News Stories

Midnight Waves, a band formed by RIT students last semester, were named overall winners of Friday’s Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase with its Latin/jazz combo performance of “The Tiger of San Pedro.”

The NFL and the National Association of the Deaf announce that Deaf musician Sean Forbes ’08 (applied arts and sciences) will sign the Halftime Show with Deaf musician Warren “Wawa” Snipe.

The RIT Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Professor Michael Ruhling, is offering a series of four free performances Wednesday afternoons this semester, exploring the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.

RIT students are already benefitting from a new partnership with Garth Fagan Dance. RIT Performing Arts Scholars Program students are taking master classes and students are working on a semester-long arts management capstone project to deliver suggestions for the internationally known dance company to potentially implement.

Cecilia Alm, an associate professor in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, was awarded nearly $2 million by the National Science Foundation to lead a team of RIT faculty addressing a lack of diversity in the artificial intelligence research community and gaps in AI curricula.

With thousands of RIT students involved in performing arts expected in the next few years, plans are moving forward for a performing arts complex that will feature a 750-seat theater and eventually a 1,500-seat orchestra hall for larger audiences.

The largest construction project on the RIT campus in more than 50 years remains on track to open in fall 2023. When complete, the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) will cover more than 120,000 square feet of new construction as well as more than 83,000 square feet of renovations in two existing buildings.

Gap Year Entrepreneurship Fellowships allow students to take time off from classes to focus on their growing business, new product, or compelling social innovation opportunity. In addition to the finances, RIT supports the students with mentoring and progress toward a degree.

RIT is well on its way to developing the leading performing arts program in the nation for non-majors, attracting talented and creative students who can continue their passions for music, dance, theater, and other performing arts.  

When we drafted a new vision statement for RIT’s Strategic Plan in 2018, the realities of a global pandemic were only a hypothetical part of our crisis training and preparation. While the university continues to carefully navigate the challenge of COVID-19, we have simultaneously never taken our eye off the plan’s goals and objectives as we envision our future.

WROC-TV talks to Thomas Warfield, senior lecturer and director of dance in NTID's Department for Performing Arts.

RIT students will have a chance to show their talents and compete for cash prizes during Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase, from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 4 in the Robert F. Panara Theatre in Lyndon Baines Hall. It is one of several events for this year’s 10-day FreezeFest festival.