Alumna Ashley Tata ‘12 Directs Production at Bard Music Festival and More

By
Robbie Armstrong
September 21, 2020

Alumna Ashley Tata ’12 directs Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music, Program One as a part of the Bard Music Festival. This live streamed performance features The Orchestra Now, conducted by Leon Botstein and James Bagwell. This concert features a collection of masterpieces including: Out of the Silence and Seven Traceries by William Grant Still, Lyric for Strings by George Walker, and String Symphony No. 8 in D Major by Felix Mendelssohn. 

Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music, Program One features the musical compositions of two prominent African-American artists. The concert opens with two works by William Grant Still, the first African-American to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra in the United States. The concert continues with George Walker’s masterpiece. Walker is the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music and was named “One of the greatest composers of our time” by Fanfare magazine. 

Tata makes multimedia works of theater, contemporary opera, cyberformance, and immersive experiences. Her productions have been presented at Theater for a New AudienceLA OperaAustin OperaNational SawdustCrossing the Line FestivalHolland FestivalPrelude FestivalNational Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Fisher Center at Bard. 

Tata has continued to make art during the pandemic, directing a Zoom-accessed virtual nightclub and dance party called The Boot with Beth Morrison Projects, and a music video for rock band Sylvan Esso, which aired on Stephen Colbert’s YouTube channel. She also works in the realm of immersive entertainment, escape rooms and advertising and was the Creative Director of Immersive Escape Productions where she devised environmental, multi-platform, immersive escape rooms, created an experience for musician St. Vincent tailored for the drop of her album, Masseduction and led the team that was awarded a gold medal in Medical, Marketing & Media awards in 2018 for an immersive escape experience tailored for the release of a cholesterol-reducing drug for Amgen. 

Tata recently directed a live cyberformance of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest, which transferred from Bard College’s Fisher Center to Theater for a New Audience. In Ben Brantley’s New York Times review of the production, Brantley praised the cyber performance, calling it “fervently inventive.” 

Out of the Silence: A Celebration of Music, Program One can be viewed at the Fisher Center website and is available at no cost to viewers.