News
Erica Haskell

Five months before the first audience is expected in RIT’s new Music Performance Theater, a string quartet from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and students from the RIT Philharmonic Orchestra were the first to take the stage to help conduct acoustic testing.

With more than 3,000 students participating in the performing arts at RIT, including a record 601 new Performing Arts Scholars and more than 50 performing arts-focused student clubs, it’s not hard to find instrumental, vocal, theatrical, and dance performances on and around campus throughout the year.

Rochester City Ballet is teaming up with RIT to present “Visionary,” a four-piece showcase of classical and contemporary movement, including a world premiere version of Boléro.

Students from RIT’s School of Performing Arts and NTID’s Department of Performing Arts brought home awards and honors from the annual Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). One of eight regional competitions draws students from theater programs nationwide, faculty, students, and interpreters traveled to Pittsburgh, for a chance to advance to the national competition in April. This is the eighth year in which RIT students have completed in a range of categories from acting to dramaturgy.

The 2024-2025 theatrical season will include thrillers, whimsical classical adaptations, a take on a popular Broadway show, and a reimagined look at The Nutcracker set in 1940s Harlem, among others.

The SHED, touted as the new heartbeat of campus, makes its Imagine RIT debut this year. This multi-use facility embodies RIT's blend of technology, the arts, and design, offering a vibrant hub for creativity, interdisciplinary learning, and innovative performances year-round.

RIT's second annual Unlabeled Music Festival, part of SpringFest 2024, will showcase over 40 student acts across four stages in the innovative SHED building on April 20. From rock bands to a cappella and electronic music, the festival highlights the growing interest and talent in performing arts at RIT.

Sandeep Das, a Grammy-winning musician and internationally known master of the Indian tabla, will work with students and give a concert at Rochester Institute of Technology during a four-day artist-in-residency.

With its five extra-large classrooms, seven makerspaces, performing arts studios, and glass box theater, the $120 million SHED complex is made for a new generation of RIT students who see themselves as makers and doers, performers, and active learners.

The inaugural production in the newest building on the RIT campus, AstroDance II: Across the Universe, premiered Dec. 1 to 3 and featured a variety of dance, aerial and circus arts, and augmented reality. 

In order to accommodate a surge in students engaged in performing arts, an official groundbreaking was held today for RIT’s new music performance theater, the first major theater project in the Rochester area in decades. The three-story, 40,000-square-foot building will consist of a 750-seat theater primarily to be used for musical theater productions.

Nearly one in six of the more than 3,300 first-year and transfer undergraduates this year received a Performing Arts Scholarship from RIT. That brings the total number of scholars to more than 1,800 in the five years since the program began. The program encourages high school students involved in performing arts to continue their passions at RIT.