All UVA faculty, staff, and students are invited to enter the lottery for the event. Lottery Entry Deadline: Thursday, October 8 at 12pm • Notification of Winners: Friday, October 9 by 5pm.
Questions or concerns? Email Gracelyn Spates, Coordinator, Major Events.
Hosted by President Scott Beardsley and Claire Dufournet Beardsley in partnership with the UVA Arts team, under the leadership of Jody Kielbasa, Vice Provost for the Arts and Executive Director of the Virginia Film Festival.
Musicians:
Matthew Burtner’s music of Auksalaq composes interlocking environmental forces as eco-musical forms, expressing the profound changes in the ice of the Arctic Ocean. Scott Deal's visual media presents vivid imagery of Arctic land, sea, and sky, along with scientific data and animation. Auksalaq’s chief scientist was Hajo Eicken of the Arctic Snow and Ice Data Center in Alaska. The music maps scientific data through a method called sonification. The musical sonifications Windprints, Iceprints, and Cloudprints lock together into an ecosystem of music that supports songs and interviews with Alaskan cultural leaders and scientists about the Arctic. We hear directly from the scientists as we listen to the sonifications of their data. This performance will feature the Auksalaq songs: You Sink Into the Singing Snow, Vaporous Clouds Condense, and We Are as One Plane. The musicians also perform melting ice live, creating transformative eco-acoustic instrumental music.
Matthew Burtner is an Alaskan-born composer whose work explores embodiment, ecology, polytemporality and noise. He is Eleanor Shea Professor of Music, Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia where he also serves as Curatorial Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center Conservatory. In addition, he co-directs the Coastal Futures Conservatory in the UVA College of Arts and Sciences, and is Founder of the non-profit organization EcoSono.
Scott Deal (in memoriam) was the Co-Creator of Auksalaq, creating the visual media and producing the piece for its initial run of performances in 2012-2016. Deal passed away in 2026 and this performance is dedicated to his memory with love and respect for a wonderful collaborator. Deal’s calling in life was music, and he was a world-renowned percussionist, technologist, producer, and educator. His positivity and strength of character radiated throughout his performances and many collaborations. He performed the visual media live for Auksalaq, and we all miss him.
EcoSono Ensemble is the performing ensemble of the EcoSono Institute, a non-profit organization pursuing innovative sonic creation for ecological sustainability. The ensemble performs ecoacoustic music, a genre of environmental technology-enabled live music. The group gave its debut performance at the 2012 premiere of Auksalaq, the world’s first climate change and telematic opera, a piece National Geographic News Watch called “a significant cultural event that marries science as the brain, art as the heart and culture as the soul in our search for awareness and sustainability”. EcoSono Ensemble has performed in Alaska, New Mexico, Washington DC, Colorado, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, California, Australia, and Tasmania, and recorded for Parma Records on the albums “Soundscapes of Restoration” with the Coastal Conservatory, Burtner’s “Glacier Music,” and ”The Ceiling Floats Away” with Rita Dove.
Hosted by President Scott Beardsley and Claire Dufournet Beardsley in partnership with the UVA Arts team, under the leadership of Jody Kielbasa, Vice Provost for the Arts and Executive Director of the Virginia Film Festival. All UVA faculty, staff, and students are invited to enter the lottery. Lottery Entry Deadline: Thursday, October 8 at 12pm • Notification of Winners: Friday, October 9 by 5pm.
Carr's Hill is home to the President of the University of Virginia. Construction finished in 1909, during the first president's tenure. Every University president has lived in the home. The house was specifically designed to mimic the functionality of the Pavilions on the Lawn; the first floor is public-private space used by the President to host meetings and events with students, alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of the University, as well as visiting dignitaries from around the Commonwealth and across the globe. As in the Pavilions, the President lives on the upper floors of the house.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, Carr's Hill, designed by McKim, Mead & White, is an interesting study in architecture that reinterprets Jeffersonian classicism. The home sits on a rise bearing the same name, overlooking the University, and is nestled amongst beautiful gardens and historic outbuildings that pre-date the construction of the main house. The history of Carr's Hill and the buildings on it are long and full of many colorful stories.
American indie rock band Mt. Joy returned to the University of Virginia on Friday evening for its second “Arts on the Hill” appearance since April 2023. The band performed an intimate set at President Jim Ryan’s Carr’s Hill home, just one day before headlining a nearly sold-out show at John Paul Jones Arena.
Have an idea for an Arts on the Hill? Send us a quick email with your idea, a sample of the work or performance (if applicable), contact information, and links to more information! We may not be able to accommodate all ideas, but we LOVE to hear what y'all are wanting to see and experience.
