The Vassar College Music Department, in collaboration with the Creative Arts Across Disciplines, is thrilled to celebrate the 22nd season of MODfest, Vassar College’s annual exploration of the arts of the 20th and 21st centuries. This year’s theme, “Defining Lines,” invites us to examine, celebrate, and challenge the lines that exist between cultures, spaces, bodies, identities, and more.
Join us for a concert and conversation with the creators and performers of Shanghai Sonatas. Based on first-person accounts, this new musical theater work tells the true story of daily life for musicians from Europe during World War II who used their optimism, humor, and musical talents to survive, forging friendships with their Chinese neighbors who helped save their lives. Experience the duality of dancers Baye & Asa, who use Hip Hop and African dance languages to “confront contemporary dance and theater” as guest performers with Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre.
Two current Vassar students have research that fits perfectly with our theme: Solomon Hess ’24 will premiere his new play, The Game, which unpacks the history of lacrosse and the differences between white appropriation and appreciation of the sport, through art, activism, and accountability; and Camryn Spero ’24, through her thesis work in cognitive science, asks, “How does the audience, the lighting, and their sensational experiences physiologically change the dancers’ experience of the performance?”
Assistant Professor of Music Tahirih Motazedian returns to MODfest to expertly frame a screening of the acclaimed motion picture Black Swan. In addition, the annual Honorary Adene and Richard Wilson Concert will include a concert version of Stravinsky’s iconic L’Histoire du Soldat, which tells the tale of a soldier who unknowingly sells his soul to the devil. Composed for seven instruments and narrator, Eduardo Navega conducts this performance highlighting faculty from the Music Department.
—Christine Howlett & Tom Pacio, MODfest Co-Directors
All events are free and open to the public. No reservations are necessary unless otherwise noted. For directions to the Vassar campus in Poughkeepsie, New York, please visit vassar.edu/visit/tour. People with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370.
Upcoming Events
Past Events
MODfest 2024
Weaving a poetic vocabulary of acrobatic movement and storytelling, this award-winning intimate play tells the tale of one woman, lost between the uncharted waters of her grief and the shores of her joyful memories following the disappearance of her soulmate.
MODfest 2024
Vassar’s brilliant music faculty perform the music of Rogerson, Richard Wilson, and Stravinsky’s iconic L’Histoire du Soldat. Scored for seven instrumentalists and narrator, L’Histoire is the story of a soldier named Joseph who meets the Devil in disguise.
MODfest 2024
Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre performs works selected from the current repertory by faculty, students, and guest choreographers, including a special appearance by Baye and Asa Dance Company. This is a free but ticketed event; however, reservations for general seating are required and are available online.
MODfest 2024
Join Batya Levine and their musical ensemble for an evening of harmony, rhythm, and heart-opening communal song. Through their kavanah (intention) and songful weaving, Batya invites everyone to raise their voices in this participatory concert—rooted in traditional Jewish texts and sounds, contemporary melodies, and the transcendent power of nigun—wordless spiritual song.
MODfest 2024
A concert and conversation with the creators and performers of Shanghai Sonatas—a new musical theater work, based on first-person accounts, which tells the true story of daily life for musicians from Europe during World War II who used their optimism, humor, and musical talents to survive, forging friendships with their Chinese neighbors who helped save their lives. Moderated by Associate Professor and Chair of Music Justin Patch.
MODfest 2024
Music in this film is used to subtly define and separate the two identities of the main character, and throughout the film there is a strong recurring theme of boundaries between one thing and another, and the strange intersections between them. With introduction by Assistant Professor of Music Táhirih Motazedian.
MODfest 2024
Inspired by playwright Solomon Hess’s lifelong immersion in the world of lacrosse and recent experience training and competing internationally with the U.S. Junior Indoor Team, The Game tells the story of two friends’ complicated relationship with the sport of lacrosse and with each other.
MODfest 2024
Join us for a conversation with the newest president of Toussaint L’Ouverture College, the only HBCU in the Northeast, founded 150 years ago in Poughkeepsie. Once a failed initiative and footnote in the long history of educational inequities experienced by young Black men and women, Toussaint L’Ouverture College has come to life in the mind of artist Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, who will moderate this speculative discussion.
