Performances + Events
NEC Festival 2024
Thank you to the artists, presenters, and attendees who made the 2024 NEC Festival possible! See you next year.
2024 marked the return of the NEC Festival, honoring the legacy of John Heiss with a weeklong series of performances, discussions, and more
From November 10–17, the festival celebrated visionary American composers Charles Ives (1874–1954) and Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) — both recognized and often unheard.
Please visit our calendar for the latest NEC performances, events, master classes, and more.
Festival Calendar
Community Barn Dance with Contemporary Music Arts American Roots and Jewish Music Ensembles
Featuring guest dance teachers Alex Cumming and Adah Hetko
Sunday, November 10 | 2 p.m.
Brown Hall
American Ledger No. 1 Open Rehearsal with Raven Chacon
Monday, November 11 | 10 a.m.
Pierce Hall
Demonstration: SANLIKOL Renaissance 17 with Mehmet Sanlikol
Monday, November 11 | 2 p.m.
Brown Hall
Roots + Culture + Spirit: Music and the Black Church, Pt. 1 with Special Guest Nedelka Prescod
Monday, November 11 | 2 p.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
African American Spirituals: Music and the Black Church, Pt. 2 with Special Guest Nedelka Prescod
Monday, November 11 | 4 p.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
American Ledger No. 1 Open Rehearsal with Raven Chacon
Monday, November 11 | 6 p.m.
Williams Hall
NEC Chamber Orchestra Performs Works of Ives, Seeger, and Haydn
Monday, November 11 | 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall
Artist Talk with Raven Chacon
Tuesday, November 12 | 12:00 p.m.
Pierce Hall
Where are the Women? Highlighting Women and Gender-Marginalized Composers in the Classroom
Tuesday, November 12 | 4:30 p.m.
Brown Hall
Artist Talk with Jason Moran and Kris Davis
Tuesday, November 12 | 6:15 p.m.
Keller Room
NEC Contemporary Musical Arts: I, Too, Sing, America: Ruth Crawford Seeger and Other Untold Stories of America with Special Guest Raven Chacon
Tuesday, November 12 | 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall
Jazz Forum with Caroline Davis and Sarah Charles
Wednesday, November 13 | 10 a.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
Presentation: The Works by Ruth Crawford Seeger with Sid Richardson
Wednesday, November 13 | 12 p.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
CEB Panel Discussion: Jazz and Gender Justice with Caroline Davis and Sarah Charles
Wednesday, November 13 | 2 p.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
The NEC Symphony Orchestra Presents Works by Ives and Dvořák
Wednesday, November 13 | 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall
Workshop with Suzy and Eric Thompson
Thursday, November 14 | 10:30 a.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
Discussion: Ives in Jazz with Ken Schaphorst
Thursday, November 14 | 2 p.m.
Room G-01
NEC Opera Presents Later the Same Evening (Night 1)*
*Includes a post-performance talkback and Q+A with composer John Musto, moderated by Stage Director and Opera Studies Chair Joshua Major.
Thursday, November 14 | 6 p.m.
Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre
Jazz Studies and Song Lab Present Ives in Song
Thursday, November 14 | 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall
Presentation: Echoes of Existence: Influence of Ives’s Unanswered Question on Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls
Friday, November 15 | 4:30 p.m.
Pierce Hall
NEC Exploring the Innovation in Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger: Diaphonic Suite I and Beyond
Friday, November 15 | 5:00 p.m.
Pierce Hall
NEC Opera Presents Later the Same Evening (Night 2)
Friday, November 15 | 6 p.m.
Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre
An Evening of Chamber Music with NEC’s Chamber Singers, Don and Vivian Weilerstein, and NEC’s Composition Department
Friday, November 15 | 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall
NEC Opera Presents Later the Same Evening (Night 3)
Saturday, November 16 | 7:30 p.m.
Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre
NEC Opera Presents Later the Same Evening (Night 4)
Sunday, November 17 | 3 p.m.
Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre
John Musto and Mark Campbell’s Later the Same Evening
New York City, 1932: Elaine plays piano while her husband ignores her. Jimmy is over the moon to see his first Broadway show. Estelle prepares for her first date since her husband’s death.
Figures from five Edward Hopper paintings come to life through intimate vignettes as imagined by John Musto and Mark Campbell in this chamber opera, based on “Room in New York,” “Hotel Window,” “Hotel Room,” “Two on the Aisle,” and “Automat.” NEC’s Joshua Major is the stage director and Robert Tweten conducts the members of the NEC Philharmonia.
This special production is running for four nights as part of the NEC Festival in the Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre:
Thursday, November 14* | 6 p.m. | Get Tickets
*Includes a post-performance talkback and Q+A with composer John Musto, moderated by Stage Director and Opera Studies Chair Joshua Major.
Friday, November 15 | 6 p.m. | Get Tickets
Saturday, November 16 | 7:30 p.m. | Get Tickets
Sunday, November 17 | 3 p.m. | Get Tickets
