UNSETTLEMENT SESSION 2026
AT AVALOCH FARM MUSIC INSTITUTE
FOR COMPOSER-CREATORS OF NEW MUSIC
• YOUR ENSHITTIFICATION ANTIDOTE •
COMMUNITY OUTSIDE THE ALGORITHM
WHAT IS IT?
The first ever Unsettlement Session will take place August 2-10, 2026.
This 8-day residency on Avaloch’s gorgeous New Hampshire campus is run by Unsettlement Music¹ and 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.
It’s an opportunity to meet new collaborators and develop the resources to build a dynamic community² for your music.
WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU CARE ABOUT?
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; a composer in search of the perfect band.
We want to bring together curious and confrontational artists, built around the following themes:
How can we consciously, ethically, meaningfully collaborate with other artists?
How can our music invite and provoke fluidity and hybridity³?
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.)
How can we build work that acts contrary to a corporate agenda?
How does our music reflect or interact with history?
How do we maintain the integrity of our individual perspectives, and resist the urge to synthesize our differences into one common (or simply more marketable) dialogue?
How can we work with established institutions while still making original, challenging and uncompromising music?
WHY NOW?
Let’s ask of the art we make: Why are we engaging these ideas at this moment, and why is it important? This conversation is not about what makes something “good” or “bad” but: why was it made, who did it come from and who does it seem to be speaking to? What’s at stake? Does having stakes feel corny to you? Why?
We invite risk into the process. What does it mean to cultivate risk? No matter the shape or scale of a given project, we want to maintain the possibility that it won’t be perfect, it won’t “work” the way we thought, or that we don’t fully know what we’re doing before we do it. It’s also about remaining open to all criticism and discussion that may be sparked by the artwork.
WHAT IT FEELS LIKE WHEN YOU’RE THERE
A cheerfully jam-packed schedule includes:
rehearsals, critique, performances, discussions
one-on-one sessions with the Resident Ensemble members on the subject of your music.
A culminating show featuring work by everyone in the cohort.
An environment suited to your collaborative work:
Participants will be invited to form small ensembles and write and create for each other.
The development of personal projects is encouraged, and individual and small group ensemble space is also available.
The Avaloch campus includes:
24-hour access to individual and group rehearsal studios
seven grand pianos on the campus and
many rehearsal studios, including several free-standing studios
nine individual practice rooms
microphones, speakers and other electronic equipment.
Living environment:
An on-site chef makes three meals a day for the group, served in a spacious dining hall.
Snacks and beverages are available around the clock.
Each resident gets a private bedroom, recently renovated and sound-proofed to make them suitable for private practice/music-making.
Each residential suite has a fridge for personal use.
Most living areas are set up in two-person suites with bathroom facilities within each suite.
WHO ARE WE?
Our Resident Ensemble is full of experienced musicians, along with artists from different disciplines, who are drawn to making new and challenging work.⁴ Generative artists who not only think deeply about their practice but who have seen many projects all the way through.
TED HEARNE (residency 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 Guitar Quartet, Bang on a Can All-Stars), guitar/bandleader
ELIZA BAGG (Lisel, Roomful of Teeth), composer/vocalist
RON WILTROUT (Unsettlement Music, Slow Runner), drums and percussion/writing for hybrid ensembles
ROHAN CHANDER (aka BAKUDI SCREAM), composer/electronics/performance artist
CHANA PORTER, librettist, author and theater artist
NIA EASLEY, visual artist/educator
The rest of the cohort
We are looking for 20-30 creators of music to join the cohort.
[bios and more information on Resident Ensemble here]
WHAT WILL YOU WALK AWAY WITH WHEN IT’S OVER?
Our goal is that 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, and ongoing access to this growing network of artists from different disciplines and approaches
Mentorship from working artists doing experimental work around the world
APPLICATION DETAILS
Tuition is $2400. Need-based scholarships and payment plans are available.
All accommodations and meals are included, along with technologically-equipped performance and rehearsal spaces. For the application process, we ask you to send us some of your music and tell us about your goals for your work. Members of the resident ensemble will review your submission and send you back some questions to better understand your artistic and musical practice.
FOOTNOTES
¹ What is Unsettlement Music? Unsettlement is a collective, music production enterprise and independent music hub. First born to publish the music and theater works of composer and bandleader Ted Hearne, Unsettlement has expanded to build and house the production of these works and support collaboration among artists of different disciplines, and is in the process of expanding to offer topical courses, materials, and other resources for independent artists.
² What do you mean by “develop the resources to build a dynamic community for your work”? Too often we are pushed to make art that conforms to the limitations of corporate platforms. “Audience engagement” becomes a game of juking an algorithm to increase visibility, and altering/distorting/destroying your aesthetic vision in order to conform to whatever Meta or Spotify tells you will sell. But we know that our art has a power that relies on human communication. We want to build and sustain an audience that interacts human-to-human with our music — not merely consuming the work, but giving back, responding, and inspiring more.
³ What do you mean by ‘hybridity’ and ‘fluidity’ and why do you think these things are important? The hybrid is the conversation, the multiplicity: the difference of influences or voices, traditions or forms, their various combinations and dialogues. To value hybridity is to embrace the power of the recombinant but to take care to protect the origin of each part from being subsumed.
Fluidity is the flow: the way music moves among its disparate elements. To value fluidity is to play with difference and proportion in an experimental and musical way; to be weary of sameness and reject the myth of the perfect, and to hold “clarity” to a higher standard.
⁴ What do you mean when you say the Unsettlement resident ensemble is drawn to making “new and challenging work”? New not only because it hasn’t existed before, but because there may not be a place or platform for it yet. Challenging not only because it pushes you to learn something new, but because it may push you toward change or uncomfortable growth.
These are artists who want to challenge themselves, their audiences and their collaborators — to push past a fear of failure and make things they’ve never made before, to question their past assumptions, and to follow their creative impulses into the unknown.
