New Sound Lab

New Sound Lab (NSL) is a free community music ensemble for high school students who want to explore improvisation and composition in an exciting, collaborative, and supportive environment. This is your chance to experiment with music in ways you won’t find in a traditional classroom—from completely reimagining your favorite songs to composing graphic scores to collective improvisation.

Why join?

• Explore musical ideas, compose new pieces, improvise freely, try new approaches to your instrument, and take creative risks in a supportive environment.

• Collaborate with guest artist and world-renowned composer and cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, who has been commissioned to compose new material specifically for NSL and will visit Oberlin to work with the group.

• Perform original compositions and arrangements in a concert for family and friends after working together for eight weeks.

• Meet like-minded musicians in the Northeast Ohio area and build skills in communication, teamwork, and musical problem-solving.

My name is George Rogers, and I’ll be facilitating the New Sound Lab. I’m a fourth-year student at Oberlin Conservatory studying jazz saxophone, arts administration, and community engagement. I’ve performed original compositions, jazz, contemporary classical, and improvised music across the United States, including San Francisco, Southern California, New York City, and Northeast Ohio. I’m also passionate about teaching and community engagement. At Oberlin, I’ve worked with El Centro, a non-profit organization in Lorain, OH, to facilitate communal music-making using the Javanese gamelan, and I’ve led a program at the Allen Memorial Art Museum where fourth grade students created graphic scores and then heard their music performed and improvised by Conservatory musicians in a public celebration.

I am so excited to work with the New Sound Lab to create an uplifting and inspiring environment. The focus isn’t on perfection or showing off—it’s about genuine expression, having fun, and making music together. Each rehearsal is an opportunity to co-create something special and entirely new, and by the end of the semester, this group will even be the first to perform brand-new pieces written just for them.

Program details:

• Saturdays, 2pm to 3pm

  • January 24, 31; February 7, 14, 21, 28; March 7, 14 (final class and performance, with a catered reception to follow)

• This free program is open to high school string, wind, and keyboard students in Northeast Ohio.

Students will leave the New Sound Lab with experience in improvisation and composition, confidence to explore new ideas, and memories of creating music collaboratively in a unique, welcoming ensemble.

Registration for New Sound Lab 2026 HERE or paste this link into the address bar: https://forms.gle/KGyM9xyT498irRjt5