.
• ONE RED ROSE (2013) — Steven Mackey (b. 1956)
• I. Five Short Studies
• II. Fugue and Fantasy
• III. Anthem and Aria

Composer workshops and rehearsal readings, post-concert musical mingling at Evelyn’s Cafe, Dogs of Desire, the culminating Festival concert, recitals and more!

All yours to explore and discover throughout Troy with your Festival Pass.

ESYO Symphony Orchestra and Rensselaer Orchestra Perform Side-by-Side in Back to Back Concerts on Saturday, April 13th and Sunday April 21, 2024.

Troy- NY Empire State Youth Orchestra, under the artistic direction of its Music Director Etienne Abelin, and the Rensselaer Orchestra, led by Dr. Robert Whalen, Director of Institute Ensembles at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, today announced two collaborative performances in April; the first will take place on Saturday, April 13, 2024, at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and the second on Sunday, April 21, 2024, at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, NY.

This joint venture, centered on the theme of breath, explores both the resonance and restraint of human nature. The first concert on April 13 features Empire State Youth Orchestra's Symphony Orchestra and Rensselaer Orchestra performing Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 side-by-side along with Hymn for Everyone by 2024 GRAMMY Award-winning Composer Jessie Montgomery. The concert also features the first movement of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto performed by Maya Johnson, the Rensselaer Concerto Competition Winner. At the second concert, on April 21, ESYO's Symphony Orchestra will be joined by members of the Rensselaer Orchestra at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall where they will present a second performance of Schostakovich's Symphony No. 5, Montgomery's Hymn for Everyone, and feature ESYO's 2024 Lois Lyman Concerto Competition Winner, Kingston Czajkowski, performing Paul Creston's Marimba Concerto. 

ESYO Music Director and Symphony Orchestra conductor Etienne Abelin is thrilled about this side-by-side collaboration with the Rensselaer Orchestra and RPI conductor Dr. Robert Whalen. "It resonates with ESYO's commitment to enriching the musical journey of our young musicians, providing them the opportunity to perform alongside college peers while offering them a glimpse into the journey ahead," said Abelin. 

For the Rennselaer Orchestra, which represents students from 26 different majors, from Music and Electronic Arts to Nuclear engineering, this concert highlights the impact and relevance of the Arts in a STEM-oriented curriculum. "The arts act as a creative catalyst on campus and inspire community," said Whalen. "Our students are relishing the rare opportunity to perform this program in two world-class venues situated only blocks apart from each other in Troy."

The matchup also makes it possible for both orchestras to tackle a monumental masterpiece, like Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifth, which will be enhanced by the unique strengths of each ensemble.

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 carries a particular resonance with the world today. The symphony premiered in Leningrad during the Soviet Union's 1937 "Great Purge" and reflected the fraught relationship between Shostakovich and the artistic control exerted by Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. Hidden within the piece are echoes of the inner struggle between Shostakovich's desire for creative freedom and the choking realities of living behind the Iron Curtain and its oppressive political climate. Despite its clandestine revolutionary undertone, the work was well-received by the public and Soviet authorities.

As part of this collaboration, each orchestra will work with a guest conductor and learn from them in what Abelin calls a 'conductor share.' Abelin will conduct Jessie Montgomery's Hymn for Everyone at EMPAC, and Dr. Whalen will lead the Shostakovich. Then, a week later, at the legendary Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, the conductors will switch roles, with Dr. Whalen conducting Montgomery's Hymn for Everyone and Abelin leading the Fifth Symphony by Shostakovich. 

Abelin believes the swap will help the musicians get a more imaginative experience. "By playing the same piece with different conductors and different interpretations, the young musicians will experience how differing perspectives and varying musical focus' can change a piece of music substantially," said Abelin.

Featured on the April 21st performance is ESYO's Concerto Winner, Kingston Czajkowski, performing the Concertino for Marimba by American composer Paul Creston. Czajkowski is excited to perform the Concertino, marking the Cairo-Durham High School Sophomore's solo debut with an orchestra. "This is one of my favorite pieces of music, featuring moments of great rhythmic excitement as well as many lyrical and sweet passages," said Czajkowski. "It's a good piece to introduce the audience to the world of marimba music," he continued. 

On March 27th, the two ensembles came together for the first of several combined rehearsals. "It has been inspiring to see the Rensselaer and ESYO students interact," said Dr. Robert Whalen. "What a remarkable sound emerges when those 155 student musicians unite. Both Etienne and I were struck by the richness and depth of sonority as well as the precision and clarity of this formidable group," he continued.  

For more information about both collaborative performances by the Empire State Youth Orchestra and the Rensselaer Orchestra or to purchase tickets to the ESYO performance on April 21, 2024, visit www.esyo.org/news-concerts.

On Saturday, April 6, RMA will be hosting our annual Pops Concert! It will be from 2-5pm in EMPAC Concert Hall. The theme this year is SPACE in honor of the solar eclipse! Symphonic Band, Percussion Ensemble, Flute Choir, Studio Orchestra, Experimental Music Quintet, and Sax Ensemble will all be performing. The livestream link will be available a few days before the concert.

Rensselaer Dance Club presents an evening full of dance, featuring guests from Gajjde Sher Bhangra, RPI Ballroom, and Eighth Wonder. Visit us at https://dance.union.rpi.edu/ for more information about ticket sales.

Brushing Improvisation – N°2 is the latest work in an ongoing brushing project that has utilized brushes in electronic music improvisation performances. While the previous performances of Brushing Improvisation focused on the nuanced materiality of the brush and translated brushing gestures into musical/sonic expression through specific mediated technology, a process formulated through continuous interaction between myself as both an instrument maker and performer, this particular piece also delves into the cultural universality inherent in the brush. This exploration fosters theatricality, gestural performance, and an organic integration between composition and improvisation.

If sound is a force, what is its edge? EMPAC’s four main performance venues—its concert hall, theater, and two studios—are designed as isolated acoustic environments that are structurally separated from each other as well as from the façades of the building. How much sonic energy can they contain? 

CONDICIÓN_1023 was conceived in response to EMPAC’s material, spatial, and conceptual scaffolding. Hugo Esquinca upends the acoustic divisions between the discrete sound chambers and EMPAC’s negative spaces—transitional areas such as lobbies, stairwells, hallways, atriums. In activating these in-between areas, the artist sonically excites a spatial field that lies inside the building but that normally remains outside its primary centers of sound amplification. He saturates the entire building with sound until the exterior layer turns into its own sonic architecture. 

Esquinca works with sound sources that originate from the concert hall, theater, the public address system, and an array of subwoofers. Two vinyl elements mark a diagonal axis on the surface of the building. Through interventions that originate from the unique acoustic profile of each sound source, the artist blurs and merges their sonic emissions, resulting in the dislocation of both the audio events themselves and the experience of listening. One loses track of the respective points of amplification until the building becomes dense with resonance.

Extrude [Part A]

An installation which runs every night of the exhibition after the building closes. For Extrude, the sounds play for no one. The excessive energy that is unleashed inside and that should not be experienced directly manifests a vibrational presence that rests on the edges of audibility. 

Irrupt [Part B], Saturday, November 18, 6–7PM

A performance which takes place when the exhibition ends but to which the audience is invited. The building’s glass skin pulsates inward, making the presentation spaces cites of extreme reverberation that resist audience access.

Elemental View is a musical work in six movements by pioneering composer Ellen Fullman for her Long String Instrument and the experimental music duo The Living Earth Show—guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson. The expansive installation inhabits EMPAC Concert Hall with its 136 strings, precisely tuned and configured for this multi-movement piece. Elemental View invites the listener to discover, as if with a magnifying glass, the details of the physics of string vibration itself. 

Invention and discovery are at the core of Fullman’s work. The artist brings her remarkable instrument to life using her fingertips, unfolding the physical sound spectrum of the strings as she walks, and producing undulating waves of continually shifting musical overtones. Additional tools developed and crafted by Fullman expand the possibilities of the instrument, allowing her to play three, six, or nine strings at once and to expand the timbre of the instrument while infusing its drone texture with rhythmic variation.

With their laser-focused precision and virtuosic ensemble playing, The Living Earth Show brilliantly executes the rhythmic and harmonic complexity of Fullman’s composition using specially-tuned instruments tailored to Andrews and Meyerson—a lap-steel guitar and hammered dulcimer.

Listening to the music of Fullman’s singular creation is akin to standing inside a giant musical instrument. The result is at once ancient and utterly new, environmental, and folk-like yet orchestral.

This presentation continues The Living Earth Show’s multi-season residency at EMPAC, offering engaging and exciting large-scale work from artists with whom they work closely. The Living Earth Show is a megaphone and canvas for the world’s most progressive artists, seeking to push the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that the classical music tradition has often excluded.