Paving the Way: Concert Curation
“Paving the Way” is an interdisciplinary concert curation series designed to magnify underrepresented composers and musicians and provide a platform for current and continued exploration, research, and performance into their life and work.
What is Paving the Way?
The vision of Paving the Way is to "bring to life" music through discovery and exploration; providing an educational, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approach to concert curation in order to inspire a deeper appreciation of music with performers, collaborators, and audiences.
Paving the Way is an open-ended project, where each iteration is unique and catered specifically towards its goal. By working with a range of musical and non-musical fields to build a series, each area brings their own voice and strengths to make the series succeed.
Why Paving the Way?
The result of Paving the Way is building a more educated base of performers and community members; going beyond a DEI statement and following through to elevate, and strengthen platforms for marginalized communities.
These interactive collaborations allow performers, audiences, and community members to engage with historical, theoretical, and cultural, aspects of musical genres and specific composers. When putting together a Paving the Way project, Hardwick will help lead an orchestra to collaborate and build tangential conversations with areas such as film, visual arts, musicology, race and gender studies, and Western and non-Western history.
We Play Together: Music & Gaming
3-day Interdisciplinary Residency
April 15-19, 2025
The Intersection of Curiosity, Innovation, Creativity, and Exploration
Part 1: Masterclass
Video Game Music Composition Masterclass with Inon Zur
Thursday, April 17, 1:30pm – 3:30pm, Brendle Recital Hall
Part 2: Community Engagement
Open Dress Rehearsal with Winston-Salem Forsyth County High School Students
Thursday, April 17, 4:30 – 6:30pm, Brendle Recital Hall
Part 3: Speaker Forum & Career Conversations
Interdisciplinary Innovation: Merging Music, Gaming, and Business in Exploration
Speaker Forum with Guest Speaker Dan Tani, astronaut
and panelists Pete Hines, Inon Zur and Symphony Orchestra Director J. Aaron Hardwick; Moderated by Roscoe Bell
Friday, April 18, 11am-12:30pm, Broyhill Auditorium – School of Business
Exploring Possibilities: A Career Conversation with Dan Tani
Friday, April 18, 3pm – 4:15pm, Olin 101
Open to students, faculty, & staff of the WFU Departments of Engineering, Mathematics, Physics
Part 4: Concert Performance
Concert (music from Starfield and Fallout) with Guest Artist, Inon Zur
Friday, April 18, 7:30pm, Brendle Recital Hall
Reception in lobby to follow
Part 5: Gaming Event & Tournament
Esports LAN Event sponsored by WFU Esports Association
Saturday, April 19, 10am – 2pm, Benson Student Center
Special Guests
Inon Zur
EMMY award-winner and three-time BAFTA-nominated composer Inon Zur is recognized as one of the most innovative and successful composers in the media industry today, internationally renowned for his emotionally dynamic original music scores for popular video game franchises including STARFIELD, FALLOUT, DRAGON AGE, PRINCE OF PERSIA, SYBERIA and THE ELDER SCROLLS.
Dan Tani
Daniel (Dan) Tani is an American engineer and retired NASA astronaut. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he was selected by NASA in 1996. Tani flew on STS-108 in 2001 and served as a flight engineer for Expedition 16 in 2007, totaling 132 days in space. After retiring from the astronaut program in 2012, he has been a high school teacher in Japan, a Director at a non-profit Foundation in New York, and now works for an aerospace contractor.
Pete Hines
Pete Hines is a developer who previously served as senior vice president of global marketing & communications, as well as the head of publishing, at Bethesda Softworks. He was in charge of public relations and marketing of games published by Bethesda, and was credited on including Fallout, Skyrim, Starfield, and DOOM.
Interested in having a Paving the Way performance for your own ensemble?
Aaron is available to collaborate with your team to build both long and short-term Paving the Way series that will engage performers, staff, and audience members.
Past Paving the Way projects
Click on the headings or pictures to learn about the specific project
