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SUMMARY:Unsound New York 2026
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/08/10/unsound-new-york-2026/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20261021
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261021
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20261023
DESCRIPTION:First Artist Announcement
Wednesday, October 21, 2026 at 7:30 PMFUJI|||||||||||TA & Ka Baird /
Actress / Team RolfesLincoln Center PresentsAlice Tully HallLincoln Center
for the Performing Arts1887 Broadway, New York, NY 10023Choose What You Pay
Thursday, October 22, 2026 at 7:30 PMU.S. debutclaire rousay & Martyna
Basta / Keith "Giant Claw" Rankin & Julek PloskiLincoln Center
PresentsDavid Rubenstein AtriumLincoln Center for the Performing Arts1941
Broadway at W 65th St, New York, NY 10023Free
Friday, October 23, 2026 at 7:30 PMHania Rani presents Non-Fiction,
featuring Sinfonia Varsovia and KsiężycLincoln Center PresentsWu Tsai
Theater, David Geffen Hall10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023Choose
What You Pay
Unsound New York 2026
This October, Unsound returns to New York. Our first artist announcement
involves a three-night residency at Lincoln Center, presenting a series of
U.S. premieres, new commissions, and rare performances. Unsound New York is
part of the 2026 Soft Power theme, with festivals also taking place in
Warsaw-Kraków (October 2 - 11), and London in late November.
The events at Lincoln Center run from October 21–23 with a program
bringing together artists working across experimental sound, contemporary
composition, audiovisual performance, virtual theater, and orchestral
music. Alongside landmark performances from internationally renowned
musicians, the residency also highlights new collaborations between Polish
and American artists developed through Unsound commissions and residencies.
Tickets go on sale on September 9, and will be Choose-What-You-Pay as part
of the Lincoln Center Presents series.
The opening night at Alice Tully Hall on October 21 begins with the North
American premiere of Where Does Fire End?, an Unsound commission by
Japanese sound artist FUJI|||||||||||TA and composer-performer Ka Baird,
exploring breath, resonance, and voice as physical material. Electronic
music pioneer Actress follows with the U.S. premiere of Radical Frame, a
new audiovisual work reimagining both recent and earlier material with
immersive visuals by Filip Popik and lighting by Shaun Murphy. The evening
closes with Mustang Speedrun from virtual performance studio Team Rolfes,
combining VR puppetry, motion capture, live musicians, actors, a motorized
racing simulator, and live-edited camerawork into a singular theatrical
experience. Musicians to be announced soon.
The second evening, presented in the Atrium as part of Lincoln Center's
Festival of Firsts, focuses on artistic exchange between Poland and the
United States. claire rousay and Kraków-based composer Martyna Basta
present the U.S. performance debut of hotel room, developed after a week
spent composing together in rural Poland and accompanied by visuals from
Theresa Baumgartner. The program continues with a new audiovisual
collaboration between Keith "Giant Claw" Rankin and Warsaw composer Julek
ploski, created through an Unsound commission and residency.
The residency concludes in the David Geffen Hall with two very different
perspectives on Polish music. Księżyc, whose singular blend of minimalism
and Slavic folk traditions has inspired a devoted following for three
decades, marks the 30th anniversary of its landmark debut self-titled
album. Following is Polish composer, pianist, and singer Hania Rani, whose
work moves effortlessly between classical and experimental music. Rani
presents the U.S. premiere of Non-Fiction – Piano Concerto in Four
Movements with the 45-piece Sinfonia Varsovia, joined by Valentina
Magaletti and Jack Wyllie. Partially inspired by the story of the young
piano prodigy Josima Feldschuh, who was forced into the Warsaw Ghetto
during World War II, the work reflects on historical trauma through the
lens of present-day horrors in Ukraine and Gaza.
Stay tuned for the next Unsound New York announcement, coming soon,
involving a discourse program, a club night jointly presented with
Dripping, and more!
Hania Rani presents Non-Fiction
The concert marks the David Geffen Hall debut of Polish composer, pianist,
and singer Hania Rani. Rani, who shifts effortlessly between classical and
experimental music, was awarded the European Film Award for Best Composer
for her score for Joachim Trier's Academy Award-winning movie Sentimental
Value. Rani's Non-Fiction: Piano Concerto in Four Movements is an
empathic and moving work for orchestra partially inspired by the story of
the young music prodigy Josima Feldschuh, who was forced into the Warsaw
Ghetto during World War II. Rani explores Feldschuh’s short life through
the lens of contemporary Ukraine and Gaza. Non-Fiction will be performed
by Rani and the Warsaw-based 45-piece Sinfonia Varsovia with special guests
drummer Valentina Mageletti and saxophonist Jack Wylie.
Hania Rani’s music grabs you — its gravitational pull sucks you into a
hypnotic trance, regardless of your will. Pianist, composer, and vocalist,
she has emerged as a genre-blending nonconformist who nevertheless has made
a name for herself interweaving classical, jazz, and electronic influences.
Born in 1990 in Gdańsk, Poland, Hania began playing the piano at age
seven. She eventually trained as a classical pianist in Warsaw and later
pursued studies in Berlin, where she began to explore electronic music.
Recently, she has settled in London.
Rani is a quiet star — more interested in connection than fame or
spectacle – and constantly seeks the new in her work, challenging herself
and her audience in an active process of renewal and regeneration. She’s
since progressed swiftly through a series encompassing solo piano albums
like 2019’s Esja, 2023’s more electronically inclined Ghosts, not to
mention film and theatr scores, art installations, even her first piano
concerto.
It was during the second half of the 2010s that Rani moved to Berlin to
continue her studies at Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musikwhere she really
developed as a composer, taking counterpoint and contemporary music classes
as well as studying acoustics and collaborating with contemporary opera and
theatr directors, as well as poets.. It was also in Berlin where Rani would
start to explore electronic music and experience a growing sense of
freedom, expanding what felt possible as a pianist and performer.
FUJI||||||||||TA 
FUJI||||||||||TA is a sound artist living in Japan. He creates his unique
sound art and music which takes various natural phenomena that respond to
his interest in wanting to hear unheard sounds and noises. In 2009 Fujita
hand fabricated an original instrument, a Pipe Organ. It has only 11 pipes
and no keyboard. Fujita made it with his own imagination, without any
specialized knowledge. It was designed to create a landscape rather than
function as a musical instrument.
He got the idea from Japanese “gagaku”. The air pump (called
“FUIGO”) which is kept moving with the left hand when playing, is based
on an ancient blacksmith’s bellows. As the instrument is one of a kind,
Fujita had to develop his own technique for playing it. The water element
(with sound synthesized water tanks) has recently been added to his
performance repertoire. The music consists of water sounds from multiple
aquariums alongside his pipe organ, and his voice.
claire rousay
The prolific experimental-ambient wunderkind claire rousay spent a week in
2024 composing overseas in a secluded village in the Polish countryside
with the Kraków-based composer and musician Martyna Basta. Their resulting
joint show and album, hotel room, is a rugged travelogue of loose musical
fragments, autotuned vocals, and complex atmospheres. The U.S. performance
debut of hotel room features projected visuals by German artist Theresa
Baumgartner. Next up is a new collaboration between American electronic
producer Keith "Giant Claw" Rankin, head of the pioneering label Orange
Milk Records, and Warsaw soundtrack composer and performer Julek ploski.
Together, they present a new A/V work, the result of an Unsound-commission
and residency in Warsaw.
Unsound is co-organized and co-presented by Fundacja Tone – Muzyka i Nowe
Formy Sztuki and the Polish Cultural Institute New York. This project is
co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the
Republic of Poland from the Culture Promotion Fund in partnership with the
Adam Mickiewicz Institute. The main partner of Unsound Web KRK – NYC is
the Polish National Foundation. Concerts at Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts are part of the Lincoln Center Presents Season. Curated by
Mat Schulz, Unsound Artistic Director.
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