March 28, 2024

Festival Brings Musicians to UMW This Weekend

The Department of Music at the University of Mary Washington will host the second annual Electroacoustic Barn Dance from Thursday, Nov. 8 through Saturday, Nov. 10. The three-day electronic music festival will include the works of more than 70 artists and composers from across the country presented in 13 concerts. All concerts are free and open to the public.

Most of the performances will take place in UMW’s Pollard Hall and Monroe Hall, with additional performances at The Blarney Stone and 909 Saloon in historic downtown Fredericksburg. The festival will begin with Concert I at 8 p.m. on Thursday, and will continue throughout the weekend, concluding with Concert XIII at 10 p.m. on Saturday. The most up-to-date concert information, as well the specific times and locations for each performance, can be found at facebook.com/ElectroacousticBarnDance.

The festival has garnered attention at universities across the country, including Columbia University, the University of Alabama, the University of Florida and Chatham University.

Mark Snyder, assistant professor of music and the festival’s director and organizer, received submissions from approximately 180 composers and musicians to participate in this year’s festival. Prominent and innovative artists from all over the county will travel to UMW to perform and showcase their art. Snyder said the Barn Dance will be the place to hear and experience sound in different ways as well to see instruments being played in a way the audience might not have seen before.

“A lot of the people who will be here are in the cutting edge of making things that people haven’t been making before in terms of music, sound design and film,” said Snyder.

Several UMW professors will perform during the festival, including Snyder himself, as well as students from Snyder’s electronic music class.

“It makes me very proud [that] the students will be mixed in with all of these major established electroacoustic composers,” he said.

For more information, contact Mark Snyder at msnyder@umw.edu.

About Brynn Boyer

Brynn Boyer is assistant director of media and public relations and a 2010 graduate of UMW.