New College initiative flourishes along Florida’s creative coast

Funded by a five-year $750,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New College: Connecting the Arts and Humanities on Florida’s Creative Coast seeks to foster a deeper understanding of the arts and humanities through new programs at New College and with local arts organizations and the Cross College Alliance. Through the expansion of existing public programs and a new series of open seminars, the local community is invited to hear from — and speak with — faculty scholars and artists who are renowned in their fields.

2021 Spring Season Events

January:

New Music New College Presents:  Artist Conversation with Claire Chase

Thur, Jan 28  l  5:00 p.m. l  Live Stream and Limited In-person Seating l  Ticket Info Here!
l  Free Admission

Before attending the concert, come to a special conversation event with the creative soloist, collaborative artist, curator, and advocate for new and experimental music Claire Chase. This open platform will allow you to converse with the artist to better understand their process and the development of her work.

Artist Conversation Series: Realizing that our concerts include music that will be new to most or all of the audience, we strive to offer plenty of context. These events generally begin with a brief performance—an excerpt from something that will be in the concert—and then start a discussion with everyone there about their responses to what they just heard and saw.

New Music New College Presents:  Concert with Claire Chase

Sat, Jan 30  l  5:00 p.m.l  Live Stream & Limited In-person Seating l  Ticket Info Here! l  Free Admission l Pre-concert talk: 4:30 p.m. 

Claire Chase is a soloist, collaborative artist, curator and advocate for new and experimental music. Over the past decade she has given the world premieres of hundreds of new works for the flute in performances throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, and she has championed new music throughout the world by building organizations, forming alliances, pioneering commissioning initiatives and supporting educational programs that reach new audiences. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2012, and in 2017 was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize.

In 2013 Chase launched Density 2036, a 23-year commissioning project to create an entirely new body of repertory for flute between 2014 and 2036, the centenary of Edgard Varèse’s groundbreaking 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. This concert will feature music by Suzanne Farrin, Du Yun, Mario Diaz de Leon, Felipe Lara, and others.

New Music New College Presents:  Movement Messages: Digital Dance and Music 

Available Now! l WATCH HERE

New College of Florida is known for students engaging in creative work side-by-side with their faculty members, discovering new territory and modes of expression. New Music New College is an artistic laboratory for this creative process.

In this video series, premiering in October on this page, we explore works for electronic sound and dance by NCF faculty Leymis Bolaños Wilmott and Mark Dancigers, as well as original digital dance and music by current New College students on our Etudes page, and feature a major work by our new Visiting Assistant Professor of Music José Martínez, 39 Inside.

The fascinating connection between music and dance, and their shared languages of change and motion, is the inspiration for new works created by NCF students as well as Bolaños Wilmott and Dancigers. Ancient theories of music stress that change itself is the source of motion—when a melody or rhythm changes, music moves.

But what about the motion of moving people? Music can be heard to embody this motion as well. As Marc Leman has discussed in The Expressive Moment: How Interaction with Music Shapes Human Empowerment, recent studies show that the movements a musician makes to create a sound can be very accurately tracked by listeners even when they can’t see the performer!

Master Class and Virtual Concert w/ Renesito Avich

Available Now on NCF Latinx Heritage Month Website  l  Click Here to View 

The creative work of René Avich Wanton, who was born in Santiago de Cuba, fully exploits the physiognomic possibilities and techniques of the instrument with a brilliant concept of interpretative excellence. His compositions denote a broad conception of the sound of the Cuban Tres, in which he uses expressive resources of Classical music, Jazz and World Music. Its roots lead him to recreate and develop melodies, rhythms, styles and rhythms of the Trova, the Changüí Nengón, the Conga, Rumba and Son Santiago, making a kind of journey through the different playing styles of the eastern country, mixed with the urban concept of Arsenio Rodríguez and Child Rivera.

Special thanks to the coordinators of NCF’s 2020 Latinx Heritage Month for Click Here to View  this event.

February:

Black History Month 2021

Dates, Times, and Locations/Platforms can be found on the Official BHM Page

Stay tuned for more information! 

New College’s annual Black History Month program rallies the campus community as we celebrate and explore the rich history, culture, and contemporary realities of Black people and communities. The pillars of the annual programming include the Black Arts and Performance series, the Conversations on Race and Ethnicity public lecture series, the African Diaspora Film Festival, the Black Literature Read-in, the New Schools of Black Thought Symposium, and a display in the Jane Bancroft Cook Library. All events are appropriate for community members of any age and of many different interests.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.

Campus Conversations:  Michael Gorup on “Black abolitionists and the politics of Race in the Antebellum US”

Thurs, Feb 18  l  6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. l  RSVP Here for Zoom Link

It is today widely understood that ‘race’ is a product of society and not a fact of nature. But where did  this idea come from? In this campus conversation, we will explore the ideas of the Black abolitionists  David Walker (1796-1830) and Hosea Easton (1798-1837). More than a century before the  emergence of the notion of a ‘social construction,’ these authors developed arguments fiercely  rejecting naturalistic understandings of race. They instead suggested that the answer to the ‘puzzle’  of racial difference lay in politics, not nature. 

Dr. Michael Gorup – With a Ph.D. in Government and a BA in Philosophy, Dr. Gorup teaches courses on U. S.  Constitutional Law and Freedom and Slavery in U. S. Political Thought. His current research project examines how and why the language of popular sovereignty has been mobilized to both entrench and contest racial hierarchy across the history of American political thought. Prior to joining the New College faculty, he taught in the Critical Writing Program at the University of  Pennsylvania.

March:

New Music New College Presents:  Artist Conversation with ymusic

Tue, Mar 9  l  5:00 p.m.l  Location and Format TBD  l  Admission: Free

Before attending the concert, come to a special conversation event with the creative musical collaborators of yMusic. This open platform will allow you to converse with the artists to better understand their process and the development of her work.

Artist Conversation Series: Realizing that our concerts include music that will be new to most or all of the audience, we strive to offer plenty of context. These events generally begin these with a brief performance—an excerpt from something that will be in the concert—and then start a discussion with everyone there about their responses to what they just heard and saw. 

New Music New College Presents:  Concert with ymusic

Thur, Mar 11  l  8:00 p.m.l  Location and Format TBD
Pre-concert talk @ 7:30 p.m.  l  Admission: $15 (free for subscribers & select schools)

yMusic, “six contemporary classical polymaths who playfully overstep the boundaries of musical genres,” (The New Yorker) performs in concert halls, arenas and clubs around the world. Founded in New York City in 2008, yMusic strives to perform excellent, emotionally communicative music, regardless of style or idiom. Their virtuosic execution and unique instrumentation (string trio, flute, clarinet, and trumpet) has attracted the attention of renowned collaborators—from Paul Simon to Bill T. Jones to Ben Folds—and inspired original works by some of today’s foremost composers.

This concert will feature a recent work by Andrew Norman, selections from their album Ecstatic Science, and other pieces.

New Music New College Presents:  Artist Conversation with Performers of The Art of Andriessen

Tue, Mar 16  l  5:00 p.m.l  Location and Format TBD  l  Admission: Free

Before attending the concert, come to a special conversation event with the New College of Florida students and professional musicians from the Sarasota Community who will perform The Art of Andriessan. This open platform will allow you to converse with the artists to better understand their process and the development of her work.

Artist Conversation Series: Realizing that our concerts include music that will be new to most or all of the audience, we strive to offer plenty of contexts. These events generally begin with a brief performance—an excerpt from something that will be in the concert—and then start a discussion with everyone there about their responses to what they just heard and saw. 

Words In Action!: “Storytelling, social Justice, & the tarot Panel feat. Michelle tea & Cristy Road”

Wed, Mar 17  l  5:00-6:00 p.m. l  Zoom Link Coming Soon

Join author, literary instigator and queer tarot witch Michelle Tea and artist, punk musician, and  Cuban-American activist Cristy Road in a conversation about using the Tarot can be a tool for anti racist, anti-patriarchal, anti-sexist, and anti-colonial conversations and growth. Tea and Road will  talk about how they have fronted systemic oppression and crafted visions of a more just and  equitable future via their artistic endeavors, both on and off the page. They will also share some pro  tips and tricks for curating professional lives outside the apparatus of the academy and the  mainstream publishing industry. 

Postpunk performance poet and writer Michelle Tea grew up in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Influenced  by poet Eileen Myles and photographer Nan Goldin, Tea writes narrative poetry and prose that  explore issues of class, queer identity, feminism, and autobiography. She is the author of 4 1/2  memoirs, 1 1/2 novels, 2 Young Adult novels, and a collection of poetry. Her memoir Valencia is an  underground classic and is currently being made into a feature film by 21 different filmmakers. She is the founder and executive director of RADAR Productions, a literary non-profit which hosts the  monthly RADAR Reading Series (voted Best Literary Series by SF Bay Guardian Readers), the infamous  Sister Spit Literary Performance tours, an annual poetry chapbook contest, and the Radar LAB  Writers’ Retreat in Akumal, Mexico. She is a former writer of horoscopes and a current reader of  tarot cards. 

Cristy C. Road is a Cuban-American artist, writer, and musician. Through visual art, storytelling,  and punk rock music, C.Road has thrived to testify the beauty of the imperfect since she began  creating art in her hometown of Miami, FL. C.Road graduated from the Ringling School of Art and  Design in 2004 with a BFA in Illustration. In early 2006, C.Road released her first illustrated  novel, Indestructible(Microcosm Publishing), a 96-page narrative about high school. In 2008, she  released Bad Habits (Soft Skull Press), an Illustrated story about healing from abuse; and lastly in  2013, her most recent book, Spit and Passion (Feminist Press, 2012), a coming-out memoir about  Cuban identity, discovering Green Day, and surviving in the closet. C.Road’s most recent project  is The Next World Tarot (2017), a 78-card tarot deck detailing themes of justice, resilience,  accountability, and reclaimed magic. Aside from creating art; Road is a songwriter and guitarist,  having fronted the pop-punk group, The Homewreckers from 2008-2016. She currently fronts Choked  Up, a project that doesnt stray too far from the Homewrecker’s foundations, but proves a departure  in style and bilingual lyrics.

Campus Conversations: “You are not alone: an I scream social w/ Professor emily Carr feat. student creative writing work”

Wed, Mar 18  l  6:00-7:00 p.m. l  Zoom Link Coming Soon

Our inaugural I Scream Social is designed to empower student writers, encourage literary culture,  and channel our timely anger into meaningful literary performances. The event will feature short  readings by New College students, faculty, and staff on the theme of You Are Not Alone.

New Music New College Presents: The ARt of Andriessen

Thur, Mar 18  l  8:00 p.m.l  Location and Format TBD
Pre-concert talk @ 7:30 p.m.  l  Admission: $15 (free for subscribers & select schools)

The music of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen is visceral, intense, challenging, and kinetic. This concert features two of Andriessen’s most important and influential works, performed by New College of Florida students and professional musicians from the Sarasota Community. These pieces, composed one year apart, are raucous breakthroughs that remain startling over four decades later.

Worker’s Union, from 1975, calls for “any loud-sounding group of instruments” to perform a continuous and propulsive single line of music.

In 1990, Andriessen wrote, “Worker’s Union was originally written for the orchestra De Volharding (Perseverance), in which I myself figured as a pianist at that time. This piece is a combination of individual freedom and severe discipline: its rhythm is exactly fixed; the pitch, on the other hand, is indicated only approximately, on a single-lined stave. It is difficult to play in an ensemble and to remain in step, sort of thing like organising and carrying on political action.”

For more information, we recommend this great listener’s guide on Worker’s Union from the London Sinfonietta.

In Hoketus from 1976, Andriessen employs an ancient musical device, the hocket, in which a single musical line is split between two spatially separated groups. He writes, “Hoketus is the result of the minimal art project I started in January 1977 at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. This project’s purpose was to study the history of the American avant-garde movement both theoretically and practically, and I intended to finish the project by performing a composition that, making use of certain stylistic devices of minimal art, would at the same time criticise this style. The principal quality of minimal art compositions is the consistent limitation of musical material: the advantage is that all possibilities of one single musical aspect (usually rhythm) can wholly be explored and worked out. It is true that this is at the expense of other musical aspects.

“Hoketus, too, has only one musical subject: the hoketus. The hoketus is a stylistic device of the Ars Nova (14th century, Machaut and others): the melodic tones are divided between two or more descants.

“The ensemble Hoketus consists of two identical quintets: panflute, piano, Fender-piano, bass-guitar and percussion. The pitch material of both groups is (nearly) identical. This applies to the rhythm as well. It is, however, complementary: in Hoketus the groups never play simultaneously. What makes the piece Hoketus differ from most minimal art compositions is that the harmonic material is not diatonic but chromatic, and that it radically abandons the tonal continuous sound-masses characteristic of most minimal art, with the inclusion of all accompanying cosmic nonsense.”

April:

New Music New College Presents:  Artist Conversation Vicky Chow

Thur, Apr 22  l  5:00 p.m.l  Location and Format TBD  l  Admission: Free

Before attending the concert, come to a special conversation event with Canadian pianist Vicky Chow. This open platform will allow you to converse with the artist to better understand their process and the development of her work.

Artist Conversation Series: Realizing that our concerts include music that will be new to most or all of the audience, we strive to offer plenty of context. These events generally begin these with a brief performance—an excerpt from something that will be in the concert—and then start a discussion with everyone there about their responses to what they just heard and saw. 

New Music New College Presents: Concert with Vicky Chow

Sat, Apr 24  l  8:00 p.m.l  Location and Format TBD
Pre-concert talk @ 7:30 p.m.  l  Admission: $15 (free for subscribers & select schools)

With her expressive and nuanced interpretations of contemporary works, Canadian pianist Vicky Chow has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times), “new star of new music” (Los Angeles Times) and “one of our era’s most brilliant pianists” (Pitchfork). Captivating audiences around the world with her expansive repertoire and musical prowess, she enjoys a diverse career collaborating with many of the world’s most renowned composers and ensembles.

She is the pianist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, piano duo X88, New Music Detroit, and has collaborated with other ensembles such as the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Wet Ink Ensemble, and Momenta Quartet. As an artist frequently broadcasted on WNYC, her recorded work can be found on the ‘Nonesuch’, ‘New Amsterdam’, ‘Tzadik’, ‘Cantaloupe Music’, ‘Innova’, ‘Hinterzimmer’, and ‘AltaVoz’ labels. Her performances of Morton Feldman and John Cage were featured on BBC3‘s documentary series “The Sound and The Fury,” based on Alex Ross’s book The Rest is Noise.

This concert features Steve Reich’s Piano Counterpoint, which was arranged for Chow in 2011, and other works. Don’t miss this fierce and versatile champion of the cutting edge in new piano music.