Performances + Events
NEC Festival 2024
2024 marks the return of the NEC Festival, honoring the legacy of John Heiss with a weeklong series of performances, discussions, and more.
Taking place from November 10–17, the festival celebrates visionary American composers Charles Ives (1874–1954) and Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) — both recognized and often unheard. Special events will include dances with Alex Cummings and Adah Hetko, residencies with guest artists Raven Chacon and Theo Bleckmann, and a four-night run of John Musto and Mark Campbell’s opera, “Later the Same Evening.”
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
Artist Talk with John Musto
Tuesday, November 12 | 2:00 p.m.
Eben Jordan Ensemble Room
Where are the Women? Highlighting Women and Gender-Marginalized Composers in the Classroom
Tuesday, November 12 | 4:30 p.m.
Brown Hall
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)
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
