LCCME Spring 2025

The Lafayette College Contemporary Music Ensemble

Kirk O’Riordan, director

with special guests

Megan Flynn, dancer/choreographer
Nadia Ureña, dancer
Hannah Albin, dancer

Program

62.4 lbs/ft³
Like a Goddess
Daniel Ruggiero: composer/pianist

Notes from the Composer:

62.4 lbs/ft³ : Though I am very involved with the music program here at Lafayette, my major is in Civil Engineering. In the fall of my Junior year, I was required to take various civil engineering courses. One of these courses was fluid mechanics. The course professor, Dr. David Brandes, told us that he would give some extra credit on the exam if we did something artistic related to fluid mechanics.  My immediate thought was to use my passion for music. I came up with the idea of writing a piece about water, attempting to describe it through music. I had been learning the Sunken Cathedral by Claude Debussy at the time, which inspired me. Using the elements and the shimmering quality of the piece, I started to improvise my work. Then the name for the piece came to me, 62.4 lbs/ft3. Any civil engineer would know the number well. It is the unit weight of water. The simplest way to think about it is if you were to fill a square cube with sides equaling one foot and fill that cube with pure water, the unit weight would be 62.4 lbs. This is a number that came up excessively throughout fluid mechanics. Almost every problem in fluid mechanics requires it. In addition to this, it was also frequently used in Intro to Geotechnical Engineering. Eventually, the number was so ingrained in my consciousness that naming a piece about water 62.4 felt natural. This piece is the epitome of my journey here at Lafayette. It is a blend of my experience in engineering and music.

Like a Goddess: I’d like to leave the interpretation of this piece to you.

Ghosts in the Ruins
Rebecca Filiato, crystal glasses
Audrey Kurtz, violin

Mondrian
Emily Rice, clarinet
Matthew Olson, clarinet
David Broczkowski, clarinet
Pedro dos Santos, trombone

Soundscapes no. 1
Emily Kozero, flutes
Brian Morris, flutes

–Intermission–

Joplin

Brian Morris, flutes
Emily Kozero, flutes
Emily Rice, clarinet
Matthew Olson, clarinet
David Broczkowski, clarinets
Pedro dos Santos, trombone
Audrey Kurtz, violin
Rebecca Filiato, cello
Dan Ruggiero, piano

Megan Flynn, choreographer and dancer
Nadia Ureña, dancer
Hannah Albin, dancer

Drew Maciula, set and lighting design
Tim Frey, audio

Kirk O’Riordan, electronics and video

The 2011 Joplin, Missouri EF-5 tornado was one of the most violent storms in US History, with winds estimated at well over 200 mph. On May 20, 2011, the tornado killed 158 people and injured over 1100 others. Its mile-wide path of complete destruction cost well over $2 Billion: it debarked trees, pulled pavement off of streets, removed as much as a foot of topsoil from the ground in places, slabbed well-built houses, and moved part of the Joplin Hospital off of its foundation. About 25% of Joplin was utterly destroyed.

In the wake of this horrific storm, the best of humanity was evident. Neighbors and first responders frantically and heroically searching for survivors; surviving restaurants staying open to feed aid workers 24 hours a day; people from all over the country donating food, water, clothing, and money to support victims; and the members of a coming together to rebuild and remember.

As artists we are called to be both empathetic and sympathetic. The emotions we experience performing Brahms or Copland or Barber or Stravinsky are real to be sure, but also not always at the extreme ends of the human emotional range. That isn’t to say that we don’t have profound experiences performing this music, but there is a limitation…a kind of box that keeps us safely within the realms of those feelings with which we are comfortable.

LCCME’s mission this semester was to open that box. Developing this piece began with long discussions about what they wanted to say as artists. Guided improvisation exercises yielded ideas for the structure and clarity for the narrative. Only two of the movements are notated.

We are extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Megan, Nadia, and Hannah. They have given this project many great ideas and enthusiasm, and despite communicating over email and sharing rehearsal video, they have been a vital and important part of the development of this piece. We are also grateful to the Laros Foundation for supporting their residency.

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Please be advised that this piece will incorporate lightning effects and depict the experience of being in a violent tornado. This may be uncomfortable for some audience members. Please also take a moment to remember those who lost their lives, were injured, or lost all of their worldly possessions; and those who were on call to provide care, support, and resources.

Biographies         

Hannah Albin is a professional dancer, educator, and choreographer based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Choreography and Performance from the University of California, Irvine where she trained under Lar Lubovitch. During her undergraduate degree, they performed solo roles as a trainee with the José Limón Dance Foundation under Dante Pul

eio and Kathryn Alter. As a professional, they have performed with the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, collaborated in the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and with choreographers Lindsey Matheis and Joshua Manculich. As a choreographer, her work has been awarded for its depth in research and ability to challenge political climates. To create new work, Hannah is inspired by the intersection of dance, philosophy, and the human condition. Their goal is to challenge how dance is understood, perceived, and experienced by performers and audience members alike. Hannah is an active collaborator and performer with the Megan Flynn Dance Company, DM Dance Company, Wolf & Swan Dance Company, Trainor Dance, and critically acclaimed playwright Matty Mahoski.

Nadia Ureña is an active Philly based performer, choreographer, and researcher who aims to intersect dance studies with black feminism, media theory, existential philosophy, video games, and memes. As a performer, Nadia worked with professional artists such as Orion Duckstein, Charles Anderson, Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner, Xiang Xu, Megan Flynn Dance Company, and Teresa VanDenend Sorge. She has performed at The Cincinnati Fringe Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, 30/30/30 in N

YC, KYLD’s Inhale Series, the American Dancers Guild 2024, and Wax Works in NYC. As a scholar, Nadia is interested in questioning and reimagining how dance composition courses in higher ed could refocus into emphasizing a development of choreographic process instead of choreographic products. She served as a panelist at the 2023 NDEO Conference about teaching undergraduate students about labor rights. Nadia recently earned an MFA in Dance at Temple University. At Temple, she was a Graduate Fellow and recipient of the 2024 Katherine Dunham Award for Creative Dance Research. She received a B.A. in Dance and Media & Communications from Muhlenberg College and spent a semester abroad at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy.

Megan, Nadia, and Hannah are able to perform with us this evening because of the generous support of the Laros Foundation.