Founded in 2021, ANTiCX is an artist collective of composers and makers. The group’s name is an acronym of the first letters of the first names of its members. They are (pictured clockwise from upper left):
Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant-folk vocalist who is assistant professor of composition and artistic director of Pendulum New Music at the University of Colorado Boulder
Nina Shekhar currently is pursuing her PhD in composition at Princeton University. She is a composer teaching artist fellow for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and is on faculty at Idyllwild Arts Academy and Brightwork newmusic‘s Project Beacon initiative.
Tanner Porter is a composer-performer and songwriter. She earned her BM in composition from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and an MM in composition from the Yale School of Music.
inti figgis-vizueta is a composer who maintains a private studio in New York City, with regular guest composition workshops and presentations of her practice at music programs around the country.
Carolina Heredia is a composer of acoustic and electronic music, intermedia producer, violinist, and educator. She currently is assistant professor of music composition at the University of Missouri, and the assistant director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative.
Xuan is a new media artist, filmmaker, and pianist working at the intersection of music, visual art, and technology. She currently teaches experimental filmmaking as an adjunct professor of humanities at Eastman School of Music and works as a freelance video artist.
ANTiCX will debut at the 2021 Mizzou International Composers Festival with “Entry Points of Empathy,” an online multimedia performance on Friday, July 30. The program will feature individual and collaborative works, including a live “sound sculpture,” with live performances by Mizzou faculty member Wesley Warnhoff (clarinet), Mizzou student Eve Werger (piano), and guest artists Leigh Muñoz (bassoon) and Ellen Sommer (piano).
It also will include a video art premiere by guest artist Katina Bitsicas, assistant professor in Mizzou’s School of Visual Studies, in collaboration with MU alumni Wilson Minshall.
The works to be performed are:
Nina Shekhar – “[redact]”
Tanner Porter – “Two movements for clarinet” (world premiere)
Carolina Heredia – “Tango Americano”
Xuan – “Interludes 1 and 2” (world premiere)
Annika Socolofsky – “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: the meantime”
inti figgis-vizueta – “a bridge between starshine and clay”
Katina Bitsicas and Wilson Minshall – “Eye Thorn Forrest” (world premiere)
ANTiCX – “Entry Points of Empathy” (world premiere)
The title work “Entry Points of Empathy” is “a piece for fixed media, live improvisation and sound sculpture that explores communication through both personal and technological lenses,” said Carolina Heredia. “The visuals draw from the sounds directly with some being generated in real-time and others interpreted through pre-made animations. Each composer’s sound is connected to a distinct visual aesthetic and then pieced together like a mosaic on the Olga 3D screens structure.”
You can hear samples of music composed by the members of ANTiCX at their individual websites, linked above, and in the embedded players below.
“Rise” by Annika Socolofsky, recorded in October 2018 at Princeton University by Jonathan Hulting-Cohen (alto sax) and Nicholas Shaneyfelt (piano) .
“if these walls” by Nina Shakhar, recorded in May 2021 by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble .
“Propellers in the Sun” by Tanner Porter, performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kenneth Kiesler.
“Openwork, knotted object”/”Trellis in bloom”/”lightning ache” by inti figgis-vizueta, recorded in June 2019 at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY by the National Sawdust Ensemble, featuring Allison Loggins-Hull (flute), Oran Etkin (clarinet), Sugar Vendil (piano), Ian Rosenbaum (percussion), Miranda Cuckson (violin), Jeffrey Zeigler (cello), and Charles Hagaman (technician), conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya.
“Ausencias” by Carolina Heredia, recorded in 2016 by JACK Quartet.
“Reactions” is an experimental animation created in 2016 by Xuan in collaboration with composer Tomek Arnold.