News
Erica Haskell

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.

The 2023-2024 theatrical season featuring a partnership between RIT’s School of Performing Arts and NTID's Department of Performing Arts will include a celebration of Deaf rap and hip hop, an adaptation of Hamlet, a multimedia dance production, and several immersive theatrical performances, among others.

Many of the RIT students who received the first Performing Arts Scholarships four years ago are preparing to take the stage one last time as they graduate this week.

Inside Higher Ed features RIT’s Performing Arts Scholarship program and talks to student Mia Clarizio, School of Performing Arts Director Erica Haskell, and RIT President David Munson.

Sandeep Das, a Grammy-winning musician and internationally known master of the Indian tabla, will perform at 7:30 p.m. April 14 at RIT. Das is the founder of Harmony and Universality through Music (HUM), a nonprofit organization in India that promotes global understanding through music performance and provides learning opportunities and scholarships for visually impaired children with artistic potential.

Retrograde, a classical rock band formed about a year and a half ago with five RIT students, won best performance and a $500 prize in this year’s Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase, held Friday night in Ingle Auditorium.