Ji Hye Jung, associate professor of percussion and director of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music percussion program, is among the featured performers at the 2026 Outside the Box New Music Festival by the SIU School of Music. (Photo provided)
March 19, 2026
SIU’s 2026 Outside the Box music festival starts March 24
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s 2026 Outside the Box New Music Festival will highlight six internationally known musicians along with the talents of nine featured performers from the SIU School of Music.
Now in its 19th season, the six-day festival begins Tuesday, March 24 and then resumes Tuesday, March 31 to Saturday, April 4, at various locations on campus, including Shryock Auditorium, the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall and Altgeld Hall. All of the master classes, workshops and concerts are free and open to the public. The complete festival schedule along with featured artist biographies are on the School of Music website.
The festival features composer and pianist Eric Moe, Andrew W. Mellon professor of music at the University of Pittsburg; Paul Hertz, independent artist, printmaker and curator; Andy Hudson, associate professor of clarinet at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music; Ji Hye Jung, associate professor of percussion and director of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music percussion program; Stephan Moore, professor, Northwestern University Sound Arts and Industries program; and W. Lee Vinson, an adjunct associate professor of percussion at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
The School of Music faculty featured are Christopher Butler (percussion), baritone David Dillard, Abbie Eads (conductor), Anthony Gray (piano), Yuko Kato (piano), Richard Kelley (saxophone), Jiyeon Lee (piano), Eric Mandat (clarinet), and Christopher Walczak (music theory and composition).
Walczak, the festival organizer, said the festival’s mission “is to bring world-class composers, performing musicians, artists, and technologists” so the region can experience the kinds of concerts and events typically found in larger metropolitan areas, along with introducing the guest artists to the Carbondale community.
Performances and workshops include:
The series opens at 7 p.m. March 24 featuring Andy Hudson. Earlier in the day, Hudson will give a clarinet master class at 10 a.m. in Altgeld Hall, room 119.
- Tuesday, March 31 — 7 p.m. Shryock Auditorium, featuring SIU Emerging Artists, an evening of new compositions by SIU student composers and digital sound artists.
- Wednesday, April 1 — 2 p.m. Altgeld Hall, room 106. Eric Moe will give a composition seminar and master class. Eric Mandat and the SIU Clarinet Studio will present contemporary music for clarinets at 7 p.m. in the Old Baptist Foundation Recital Hall.
- Thursday, April 2 — Noon, Altgeld Hall, room 112. Chicago-based sound designer Stephan Moore will give a presentation and master class. At 7 p.m. in Altgeld Hall, room 112, Moore and intermedia artist Paul Hertz will provide large-screen projection and sound along with technology-inspired music by Mandat and Walczak.
- Friday, April 3 — 5 p.m. in Altgeld Hall, room 110, the SIU Improvisation Unit, and Mandat, composer and clarinetist, will perform. At 7 p.m. in Shryock Auditorium, guest percussionists Ji Hye Jung and Lee Vinson will perform.
- Saturday, April 4 — 7 p.m. Shryock Auditorium. The Altgeld Chamber Players featuring Butler, Dillard, Gray, Kato and Mandat will perform music by guest composer Moe, one the featured guest composers, and festival creator Kathleen Ginther, who taught composition and music theory at SIU for 18 years before retiring. Kelley and Mandat will perform Kelley’s jazz inspired “Out of This World” for clarinet and alto saxophone.