The Department of Music presents the Livewire 15: Blazing Trails new music festival. Through concerts and other events, Livewire celebrates the innovators, the brave, the experimental, the “firsts”: the trail blazers. The festival features music by composer in residence Zosha Di Castri in addition to works by Julius Eastman, Sofia Gubaidulina, Tania León, George Lewis, Joan Tower, Alison Knowles, John Cage, Beyoncé, David Baker, Jennifer Higdon, Myroslav Skoryk, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others, performed by RUCKUS, Ensemble Bravura, and other noted musicians.

View Full Event Details and Register for Livewire 15: Blazing Trails, Thursday, October 16, 2025

The Livewire 15:  Blazing Trails new music festival presents RUCKUS, the faculty ensemble in residence at UMBC, in a concert of works by Zosha Di Castri, Sofia Gubaidulina, Tania León, George Lewis, and Joan Tower.

View Full Event Details and Register for Livewire 15 — RUCKUS: Trailblazers, Thursday, October 16, 2025

For the second evening of the Livewire 15 new music festival, the RUCKUS ensemble is joined by UMBC affiliate faculty to present Julius Eastman’s concert-length work, Femenine.

View Full Event Details and Register for Livewire 15 — Julius Eastman’s Femenine, Friday, October 17, 2025

How often do you get a chance to eat a work of art? RUCKUS presents a lunchtime performance of Alison Knowles’s groundbreaking Fluxus work, Proposition #2: Make a Salad. In a radical turn away from the conventions of classical music, Knowles frames the concert experience around a simple, everyday act. The performers will trade their instruments for whisks, knives, and colanders, and every audience member will be served.

View Full Event Details and Register for Livewire 15 — Alison Knowles, Proposition #2: Make A Salad, Saturday, October 18, 2025

With characteristic elan and virtuosity, Ensemble Bravura and conductor Philip Mann present a multifaceted and eclectic Livewire 15 festival finale exploring human interconnection, with works by David Baker, Jennifer Higdon, Miroslav Skoryk, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Joan Tower.

View Full Event Details and Register for Livewire 15 — Ensemble Bravura, Saturday, October 18, 2025

Embark on a journey through the cosmos, where mysteries of the universe unfold in all their glory and splendor. The Relic ensemble brings to life the rich mythology and awe of the celestial bodies through captivating masterpieces of the Baroque era. This evocative program tells the story of the universe through the timeless voices of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, featuring works by Lully, Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach.

View Full Event Details and Register for Relic, Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Join us for a special afternoon with soprano Seyoung Jeong, pianist Edwin Kim, and cellist DoYeon Kim, as they explore Faces of Love, featuring Robert Schumann’s song cycle Frauenliebe und -leben, Clara Schumann’s Drei Romanzen for Cello and Piano, and five of the most popular Korean contemporary art songs.

View Full Event Details and Register for Faces of Love, Sunday, October 26, 2025