OSSIA New Music, Eastman School of Music’s student-run contemporary music ensemble, is excited to announce a new season of cutting-edge concerts. Over the academic year, OSSIA produces four main stage performances, with repertoire chosen and events produced entirely by the students of OSSIA. The chosen works are fresh and diverse, ranging from established contemporary composers to newly discovered talent. OSSIA additionally performs at other events across the Rochester community.
Stitching Time is OSSIA’s first main stage concert on Tuesday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall, featuring a series of compositions that deal with the experience and understanding of time. On the program is San Francisco-based composer Gabriella Smith’s Brandenburg Interstices, the noise-artist composer and improvisor Nolan Hildebrand’s Tripping in the Horror Vacui, the Greek electroacoustic composer Dimitri Papageorgiou’s ..risuona piu lontano che mai, and the Toronto-based composer Linda Catlin Smith’s Knotted Silk, as well as an “arresting” (American Record Guide) work for soprano saxophone and ensemble by Josh Levine called Clear Sky.
Later this month, Ossia invites alumnus and guest artist Varun Rangaswamy ’20E, an improviser/scholar who blends Eastern and Western elements into his works, for a guest lecture and performance on Thursday, October 26 at 6:30 p.m. in Eastman’s Ray Wright Room. Another guest artist, the self-described new renaissance composer Elizabeth A. Baker, will be in residence in March 2024. Details will be available on the OSSIA website (ossianewmusic.org) closer to the event.
OSSIA presents its second mainstage concert on Monday, November 27th at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall. The concert includes works by Baltimore-based laptop composer Sam Pluta, the established Canadian composer Rodney Sharman, the New York-based composer Saad Haddad and the multicultural and vernacular composer Peter Shin. The concert also features an OSSIA student commission, Distant, written by current Eastman student Ko Muramatsu.
OSSIA presents another two mainstage performances in the spring semester, on February 10 and April 16, 2024. To discover new composers, OSSIA annually puts out an open call to solicit scores from composers, choosing one to perform in concert. The February 10th performance at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall will feature the winner of the 2023-24 call for scores, along with works by Talia Berenbaum, Michele Lou, Manuel Zwerger and Marcos Balter. The final concert on April 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Hatch Recital Hall features works by the theatrical composer Mark Applebaum and Italian modernist Luigi Dallapiccola. Additionally, the concert features current works by transdisciplinary composer Julie Zhu, the experimental music composer Jennie Gottschalk and the identity-influenced NYC-based composer inti figgis-vizueta, who will create a work specifically for OSSIA and be in attendance for the concert.
Additionally, OSSIA performs at events across the Rochester community. The first is in collaboration with the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine Division, taking place in the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Sarah Flaum Atrium on Tuesday, October 17 at 3:00 p.m. On October 23rd, OSSIA performs at the UUU Gallery (153 State St.) at 8:00 p.m.
The ensemble takes its name from the score marking that indicates a “musical alternative,” and providing an alternative venue for students to explore and perform new music. The ensemble provides alternatives for the performance of new music at the Eastman School of Music, throughout the Rochester area and beyond. Additionally, producing professional-quality concerts of contemporary music helps the student members learn the musical and entrepreneurial skills needed to mount successful performances.
“We are seeking to further OSSIA’s mission of offering a musical alternative,” shares OSSIA’s new board president Logan Barrett, “not only in what music we play, but also in the way we make music and use our instruments.”
Mainstage OSSIA concerts are free and open to the public. Please visit ossianewmusic.org for more information.
The current schedule of events for OSSIA New Music includes:
October 10, 2023 | 7:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall
Stitching Time
Gabriella Smith: Brandenburg Interstices
Nolan Hildebrand: Tripping in the Horror Vacui
Dimitri Papageorgiou: …risuona piu lontano che mai
Linda Catlin Smith: Knotted Silk
Josh Levine: Clear Sky
October 17, 2023 | 3:00 p.m. | Sarah Flaum Atrium
OSSIA w/ Eastman Performing Arts Medicine: Sound Bath
A two-hour meditative experience drawing on the aesthetics of ambient and meditative music. Listeners can expect to hear violin, found percussion, Chinese flute and more, aided by expressive electronic processing.
Sarah Flaum Atrium at the University of Rochester Medical Center
415 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY
October 23, 2023 | 8:00 p.m. | UUU Gallery
OSSIA @ UUU Gallery
153 State Street, Rochester, NY
November 27, 2023 | 7:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall
Sam Pluta: Machine Language
Rodney Sharman: Incantation
Saad Hadaad: Aruah
Peter Shin: Screaming Shapes
Ko Muramatsu: Distant (OSSIA student commission)
February 10, 2024 | 7:30 p.m | Kilbourn Hall
Talia Berenbaum: Installation (OSSIA student commission)
Michele Lou : Untitled Three Part Construction
2023-24 Call for Scores Winner: TBD
Manuel Zwerger: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!
Marcos Balter: Selections from Meltdown Upshot
April 16, 2024 | 7:30 p.m. | Hatch Recital Hall
Mark Applebaum: Tlön
Luigi Dallapiccola: Parole di San Paolo
Julie Zhu: Distraction
Jennie Gottschalk: Here We Are
New Commission by inti figgis-vizueta
Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content,
(585) 451-8492, lsageer@esm.rochester.edu
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About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music — about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, NY, the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.