New Music New College, “New Experimental Works,” Nov. 11 & 12, 2011

November 11, 2011, at 8 pm (performance)
November 12, 2011, at 8 pm (performance & participation mix)
New Music New College
Margaret Eginton and Stephen Miles: New Experimental Works

Tickets $15;

www.newmusicnewcollege.org

What is music?  What is performance?  This presentation will challenge your perceptions of both, as New College students present new experimental works over a wide space. Be prepared to move and interact with the performers and, on Saturday, be invited to participate in the unfolding improvisation. 

In 2009, NMNC presented New College students in Living and Dead: The Gettysburg Project, a work created collaboratively by composer Stephen Miles and choreographer Margaret Eginton.  The experience of Gettysburg suggested further explorations of sound and movement, so Miles and Eginton worked with New College students and alums throughout the 2010-11 academic year in the Experimental Performance Lab.  Focusing on improvisation, the lab put a simple question to the test: What would happen if a group allowed its own impulses to suggest material and its development?

The Friday event will be strictly presentational, with the audience watching the performers in a conventional manner.  The Saturday event will include presentational material, but also opportunities for audience participation.

Margaret Eginton, whose choreography was performed by the Sarasota Ballet in April 2011, is adjunct professor of theater at New College, where she teaches theater arts, dance and theater composition. She is also associate professor and head of Movement and Dance for the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory. Her direction and production of plays in the U.S. and Europe have won a multitude of awards.

Stephen Miles is professor of music at New College and is also Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.  In his work as a composer and scholar, Miles is always concerned with the social dimension of music, the way music structures social relationships and social experience.  Miles’s articles on NMNC projects have appeared in such journals as Perspectives of New Music, TDR: The Drama Review, and Music and Arts in Action.

There will be a free Artist Conversation with Eginton and Miles on Thursday, November 10, at 3:30 pm, and a free Experimental Music Public Workshop on Sunday, November 13, at 3 pm.  No reservations are necessary for these events.