CCM Piano students form interdisciplinary art collective

Music X Habitat X Art combines classical piano music with art film

Two UC College-Conservatory of Music doctoral piano students recently started Music X Habitat X Art, an organization that combines classical music with immersive visual art, both in physical installations and in the digital space. Yaoyue Huang and Scott Sherman, alongside Chinese visual artist Amelie Jiang, just enjoyed their organization’s first solo exhibition.

Yaoyue Huang and Scott Sherman

Yaoyue Huang and Scott Sherman.

The exhibition took place from May 2-6 at Huacheng Square in Guangzhou, China and consisted of 10 screens across the square that showed the group’s most recent art film. The music for the film is Sherman’s performance of William Bolcom’s Piano Étude No. 12, “Hymne à l’amour,” which was played throughout the square. Watch the art film on Music X Habitat X Art's YouTube channel.

The collaboration began two years ago and evolved into a means of sharing interdisciplinary performances during the COVID-19 pandemic. It strives to push audiences beyond their preconceived notions of classical music performance and to experience the ways a musical experience changes when tied to a visual performance. In addition to lending their musical skills to the project, Huang and Sherman also contribute visual art and editing, including photographic manipulation and animations.

The current series from Music X Habitat X Art is called “The Ascent of Movement Series, MUSIC—ART—WORKS.” The video exhibited in China, titled The Horizonless River, 7’25” is the fourth video of the series. It seeks to represent a never-ending circle of movement, always pushing forward, but never ending and never beginning.

Music X Habitat X Art has plans for more solo exhibitions later this year and is already working on its newest video, which will include Huang’s recordings of Julia Wolfe’s Earring and Unsuk Chin’s Piano Étude No. 6, “Grains.”


Headshot of Alexandra Doyle

Alexandra Doyle

CCM Graduate Assistant , Marketing + Communications

Alexandra Doyle is a doctoral candidate studying clarinet performance at CCM. Alexandra’s master’s degree is also from CCM, and she holds bachelor’s degrees in clarinet performance and journalism from the University of Houston.

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