The Playground Ensemble and MCA Denver at the Holiday Theater invite you to create sound and beauty in a common space, to come together in community, support each other, and listen to the reverberations.

This interactive performance features a Playground-commissioned version of Arone Dyer’s Dronechoir, a community singing event described as ‘a social performance experiment that combines unfamiliar collaborators with an unrehearsed performance, and everyone is singing together for the first time with people they may never have met before.’

*WE WANT YOU TO SING WITH US! If you would like to be part of Dronechoir, please email playground@playgroundensemble.org and we will send details!

The evening also features the premiere of the spacious and reverberant Carta de Amor by Denver-based composer Gabriel Mininberg. Recorded by the Playground at the TANK Center for Sonic Arts in 2024, we now bring it to the stage for you alongside Sara Minerd's (LUCIA) interactive visual projections.

Audience members will also be invited to participate in Nathan Hall’s Vessels for flute and singing bowls. No musical training necessary for intrepid audience members in this collaborative piece!

The evening concludes with the premiere of a new interactive performance art experiment for audience and no-input mixer by Playground founding Director Conrad Kehn called Known Input.

All of these performances will be accompanied by a gallery display of works presented by our friends at Denver’s Prison ART Experience.

Free parking available at North High School.

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About the Artists

Arone Dyer does a lot of things that don’t fit in tidy boxes. She has produced sound as a vocalist, musician, composer & as a founding member of the uncategorical duo Buke and Gase since 2007, which has toured around the globe multiple times. Outside of Buke and Gase, she's founded hyper-pop duo Mistresses, which she sometimes performs solo; and out of an invitation to perform at the first 24hr-Dronefest at Basilica Hudson in 2015, she became the sole producer of the roving, ever-evolving, non-static Dronechoir, which continues to be performed across the US and in Europe. To support her music-habit she ventures into voiceover work, she teaches kids how to fix and ride bicycles in her community, has a landscaping side-hustle, and engages in her community as a Volunteer Firefighter.

Dronechoir combines unfamiliar collaborators with an unrehearsed performance, and everyone is singing together for the first time with people they may never have met before. We're given the opportunity to become comfortable with our discomfort, settling into the unknown. Throughout the piece, the vocalists learn what their role is within the choir and composition. By committing to this unrehearsed performance they naturally demonstrate a sense of hope and support, acceptance with what is in the moment, love and respect to our audiences and each other.

Puerto Rican saxophonist and composer Gabriel Mininberg uses world rhythms and film-inspired harmonies to create at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and multimedia performance.

Recent work includes “Carta de Amor,” a multimedia piece for mixed chamber ensemble and reverberant water tank, performed and recorded by the Playground Ensemble at the TANK Center for Sonic Arts in Rangely, Colorado. The performance features sound-interactive projections by new media artist LUCIA. Previous work includes “Double Quartet,” an album-length composition featuring string quartet and chord less jazz quartet, recorded in Los Angeles and premiered at the Yale Planetarium under animated dome graphics.

Gabriel is a 2025 Creative Capital finalist and has been awarded artist residencies at the Jentel Foundation, Tongue River, and the Creative Center of Stodvarfjordur. He has been invited to speak at the Aspen Composers' Conference and was awarded the Lewis P. Curtis and the Charles H. Siegel fellowships for his original field research on Sinhalese popular dance music in Sri Lanka. Gabriel has served as a Teaching Artist at the Yale School of Music and as an invited scholar at the Centre for the Study of Sri Lankan Performing Arts at the City University of New York.

Gabriel has toured the United States with his contemporary jazz quintet, DARUMA. They were awarded the 2024 South Arts Jazz Road touring grant, have been featured on TV, radio, and podcasts, are signed with Monk Music, and will tour Europe in summer 2025.

LUCIA is a Denver-based artist whose immersive, site-specific installations transform spaces through the interplay of light, technology, and the natural world. Using projection as a primary medium, her work explores themes of perception, transformation, and the subtle forces that shape our experience of reality.

Deeply influenced by her perspective as a woman and a fascination with organic patterns and phenomena, LUCIA creates works that invite audiences to engage with light and space in meaningful ways. Her practice often integrates sound and interactive elements, creating dynamic environments that evolve in real-time.

Her installations have been featured in museums, on historic buildings, and as public art projects, reflecting her commitment to creating transformative experiences in a variety of spaces. Through her work, she seeks to inspire curiosity, connection, and a profound sense of wonder.

Nathan Hall is a composer and artist who explores site-specificity, nature and climate (particularly about ideas and culture of the North), sexuality, and personal identity. He has been called a “seriously talented composer” (Denver Post) and “a try-anything aural dreamer” (Westword) whose works often come out as intriguing, fearless, and courageous. He aims to create intimacy between performer, place, and audience, and often creates moments of transformation from simple stories and common materials: magic out of the everyday.

His works have been performed and exhibited in 16 countries and 24 US States by institutions and ensembles including MCA Denver, Clyfford Still Museum, Mattress Factory Museum, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, eight GALA Choruses, Playground Ensemble, International Orange Chorale, a convention of roller coaster enthusiasts, and several adult film stars. Nathan Hall is a former Fulbright Fellow to Iceland, a McKnight Visiting Composer, and he holds his Doctorate in Musical Arts (DMA) from CU Boulder. He holds a BA from Vassar College and MM from Carnegie Mellon. Nathan has been awarded numerous grants including projects with FEMA and a New Music USA grant, and has been the Artist in Residence at two US National Parks, Bunnell Street Arts (Alaska), La Napoule (France), Skaftfell (Iceland), and VICC (Sweden), among others.

The Playground Ensemble, in Residence at Metro State University of Denver, is a group of professional musicians, daring composers, and innovative educators dedicated to presenting chamber music as a living art form.

Collaboration is at the heart of the Playground’s artistic vision. We commission new works by living composers, work with dancers, poets, spoken word artists, visual and multimedia artists. We support national touring acts and touring improvisors, all as part of our mission of championing new and cutting edge creativity.

In addition to our, we have exciting music creation outreach programs like our innovative Young Composers Playground, Found Sound Instrument Builders, and Soundpainting. We hope to inspire our audiences to not only listen, but to create!

The Playground has performed at many notable venues and festivals. Our efforts have been recognized and supported by numerous regional and national organizations. We have performed with, or worked directly with a diverse cast of new music luminaries including Eyvind Kang, Morten Lauridsen, So Percussion, Evan Ziporyn, Roomful of Teeth, Caroline Shaw, Jace Clayton (DJ /rupture) and Tatsuya Nakatani.

Prison Art Experience showcases the works of talented incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists from around Colorado. Our artists have faced immense challenges, but have used their experiences as a source of inspiration to create powerful, thought-provoking pieces that showcase the resilience of the human spirit. Each artist has a unique story to tell, and we are honored to provide a platform for them to share their work with the world. From paintings and drawings to murals and mixed media pieces, our artists use a variety of mediums to express themselves and tell their stories.

We believe that art is a powerful tool for healing and self-expression, and we are dedicated to supporting our artists and helping them earn equitable income through their craft. When you purchase a piece from one of our artists, you are not only acquiring a beautiful work of art, but you are also supporting a meaningful cause and helping to promote positive change within the criminal justice system.

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Community Resonances with The Playground Ensemble