New Ear’s Spatial Listening program focuses on spatial sound works, where the distribution and localization of sounds is a primary compositional parameter and a central feature for the listener.

Itzá García (b.1993, México) is a composer with a creative focus on the relationship between time and togetherness in musical settings that involve interactions with technology. Her music has been performed by ensembles such as JACK Quartet, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Yarn/Wire, Talea Ensemble, Ensamble CEPROMUSIC, PinkNoise, and Mise-En Ensemble, among others. She has received prizes and distinctions such as the CONACYT Grant for Graduate Studies in Mexico 2018, the 2021 Early Provost’s Research Grant of the Graduate Center CUNY, the Atlantic Center for the Arts Residence program, the ICST Artist Residency from the Zurich University of the Arts, and the Art Science Connect Fellowship for co organizing the innovation:sound:technology series. Itzá is currently based in New York City, pursuing a Ph.D. degree in composition at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Sylvain Souklaye is a French Caribbean, Brooklyn-based live artist, sonic maker, and author whose work transcends identity, exploring broken bodies, environmental crises, and political retribution. His art stems from his background in DIY social justice, blending the rebellious heritage of Lyon’s Canut revolts with the freedom movement of Neg marron from Martinique.
Sylvain Souklaye’s notable works include live performances such as Depopulated, presented at Judson Church in New York and the Momentary in Arkansas, and UNDERMY-YOUR-OURSKIN, performed at the ChaShaMa Gala, Grace Exhibition Space in New York, and the Ancien Musée de Bruxelles-Nord in Brussels. His video performance Black Breathing has been screened at the Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz gallery in Berlin, the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Korea, and the 9th Days of Contemporary Art International Festival in Moscow. Souklaye’s sonic installations include Liquid Soul, presented at Helsinki Central Library Oodi in Finland, and Soliloquy in Motion, which was shortlisted for the 26th Phonurgia Nova Awards and aired at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, as well as the Ars Electronica Forum Wallis in Switzerland.
Souklaye has been recognized as one of the top 100 Contemporary Artists in the Aesthetica Art Prize. His essay Living Liveness was published in Art As Social Practice: Technologies for Change (Routledge, 2022). He also serves as producer and co-host of Conversations From the Center, a global series on arts, transdisciplinary research, and social justice activism for the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research in Boston and Helsinki. Additionally, Souklaye is a commissioned artist for the 2022-2024 program of the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Jerome Foundation, and he is the recipient of the Prospect Art grant for his installation Be Happy or Die in Los Angeles.