Unsettlement — Avaloch Farm Music Institute

The first ever Unsettlement Summer Session will take place in August 2-10, 2026. This 8-day residency on Avaloch’s gorgeous New Hampshire campus is a collaborative educational experience geared toward creators of music – solo artists, band leaders, music producers and interdisciplinary artists – who want to forge a new path for their work.

This is a place for hybrid-minded artists who want to develop ambitious projects. This is a workshop to strengthen your musical fluidity, to sharpen your critical approach to your own work, to meet new collaborators, and to develop the resources to build a dynamic community* for your music.

You could be a rapper who wants to make performance art, an electronic musician who wants to make theater, a singer who wants to produce a crazy record. We want to bring together curious and confrontational artists, built around these themes: How can we consciously, ethically, meaningfully collaborate with other artists? How can our music foster fluidity and hybridity? How can we build our own unique ensemble? How can we build an audience for our work while not conforming to corporate/ commercial aesthetics and language? (Spotify, Instagram, etc.) Can we build work that acts contrary to a corporate agenda? How does our music reflect or interact with history? How do we contextualize our art? How can we work with established institutions while still making original, challenging and uncompromising music?

A cheerfully jam-packed schedule includes daily rehearsals and seminars, crit sessions and performances, and one-on-one sessions with faculty members on the subject of your music. Each participant will be a part of an ensemble, and each participant will also write for an ensemble. A culminating show features work by everyone in the festival.

The development of personal projects is encouraged, and individual and small group ensemble space is also available.

Faculty and Resident Ensemble

TED HEARNE (festival director) composer/bandleader/vocalist

NATHALIE JOACHIM composer/vocalist

MICAELA TOBIN composer/vocalist

SOLOMON DORSEY (Amos Lee, Brandi Carlile), bass/arranger/music-director

TAYLOR LEVINE (Dither Quartet, Bang on a Can All-Stars), guitar/curator

ELIZA BAGG (Lisel, Roomful of Teeth), composer/vocalist

RON WILTROUT (Unsettlement Music), drums and percussion/writing for hybrid ensembles

ROHAN CHANDER (aka BAKUDI SCREAM) composer/electronics/performing artist

CHANA PORTER playwright, novelist and theater artist

NIA EASLEY visual artist/educator

Tuition

Tuition is $2000. All accommodations and meals are included, along with technologically-equipped performance and rehearsal spaces. Need-based scholarships and payment plans are available.

What do you walk away with at the end?

By the end of this session, you will walk away with:

Professional audio and video documentation of your new work
New strategies for getting your work produced in many contexts,
without compromising your artistic vision
New techniques for engaging hybrid artistic practices and incorporating
them into your music; new technical strategies for working within or in
conversation with musical genre
A language for talking about your work in many contexts (including
academia, performing arts centers, record labels, commercial presenters)
Meaningful connections and collaborations with other artists
Mentorship from working artists doing experimental work around the world