January 22, 2026

7pm

West Hall 326

Prize-winning composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Dunston brings his multiple musical talents to RPI on January 22 with a presentation on “Radical Imagination,” drawing on his prolific body of work spanning jazz, electro-acoustics, and sound art. Dunston views improvisation not merely as a skill, but as a practice that fundamentally shapes the artists who engage in it. The talk takes place at 7pm, Thursday January 22, at Room 326 in West Hall. Dunston will also be working with the students in the Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble, preparing for an April 9 concert at EMPAC. 

Dunston is the winner of the Deutsche Jazz Prize in 2025 (Composer/Bassist) for his contributions to contemporary jazz, and has also received commissions from esteemed groups such as Bang on a Can, Wet Ink Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Gaudeamus Festival. As a collaborative musician he is featured on numerous recordings including Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Dave Douglas, and Ches Smith. In one of his current projects, "banjer" (for banjo and feedback, 2024) Dunston reimagines the historically Afro-diasporic instrument by resonating it with live sound via audio transducers, and then using tools and techniques such as feedback, live sampling, and the human voice as a means of reclaiming, reembodying, and reimagining future lineages of this instrument.