Contemporary music with a global cast
The 2021–22 season of the innovative annual performance series MIT Sounding continues to expand musical boundaries. MIT Sounding presents unique artists who push the envelope of their respective genres, creating new evolving music for the 21st century. This season is curated by Evan Ziporyn, faculty director of the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and co-directed by Frederick Harris, Jr.
MIT Sounding is presented by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and MIT Music and Theater Arts.
For more information, contact cast@mit.edu
Featuring:
Maki Namekawa Presents Philip Glass, Keith Jarrett, Joe Hisaishi, Evan Ziporyn
Friday, May 13, 2022 / 7:30pm
Maki Namekawa, a leading pianist dedicated to exploring new works by composers on a global scale, comes to MIT’s Kresge Auditorium to perform the US premiere of Joe Hisaishi’s Piano Sonata No. 1, Philip Glass’s Piano Sonata (which was composed specifically for her), Keith Jarrett’s Ritual, and the world premiere of Evan Ziporyn’s “Music for ‘365 Stories I Want To Tell You Before We Both Die – Part One’”.
The Hisaishi sonata was co-commissioned by MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology and Ars Electronica Center.
It Must Be Now! (IMBN!)
Saturday, May 7, 2022 / 8:00pm
Created and led by MIT Sounding series Co-Director Frederick Harris Jr., It Must Be Now! (IMBN!), brings together three leading musicians (Terri Lyne Carrington, Braxton Cook, and Sean Jones) to collectively compose a large-scale work for MIT musicians on the overall theme of racial justice. Collaborating with multimedia artists, MIT students and community members, and others beyond MIT, this two-year project seeks to address racial and social injustices and their confluences. IMBN! explores institutional racism; environmental, economic, and health injustices; police brutality; and abolitionism.
Hearing Amazônia–The Responsibility of Existence
Saturday, November 6, 2021 / 8:00pm
Inspired by Brazilian music influenced by the natural world and by 2020 MIT graduate Talia Khan’s research on natural botanical resins and traditional carimbó music in Santarém, Pará, Brazil.
2020-21 CAST Virtual Visiting Artists Luciana Souza and Anat Cohen, Portugal-born vocalist-composer Sara Serpa, and MIT Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music Evan Ziporyn join an array of MIT musicians (MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, MIT Wind Ensemble, and MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble) to present a unique program of Brazilian music.
New Resonances: Iva Bittová in Concert
(Postponed due to inclement weather) Friday, February 25, 2022 / 7:30pm
Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer Iva Bittová opens her 2022 Distinguished Visiting Artist residency with a performance celebrating the power and urgency of coming together in song to create hope and nourish our selves and our planet.
This performance explores collaboration, tradition, and improvisation through the music of Bartok, Berio, Czech and Slovak traditions, and Bittova’s own compositions. She is joined by MIT’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble directed by Laura Grill Jaye; violinist and assistant professor of music Natalie Lin Douglas; and clarinetist, professor of music, and Director of Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) Evan Ziporyn. Bittová’s residency continues her creative collaboration with MIT that began in 2013.