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
William’s sculptures, works on paper, and prints draw inspiration from music, literature, nature, and the art of the African diaspora.
MODfest 2025
A lecture by José Perillán, Associate Professor of Physics and Science, Technology, and Society Program (STS) Director.
MODfest 2025
A performance of Stimmung, a highly influential avant-garde work that provided inspiration for the spectral composition school that emerged in Paris during the 1970’s.
MODfest 2025
Certified Feldenkrais practitioners Carolyn Palmer and Drew Minter will lead two lessons and speak about the method.
MODfest 2025
Daniel J. Levitin, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience, McGill University, will uncover the latest findings in the rapidly developing field of how music can be used to treat injury and disease and promote wellness.
MODfest 2025
This musical and spoken performance weaves together an array of creatively indeterminate works.
MODfest 2025
In this lecture-performance, Alexander Bonus, a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, will survey past expressions of sonic disorder in music by Haydn, Beethoven, and Mahler, among others.
MODfest 2025
Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre performs works created by faculty, students, and guest choreographers, selected from the current repertory. The program includes a special appearance by dancers from the Parul Shah Dance Company, whose work harnesses the expressive power of Indian classical dance to promote cultural understanding and explore questions around identity and humanity.
MODfest 2025
Does music shape the instruments we choose, or does the instrument determine the music? When it comes to electronic music, the answer is: both. Join Drake Andersen on a historical exploration of how new technologies for making and enjoying music developed over the past one hundred years continue to both reflect and shape our musical experiences and expectations.
MODfest 2025
Metropolis Reimagined is a new scoring of the 1984 restoration of Fritz Lang’s classic film, performed live by acclaimed pianist Po-Wei Ger and electronic artist Drake Andersen.
MODfest 2025
A program of music by Unsuk Chin (in C, Grains), Richard Wilson (Diablerie) and Luciano Berio (Sequenza III per voce) will be capped by a large-ensemble performance of the aleatoric minimalist classic In C by Terry Riley. Performers include festival co-directors Drew Minter and Thomas Sauer, violinist Marka Young, and an ensemble drawn from the Vassar College Orchestra and Choirs.
MODfest 2025
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.
