CMS Monthly Multimedia Workshop & Jam with Aliya Ultan

Where and When

Every last Saturday of the month (Feb 21, March 28, April 25, May 30), 1-3pm at The Handbell Studio (room 118) in The Shirt Factory (77 Cornell St, Kingston, NY), $25-100 Suggested Donation

Description

Join multimedia composer-improviser Aliya Ultan every last Saturday of the month at the Shirt Factory in Kingston, NY to explore how your creative practice can evolve through interdisciplinary collaboration. Dancers-movers, poets, painters, and musicians are invited to participate in this comprehensive monthly event educating and celebrating the collective. Topics will be discussed alongside prompts for solo and group improvisation closing with a group reflection. 

All ages (children must be under the supervision of a caregiver), 

All disciplines (dance, poetry, visual art, etc...)

All levels (beginner to advanced)

Workshop 1 Outline:

Discussion topic: Intermedia; strategies of interdisciplinarity that occur within artworks existing between artistic genres

Workshop/jam topic: Conduction; a practice of large ensemble improvisation where visual cues generate content

Tech Needs

Backline provided (drum set, piano, PA, guitar amps, and 2 vocal mics). Acoustic is preferred but we can accommodate you either way. 

Please contact aliya@creativemusic.org with any questions. 

Bio

Based in New York, composer-performer Aliya Ultan—known as the Nocturnal Cellist—utilizes her instrument as a raw, multi-sensory medium that bridges orchestral elegance with experimental multimedia exploration. Her diverse career spans collaborations with luminaries like John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards and Tyshawn Sorey, performances at premier venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Blue Note, and a Broadway run with Hadestown. Classically trained at the Oberlin Conservatory and Wesleyan University, Ultan’s creative reach extends into film, circus, and theater, earning her commissions from International Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Roulette Intermedium. Whether she is exploring psychosomatic frequencies in her solo work or co-conducting the Creative Music Studio’s Improvisors Orchestra, Ultan consistently breaks genre boundaries, merging myth, herbalism, and vibrational healing into a singular, cathartic sonic language.