The Herb Alpert School of Music Presents Futures of Music at REDCAT

Design credit: Paradise Khanmalek

On Saturday, Jan. 15, The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts invites viewers to reimagine musical performance and pedagogy in Futures of Music, a 90-minute in-person experience at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles.

The performance is organized and created by Volker Straebel, dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, and co-curated by School of Music faculty Madeline Falcone and Ulrich Krieger. More about the evening from the REDCAT site:

To reflect the most recent changes and developments in musical expression, performance formats, practices, distribution, audiences, and reception, Futures of Music is imagined as a starting point for re-evaluating approaches to music education and cutting-edge experimentation in a wide range of genres and cultures. The program for the festival transforms REDCAT into a multi-dimensional space beyond the hierarchical structure of stage and audience, authorship and perception, presence and virtual performance, and it includes performances, conversations, and an international online conference.

In Part I of the performance, three performers situated throughout the REDCAT lobby will read aloud questions regarding the future of music. Part II allows the audience to engage with the music—performed by Alexandra Cárdenas, Jace Clayton, and Cassiopeia Sturm (Music MFA 17)—by moving around, experiencing the sonic landscape from various vantage points throughout the lobby and theater.

“As creators and listeners, we are not only bearers of the personal and cultural memory that shapes our work and experience, we are thinkers and self-reflective beings who understand our role in constituting music’s reality. Futures of Music can not predict or even anticipate; we want to explore and question,” said Straebel.

“To reflect the most recent changes and developments in musical expression, performance formats, practices, distribution, audiences, and reception, Futures of Music is imagined as a starting point for re-evaluating approaches to music education and cutting-edge experimentation in a wide range of genres and cultures.”