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Juilliard Music Technology Center Presents "Beyond the Machine 2011"; Two Free Programs Featuring Multimedia Works with Chamber Orchestra, March 24 - 27 at Juilliard
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The Juilliard Music Technology Center presents Beyond the Machine 2011, two free programs of electronic and interactive music, from Thursday, March 24 – Sunday, March 27 at Juilliard. On Thursday, March 24 and Friday, March 25, the Center presents its unique rendition of Stravinsky’s theatrical work, Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), meant “to be read, played and danced,” and in this adaptation, “to be technologized, twisted, and brought into a wild, multi-dimensional world.” Making its NYC debut after a soft premiere with the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2010, the new full-length production tells an old Faustian Russian tale through unexpected bursts of color, action and movement. Dance, theater, music, video art (involving original illustrations combined with live action footage) and bare-bones set design form the legs of the work. Free performances take place at 8 PM in Juilliard’s Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater.
Juilliard alumna Yara Travieso is director, choreographer, and video artist of the new production, and the cast includes other alumni, dancer Esmé Boyce and actor Brendan Spieth, with George Stelluto conducting a Juilliard music ensemble. Illustrations were done by Ryan Hartley.
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The second program on Saturday, March 26 (8 PM) and Sunday, March 27 (3 PM) in the Willson Theater includes Juilliard’s first collaboration with Streaming Museum on We Write This To You From The Distant Future, a hybrid digital art exhibition and performance based on a curatorial theme created by Nina Colosi, founder and artistic director of Streaming Museum a new museum for the 21st century, launched in January 2008, that presents exhibitions in cyberspace and public space on seven continents and live at partnering cultural centers. Selections from We Write This To You From The Distant Future also will be exhibited throughout Streaming Museum’s network (http://streamingmuseum.org).
Starting with a pre-show exhibition of new media artworks, a half-hour before curtain time, the exhibition/performance includes the work of 15 pioneer digital artists and visionary creators. Two of the larger artworks on the first half of the program, HD Traffic and Inventing Wonderland, have been developed into cross-media pieces that integrate large-scale, real-time projections with string and jazz ensembles and theatrical performances by Juilliard students. Artist John F. Simon, Jr. and Juilliard Jazz composer John Chin have collaborated on Mr. Simon’s HD Traffic (2009); and Juilliard composer Michelle Ross and actor Brendan Spieth have developed Inventing Wonderland, inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Text-Arc created by artist W. Bradford Paley. Additional Streaming Museum artwork and artists featured include: Lagoglyphs by Eduardo Kac; Immobilite: Trail(er) Mix by Mark Amerika; Bionic Angel by Michael Najjar; and Rose Breathing by Andrea Ackerman.
The second half of the program on March 26 and 27 features Juilliard alumnus, composer Sebastian Currier’s Nightmaze (2005). Mr. Currier writes in his notes: “As Nightmaze begins, a college student, after studying without sleep for three days straight, has just finished his final exams in physics, cosmology, psychology, and economics. He falls into a deep sleep – his mind saturated with half-understood ideas – and dreams he is rushing along a dark, enormous highway on which he is the only driver. Nightmaze follows his journey through a dream world of desire, fear, and longing ordered only by the strange road signs that loom up along the way, forcing him to choose his course from their stark, binary options. Nightmaze uses tightly interlocking music, narration, and animation to evoke the dark and glittering sweep of a nightmare interstate.” Juilliard conductor George Stelluto leads the musicians in Nightmaze with Juilliard actor Cameron Scoggins. The work, which was written by Tom Bolt, features video by Sage Carter.
Beyond the Machine performances are free, but tickets are required. A very limited number of tickets will be available beginning March 2 at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 AM – 6 PM. For more information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.
Edward Bilous is artistic director for Beyond the Machine. A member of Juilliard’s faculty since 1984, he is chairman of the Literature and Materials of Music department, and founding director of the Juilliard Music Technology Center. Mr. Bilous’ diverse musical career includes works for film, stage, dance, and multimedia. His recent compositions include Lucid Dreams, written for the American Composers Orchestra, Night of the Dark Moon, for Pilobolus Dance Theater, Benedictus for triple chorus and percussion, commissioned by the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Portraits of Grief – A Tribute to the Victims of the September 11th Tragedy, commissioned for New York Times Television, Chaconne for Nine Souls, from the Academy Award nominated film, Scottsboro, and Frame of Reference for frame drum master Glen Velez and the Ethos Percussion Quartet. In addition to Scottsboro, his film credits include Naked Man by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ethan Coen, Mixing Nia, and Just One Time.
Mr. Bilous is a nationally recognized leader in the field of arts education and has conducted master classes and seminars at the Lincoln Center Institute, the Tanglewood Institute, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Teachers College-Columbia University, among many others. He was senior education advisor for The Academy – a program of The Juilliard School, Carnegie Hall, and the Weill Institute. Mr. Bilous received a bachelor of music degree from Manhattan School of Music, composition studies with Elias Tannenbaum and Charles Wuorinen, and holds master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from Juilliard, composition studies with Elliot Carter and Vincent Persichetti. He also studied composition with Krysztof Penderecki.
Esmé Boyce currently is a company member of Janis Brenner + Dancers and is a permanent member of Yara Travieso’s artistic team. She is a graduate of Juilliard’s Dance Division, where she performed the works of Ohad Naharin, Larry Keigwin, Lar Lubovitch, José Limón, Susan Marshall, Laura Careless, Adam Weinert, and many others. She apprenticed with the Stephen Petronio Company from winter 2009 through spring 2010.
John Chin was born in Seoul, Korea and grew up in Los Angeles, where he began studying classical piano at the age of four. He entered California State University in Los Angeles at age 14 as a pre-med student; by 15, after studying jazz piano and playing in some jazz ensembles, he changed his major to music. He graduated from Cal State L.A. with a bachelor of arts degree in music when he was 19. He earned his master’s degree in music from Rutgers University and studied with Kenny Barron. Most recently, he performed with the New Orleans Jazz All Stars with Irvin Mayfield and the Minnesota Orchestra. Currently, he is enrolled in Juilliard’s Artist Diploma program.
Nina Colosi is a curator and producer of multi-media exhibitions, performing arts and public programs internationally. She is the founder and creative director of Streaming Museum, a new hybrid museum for the 21st century, launched in January 2008, that presents exhibitions in cyberspace and public space on seven continents and live at partnering cultural centers. She initiated and curated The Project Room for New Media and Performing Arts at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York City (2003-2010). In 2010, she produced an exhibition series “Digital Art @ Google” at Google headquarters. She has received an Emmy and other awards and grants for integrating moving image and theater with music she has created in her studio. She holds a master’s degree in piano from the Manhattan School of Music.
Sebastian Currier is the 2007 recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. His chamber music was presented by the Berlin Philharmonic in 2007 and 2008 and included three world premieres. In December 2010, he returned to Berlin again for the premiere of his harp concerto, Traces, which was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic and performed by harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet led by Donald Runnicles. His violin concerto, dedicated to Anne-Sophie Mutter, will be premiered by the New York Philharmonic this season. He received his doctor of musical arts degree from Juilliard and from 1999-2007, he taught at Columbia University.
W. Bradford Paley is a designer who often uses computers to transcribe forms out of information. He has shown work in MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Arts. He’s a NYFA fellow and a NYSCA grantee. He occasionally teaches interaction design as “cognitive engineering” in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University.
Michelle Ross, violinist and composer, is pursuing her master of music degree at Juilliard with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho. She holds a bachelor of arts from Columbia University in English and Comparative Literature, where she graduated from the Columbia/Juilliard joint program. She studied composition with Dr. Samuel Adler and Dr. Andrew Thomas in Berlin and at Juilliard and was named emerging composer by the New York Arts Ensemble.
John F. Simon, Jr. was born in Louisiana and currently lives and works in New York. He holds a master of fine arts degree in computer art from the School of Visual Arts and additional degrees from Brown University and Washington University. Best known for his software and screen-based artworks, he uses the unique properties of digital media to create time-based paintings whose compositions never repeat. Mr. Simon’s work is found in prominent collections, such as MoMA, the Solomon Guggenheim Music, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Brendan Spieth is a recent graduate of Juilliard’s Drama Division and worked with Henry Wishcamper, Michael Kahn, Brian Mertes, and Bill Irwin while at Juilliard. In 2005, he helped form the Convergent Theatre Company in San Antonio, Texas.
George Stelluto is resident conductor of The Juilliard School, assistant conductor of the Ravinia Festival, music director of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, and advisor to Sinfonia por La Vida in Equador. He has guest conducted throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. Beyond his conducting interests, he also is involved in cultural advocacy, arts education, and arranging. He is a member of Juilliard College and Pre-College faculties.
Yara Travieso is a New York/Miami-based director/choreographer working in film, opera, fashion, dance, installations and performance art. She completed her master of fine arts degree in 2009 from Juilliard and is a NFAA dance and choreography winner. Her collaborative films have been sponsored by Kodak and selected for the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival. She also is the co-founder of the Borscht Film Festival, Miami’s fresh and local film collective. She will premiere a new work in collaboration with the fellows of the New World Symphony and composer Jerome Begin in the new Frank Gehry concert hall in Miami.
About Beyond the Machine, Juilliard’s Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater, and Juilliard’s Music Technology Center
Beyond the Machine was started in 2001 to provide Juilliard students with opportunities to explore the use of technology in their work as performing artists and to collaborate on the creation of multimedia and interdisciplinary art. Last season, Beyond the Machine presented five world-premiere performances to celebrate ten years of music technology at Juilliard.
Juilliard’s new Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theater is located on the third floor of Juilliard’s new wing. It comprises more than 2,000 square feet of performance space with an additional 2,000 square feet of production support space, including a state-of-the-art lighting grid, a permanently-installed sound system, a removable dance floor, and video project capabilities.
Juilliard’s new Music Technology Center is connected directly to the advanced sound capabilities of the theater, allowing for sophisticated performances of works using electronics.
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