MIT CAST welcomes Czech avant-garde violinist, singer, and composer Iva Bittová in 2022 for a Distinguished Visiting Artist residency exploring themes of space, nature, and survival through monthly visits to collaborate with MIT student ensembles and faculty, as well as visits to classes.
During her visits to the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, world music classes, and in participatory workshops, Bittová shares her own original compositions, teaches improvisation with voice and movement, and conducts conversations on local and trans-local music, linking Slovak and Moravian traditional song to jazz, rock, and contemporary concert music.
Save the date for Bittová’s MIT concert on February 25, 2022 featuring collaborations with students and guest artists, Bittová’s own compositions, improvisations, and through-composed chamber music.
Bittová is “a forward thinking composer who sings and plays violin simultaneously… Her sound is
,invigorating, urgent, and also soothing; it is a fusion of Old World and new-music sensibilities, infused with the spirit and language of Czech, Slovak, and Moravian music.”
– New York Magazine
Bittová’s appointment as the 2022 CAST Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist builds on her relationship with MIT
, having performed with MIT faculty and students on numerous occasions dating back to the CAST Marathon Concert in 2013.
In 2019, Bittová performed the US premiere of her album Zvon with the MIT Symphony Orchestra (MITSO)
and guests Keala Kaumeheiwa, bass; Phil Sargent, guitar; Austin McMahon, drums; and Venkatesh Sivaraman, piano. Evan Ziporyn, faculty director of CAST and professor of Music and Theater Arts, conducted the opening concert of MITSO’s season, which is part of the 2019–20 MIT Sounding series, an annual concert series curated by Ziporyn and presented by the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) and MIT Music and Theater Arts.
In April 2016, as part of EVIYAN (a trio with Gyan Riley and Evan Ziporyn), Bittová presented “Exploring Improsition—the melding of improvisation and composition.” They were joined in MIT’s Kresge Auditorium by the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, led by Frederick Harris, Jr., Music Director, members of the MIT Vocal Jazz Ensemble and special guest Ricky Richardson ’12. Included were world premieres of arrangements of EVIYAN compositions by Jamshied Sharifi ’83 and arrangements by Richard Oates ’18 and Garrett Parrish ’17 of compositions by Kurt Rosenwinkle and Leslie Bricusse. Additional music by Thad Jones, Bob Mintzer
, Cole Porter, and Hermeto Pascoal (in honor of his 80th birthday) was performed.
More informations here.