JANUARY 29–31, 2026
The FSU College of Music is pleased to present the 22nd biennial Festival of New Music, a series of lectures, masterclasses, and concerts featuring a variety of exciting new works for various ensembles.
Schedule of Events
All Festival of New Music events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.
January 29
Opening Concert
Featuring performances by College of Music Faculty. (Pre-concert talk with special guest composer, Julia Wolfe in Lindsay Recital Hall (LRH) at 6:15 p.m.)
7:30 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall (OMH)
January 30
Matinee Concert (a)
10:10 a.m. | Opperman Music Hall (OMH)
Matinee Concert (b)
11:15 a.m. | Opperman Music Hall (OMH)
Polymorphia New Music Ensemble Concert
2:00 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall (OMH)
Guest Artist Masterclass with Julia Wolfe
4:00 p.m. | Dohnányi Recital Hall (DRH)
Guest Artist Concert: Bang on a Can Allstars
7:30 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall (OMH)
January 31
Electroacoustic Concert
1:00 p.m. | Opperman Music Hall (OMH)
Guest Artist Masterclass with Julia Wolfe
4:00 p.m. | Dohnányi Recital Hall (DRH)
Closing Concert
Featuring performances by the University Symphony and University Wind Orchestra with special guest, composer Julia Wolfe. (Pre-concert talk with guest composer Julia Wolfe in Lindsay Recital Hall (LRH) at 6:15 p.m.) For tickets to this concert, please visit tickets.music.fsu.edu.
7:30 p.m. | Ruby Diamond Concert Hall (RDCH)
Featured Artists
Composer JULIA WOLFE’s music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. She draws inspiration from folk, classical, and rock genres, bringing a modern sensibility to each while simultaneously tearing down the walls between them.
Wolfe’s recent premieres include Pretty, premiered in June 2023 by conductor Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic. Co-commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Pretty is a raucous celebration — embracing the grit of fiddling, the relentlessness of work rhythms, and inspired by the distortion and reverberation of rock and roll.
unEarth, commissioned and premiered in June 2023 by the New York Philharmonic, is a large-scale work for orchestra, men’s chorus, and children’s chorus that addresses the climate crisis. Performed in three movements, the 40 minute piece is realized with spatial staging and scenic design projected on a large circular screen.
Her Story, a 45-minute semi-staged work for orchestra and women’s chamber choir, received its world premiere in September 2022 with the Nashville Symphony, conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, the vocal ensemble Lorelei, and stage direction by Anne Kauffman. Co-commissioned by the Nashville Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra, Her Story invokes the words of historical figures and the spirit of pivotal moments to pay tribute to the centuries of ongoing struggle for equal rights and representation for women in America.
In addition to receiving the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Wolfe was a 2016 MacArthur Fellow. She received the 2015 Herb Alpert Award in Music, and was named Musical America’s 2019 Composer of the Year. Julia Wolfe is co-founder/co-artistic director of New York’s legendary music collective Bang on a Can, and she is Artistic Director of NYU Steinhardt Music Composition.
Her music is published by Red Poppy Music and G. Ricordi & Co., New York (ASCAP)
Formed in 1992, the BANG ON A CAN ALL-STARS are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Performing each year throughout the U.S. and internationally, the All-Stars have shattered the definition of what concert music is today.
Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Meredith Monk, George Lewis, Louis Andriessen, Terry Riley and dozens more. The group’s celebrated projects include their landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittová, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett and others. The All-Stars were awarded Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year and have been heralded as “the country’s most important vehicle for contemporary music” by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Current and recent project highlights include their own new arrangements of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s landmark album 1996; Julia Wolfe’s Flower Power for Bang on a Can All-Stars and orchestra, premiered with the L.A. Philharmonic; a new live arrangement of Terry Riley’s iconic and inspirational A Rainbow in Curved Air, celebrating the legendary composer’s 90th Birthday year (2025); a recording of legendary composer/performer Meredith Monk’s MEMORY GAME; Can Dance, a multimedia concert of collaborations between composers, filmmakers and choreographers; performances of the band’s much beloved arrangement of Brian Eno’s classic Music for Airports; Road Trip, an immersive and visually stunning concert collaboratively-composed by Bang’s founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe; In C, a dance collaboration with Sasha Waltz & Guests based on Terry Riley’s minimalist classic; performances and recordings of Wolfe’s Pulitzer-Prize winning Anthracite Fields and groundbreaking Steel Hammer; a collaboration featuring Chinese superstar singer Gong Linna called Cloud River Mountain; and much more.
With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group’s distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.