Central to Wooden Cities' mission is a desire to introduce audiences and students to contemporary musical aesthetics and performance practice. Programs are designed in an attempt to welcome audiences to new musical experiences and ways of listening. The ensemble is also devoted to working with young musicians in various modes of creating, performing, and thinking about music. Through a variety of programs and workshops, Wooden Cities engages students in absorbing discussions and unique musical exercises that provide experiential knowledge of contemporary music. Topics have included improvisation, non-standard notation, semi-improvised game pieces, and composition.
The ensemble has held residencies at Buffalo State College (2017) and Jamestown Community College (2019), both of which featured multiple student workshops on the performance of electroacoustic music. They have led student composer workshops at the University of Buffalo (2012-13) and Butler University (2014). In 2014, Wooden Cities partnered with the University at Buffalo Music Library to present reconstructed works of Lejaren Hiller, Allen Sapp, and other Buffalo-related composers as part of the Inaugural Muriel Wolf and Albert Steger Endowment Concert.
Working with younger musicians, Wooden Cities has been in residency with the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County (Philadelphia, 2017) and Greece Olympia High School (Rochester, 2016), leading workshops on improvisation and game pieces. The ensemble has also held graphic music residencies at the WNY Book Arts Center, the UB Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic, and at a variety of Buffalo-area schools and community programs.
In 2016, Wooden Cities received a Decentralization (DEC) Grant awarded by Arts Services Initiative of WNY and the New York State Council on the Arts for a collaborative graphic music workshop at Starlight Studio & Art Gallery, a vibrant art studio located in downtown Buffalo that supports adults with disabilities in their artistic development and expression.
Wooden Cities partners with Young Audiences of Western New York and the University Heights Arts Association.
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