events
EASTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY
BlackBox performs on the North Carolina New Music Initiative series at Eastern Carolina University.
University of Richmond SPRING RESIDENCY
BlackBox returns as Ensemble in Residence at the University of Richmond to perform the world premiere of a new work by composer and vocalist Peni Candra Rini.
BlackBox ENSEMBLE: WORDPLAY
BlackBox presents an evening of contemporary chamber music exploring the expressive relationship between the human voice and instrumental sound. Across works that move between narration, song, and fractured language, the ensemble becomes an extension of speech itself—echoing, distorting, and illuminating the voice.
PROGRAM
Andile Khumalo Shades of Words
ELLIOT CARTER A Mirror on Which to Dwell
PAUL NOVAK when I was nine (world premiere) & a diagnosis (NY premiere)
UNSUK CHIN Akrostichon-Wortspiel
Williams College
BlackBox performs works by Annie Nikunen, Ursula Mamlok, Tania León, Nathalie Joachim, Ileana Perez Velazquez, and Douglas Boyce.
SAN FRAncisco state university MORRISON CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
BlackBox performs works by Paul Novak, Alex Burtzos, James Diaz, and more as part of a residency at San Francisco State University.
University of california davis
BlackBox performs works by Paul Novak, Kelley Sheehan, Baldwin Giang, and James Diaz
https://arts.ucdavis.edu/event/blackbox-ensemble-friday-concert
Watch the livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcLZe9QUg7g
COMPOSERS NOW FESTIVAL
In our second NYC show of the season, BlackBox performs works by Nathalie Joachim, Ursula Mamlok, Tania León, Ileana Perez Velazquez, and Douglas Boyce.
Tickets here!
Smithsonian NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART
BlackBox returns to the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, performing works by Anthony Cheung, Misato Mochizuki, Tania León, and Baldwin Giang.
Bowerbird SERIES
BlackBox performs works by Annie Nikunen, Ileana Perez Velazquez, Baldwin Giang, Nathalie Joachim, Tania León, and James Diaz.
Scenes from the Post-Diaspora: BlackBox Ensemble performs Cheung, Mochizuki, and the US Premiere of Baldwin Giang's PIPA BOY
BlackBox performs works by Anthony Cheung, Misato Mochizuki, and two works by Baldwin Giang, including the US premiere of PIPA BOY—Three Scenes from the Post-Diaspora (2024), a multimedia work for ensemble and pipa player exploring global identity and the conditions of belonging and non-belonging, written during his time as a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome.
University of Richmond: Third practice festival
BlackBox concludes our first week as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Richmond with a headlining performance on the Third Practice Festival of electroacoustic music, featuring works by Kelley Sheehan, Chris Chandler, Heather Stebbins, Bekah Simms, Bobby Gee, Annie Nikunen, and a world premiere by University of Richmond Professor and Third Practice Festival Director Benjamin Broening.
George Washington University Corocan music festival
BlackBox performs works by Annie Nikunen, Baldwin Giang, Heather Stebbins, and a world premiere by George Washington University Professor of Music Composition Douglas Boyce.
PennSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIVING MUSIC SERIES
BlackBox performs works by Annie Nikunen, Ileana Perez Velazquez, Nathalie Joachim, Alex Burtzos, Baljinder Sekhon, and James Diaz on the Living Music Series as part of a residency at Pennsylvania State University.
JULIUS EASTMAN: FEMENINE with Kyle Marshall Choreography
BlackBox Ensemble accompanies Kyle Marshall Choreography for their evening length dance piece set to Julius Eastman’s seminal work Femenine. Join us after the show for an after-hours concert of our Speculative Listening program.
JULIUS EASTMAN: FEMENINE with Kyle Marshall Choreography
BlackBox Ensemble accompanies Kyle Marshall Choreography for their evening length dance piece set to Julius Eastman’s seminal work Femenine.
SPECULATIVE LISTENING: The Sonic World of Julius Eastman @ The Whitney Museum
BlackBox brings our Speculative Listening project to the Whitney for a special performance presented as part of the Whitney’s Free Second Sundays series. Stay for an afterparty featuring DJs by Lovie and Honey Bun.
Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation Prizewinners Concert
BlackBox performs alongside Dice Trio as the recipients of the 2025 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation Prize.
Unsuk Chin: Akrostichon-Wortspiel
A very special performance — BlackBox joins our soprano soloist Amber Evans for a performance of Unsuk Chin’s seminal Akrostichon-Wortspiel as part of her final DMA recital at the CUNY Graduate Center!
SPECULATIVE LISTENING: THE SONIC WORLD OF JULIUS EASTMAN AT Bang on a can LONGPLAY FESTIVAL
BlackBox presents a wide-ranging sonic portrait of Julius Eastman curated by Eastman scholar Isaac Jean-Francois as part of Bang on a Can’s LongPlay Festival. Featuring works by Hildegard von Bingen, Gérard Grisey, Barbara Kolb, and Julius Eastman.
University of Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition Residency
BlackBox performs new works by University of Chicago graduate composition students.
DIALOGUES IN DUALITY: NYC PREMIERS BY NIKUNEN, SIMMS, DIAZ, and sekhon
On Saturday, November 23rd at 8pm at the Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew in Brooklyn, BlackBox Ensemble presents a series of works unified in their explorations of physicality and duality. Featuring works by Anthony Cheung, Annie Nikunen, Bekah Simms, Baljinder Sekhon, James Diaz, Brittany J. Green and Reilly Spitzfaden, we traverse dialogues between present and memory, sound and silence, structure and freedom, clarity and complexity, propulsion and resistance, unpredictability and certitude, chaos and smoothness, magic and science. This program features the US premieres of Simms’ Stygian Pulse and Diaz’s mil cuartos en linea recta as well as the NY premieres of Nikunen’s all mass is interaction and Sekhon’s Divination, commissioned for BlackBox to perform at University of South Carolina’s Southern Exposure New Music Series last month. From pitchwheel motions and chronic pain to physics and a thousand white rooms in a straight line, each of these composers expresses their own unique avenue in which to see, hear, and feel these physicalities and dualities through sound.
TICKETS
BlackBox at Timucua Arts Foundation
BlackBox presents an eclectic program of works by Jessie Cox, George Lewis, Brittany J. Green, and James Diaz.
BlackBox at University of Central Florida
Anthony Cheung enjamb, infuse, implode
Cole Reyes Shadowstains
James Diaz mil cuartos en linea recta
inti figgis-vizueta Form the Fabric
BlackBox University of Florida Residency
BlackBox plays pieces of graduate student composers at University of Florida.
BlackBox at USC - Southern Exposure New Music Series
BlackBox performs as part of USC’s Southern Exposure New Music Series.
Tyler Neidermayer Mosaic 1
Anna Thorvaldsdottir Ró
Annie Nikunen All Mass is Interaction
Angelica Negrón espacios, objectos, sonidos y tiempo
Berio Michelle II
Murail Paludes
Baljinder Sekhon Divination
Berio Yesterday
inti figgis-vizueta Form the Fabric
Tyler Neidermayer Mosaic II
BlackBox at UNC-Pembroke
Cole Reyes Shadowstains
Brittany J. Green Shift.Unravel.Break
Bekah Simms Stygian Pulse
James Diaz mil cuartos en linea recta
Brittany J. Green Maps
BlackBox in Fayetteville, NC
Cole Reyes Shadowstains
Brittany J. Green Shift.Unravel.Break
Bekah Simms Stygian Pulse
James Diaz mil cuartos en linea recta
Brittany J. Green Maps
Season Kickoff Party
Join us for an evening of music and celebration as we launch our 2024-2025 season!
The Sound of Space Between Us: Paris Film Premiere
The Sound of Space Between Us - a film of our performance at the Clark Art Institute - is premiered at the Fête de la Cite in Paris, France.
Director of Production and Cinematography: Kevin Chiu
Choreography: Annie Nikunen & Joelle Santiago
Dancers: Peter Cheng, Annie Nikunen, Liana Zhen-ai
Music: Feldman, Fujikura, Nikunen, figgis-vizueta
Performed at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, October 1, 2023
Consonance Collective: What We Owe to Birds
BlackBox performs the premiere of What We Owe to Birds, a multimedia cycle meditating on bird migration and conservation by the Consonance Collective, at the New Jersey Audubon Society’s annual Cape May Spring Festival.
Kaufman Center Special Music School Composers Concert
BlackBox workshops and performs new works by composition students at the Special Music School, the music magnet high school of the Kaufman Music Center.
New York University: Composers Collective Residency
BlackBox performs new works by New York University graduate composition students.