Since its inception in 2021, the New Music + Technology Festival has presented multi- and interdisciplinary performances while furthering research at the nexus of music, theatre, cinema, dance, visual art, creative coding, computer science, neuroscience, molecular biology, robotics, and cybersecurity.

This year's festival, the seventh, "is reaching its stride as we imagine disciplines connecting in new ways, reframing what interdisciplinarity means," said Kyle Hutchins, assistant professor of practice in saxophone and festival founder and director. "We can showcase the creative work that faculty and students are making at Virginia Tech while providing a platform to support our local, national, and international colleagues."

The New Music + Technology Festival runs Oct. 1-4 at the Creativity and Innovation District living-learning community and in the Cube at the Moss Arts Center. The School of Performing Arts and the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) are campus partners in celebrating the innovations in artistic experimentation across sonic and technological mediums.

Tuesday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m. at the Creativity and Innovation District

Jennifer Bellor will present an evening of new acoustic music. Bellor, who teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will play alongside Virginia Tech students and music faculty members John Irerra on violin, Annie Stevens Irerra on vibraphone, Alan Weinstein on cello, and Hutchins on saxophone. The repertoire, or portrait concert, will include

  • "Indigo Nocturne," with alto sax and piano
  • "A Smile and a Sigh: Echo, Song of Flight," violin and piano
  • "Noche," with violin and piano
  • "A Grey Dream," with violin and piano
  • "Reviravoltas Sonoras," with violin, cello, and vibrafone
  • "Reflections at Dusk," with solo vibraphone and tape track
  • "Of Maker and Movement," Movements 1 and 3, with percussion quartet

While in residence at Virginia Tech, Bellor will hold workshops with students and present in the School of Performing Arts’ composition seminar. Hutchins said that Bellor is “up and coming in her field, so it is exciting to have a composer in residence who will work with students while also holding a concert centered around her music.”

Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 8 p.m. in the Cube

Ross Karre, associate professor of percussion at Oberlin College and Conservatory, will be featured on the second night of the festival, and is a “leading figure in contemporary percussion in the United States,” said Hutchins. A longtime member and former artistic director of the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble, Karre will present his evening-length work "Styrophone," which will be adapted for the Cube. The piece is a multimedia performance that includes live electronic music, vibrating resonance sculptures, and video projection with mapped imaging. The performance utilizes objects that are intended for the landfill and endows them with a creative second life as both sonic and visual art pieces.

Thursday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. in the Cube

ArtX — which stands for art, research, and technology exchange — will present an interdisciplinary, film-forward projection piece by Irish artists, Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty of the University of Galway. This festival screening is part of the new international, collaborative ArtX program, which is housed in ICAT. Hutchins, who additionally serves as ArtX’s director, said the “mission of the program is to take creative scholarship and research, the study of live performance, and original works that Virginia Tech’s ICAT fellows and faculty are making for the Cube, and find new avenues to share it moving forward.”

In April, Virginia Tech launched the first "ArtX Presents" in collaboration with McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology. The screening of the film by Clinton and Moriarty at the New Music + Technology Festival is the next phase of the multi-university exchange.

In addition to presenting their film, Clinton and Moriarty will be in residence at Virginia Tech, engaging with students in the living learning communities, guest teaching, and presenting an ICAT Playdate. To complete this particular Irish exchange, Chelsea Thompto, assistant professor in creative technologies at Virginia Tech, will travel to Ireland in November to work at the Centre for Creative Technologies at the University of Galway, Burren College of Art, and the TULCA Festival of Visual Arts.

Friday, Oct. 4, at 8 p.m. in the Cube

The festival will conclude with a Virginia Tech’s Faculty and Friends performance. The final event will feature a variety of musical artists:

  • A composition called "The Fluted Bird" by Charles Nichols, associate professor of composition in creative technologies at Virginia Tech, will be performed by Elizabeth Lantz, senior lecturer of flute at Virginia Tech.
  • Hutchins will perform a new saxophone piece by Freida Abtan, an audiovisual composer and multidisciplinary artist from Pittsburgh. Abtan had a residency at the Cube this past summer.
  • A saxophone piece by Eric Lyon, professor of practice at Virginia Tech, will feature Hutchins and Jeffery Loeffert, director of the School of Performing Arts. They will perform alongside Lyon on his composition.
  • A solo set influenced by soul, dub, and R&B by Roanoke’s Sam Lunsford, aka Stimulator Jones, will conclude the festival.

Tickets and parking

All events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and reservations are required for the Oct. 2-4 performaces in the Cube. Priority will be given to those with a reservation, and any available seats will be filled beginning five minutes before showtime for anyone waiting at the door.

Find information about the festival, including links for free reservations, online.

All university community members and visitors will need to display a parking permit, use the ParkMobile app, pay a fee, or pay using an hourly meter to park on the Blacksburg campus unless otherwise noted by signage. Find additional parking information online.

If you are an individual with a disability and/or desire an accommodation, please contact Susan Sanders at least 10 days prior to the event.

Written by Liz Gray, a graduate student in arts leadership in the School of Performing Arts

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