2024 Festival Schedule

7:00 PM, Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall

The festival this year opens up with the Sampen and Bunce Duo who take the evening to explore the duality of music and society as they perform a concert of contemporary music for saxophone and electronics. The duo will showcase their program In Two Worlds to kick off Outside The Box 2024!

10:00 AM, Altgeld Hall Room 119

Please join us for a discussion session led by special guest artist Jessica Speak on the topic of Building Musical Community Wherever You Are. Open to all SIU faculty and students and the general public.

7:00 PM, Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall

The SIU Clarinet Studio, under the direction of SIU Visiting Professor of Music and Distinguished Scholar Eric Mandat, will present its annual Outside the Box concert. The featured guest for the evening will be international performing artist and Stetson University clarinet professor Dr. Jessica Speak. The concert will feature several of Mandat’s chamber works for clarinets, including the premiere of his new duet, Five Miniatures (2022).

(Photos of Artists left to right: Eric Mandat, Jessica Speak)

Eric Mandat, Clarinet, Composer

7:00 PM, Altgeld Hall Room 112

SIU faculty percussionist Christopher Butler will perform a concert of electric and innovative new music for percussion and computer.

7:00 PM, Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall

Directed by Eric Mandat, the Southern Illinois University Improvisation Unit will present a concert of mostly improvised music, with a special tribute to groundbreaking composer Morton Feldman.

7:00 PM, Shryock Auditorium

Get ready for an evening of completely new music for an eclectic variety of musical instruments and electronic sound composed and performed by SIU School of Music students!

11:00 AM, Shryock Auditorium

Outside The Box featured guest artists The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra will demonstrate the captivating sounds and contemporary techniques of traditional Chinese musical instruments, speaking about the role they play in new music performance. Open to all SIU students, faculty, and the general public.

7:00 PM, Shryock Auditorium

Please welcome Outside The Box 2024 featured guest artists from Taipei, Taiwan, The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra. Led by internationally acclaimed conductor Chih-Sheng Chen, the orchestra will perform five newly commissioned world premieres by composers Kathleen Ginther, Gregory Glancey, Zoe Lin, Eric Mandat, and Christopher Walczak. Specializing in the musical fusion of traditional Chinese instruments and western orchestral instruments, the group will be joined on stage by bassist Joe Bauer and SIU faculty performers the Altgeld Chamber Players featuring Robert Allison, trumpet, Christopher Butler, percussion, Jessica Butler, trombone, Anthony Gray, piano, Yuko Kato, piano, Richard Kelley, saxophone, Jiyeon Lee, piano, Eric Mandat, clarinet, and Jennifer Presar, horn. Not to be missed!

(Photos of Artists left to right: [Row 1] Chih-Sheng Chen, Kathleen Ginther, Gregory Glancey, [Row 2] Zoe Lin, Joseph Bauer, Robert Allison, [Row 3] Christopher Butler, Jessica Butler, Anthony Gray, [Row 4] Yuko Kato, Richard Kelley, Jiyeon Lee, [Row 5] Eric Mandat, Jennifer Presar, Christopher Walczak)