The Indeterminacy Festival presents a preview of Into the Charmed Churned Circle on Saturday, May 31, 2025, from 7pm aboard the Lehigh Valley No. 79 barge known as the Waterfront Museum, located at 290 Conover St, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased online at: https://www.indeterminacyevents.com/event-details/into-the-charmed-churned-circle-1.
This multi-discipline, multi-generational, immersive performance piece is created by Stanzi Vaubel and commissioned by the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. Composed by Philippe Treuille and Stanzi Vaubel, the work draws inspiration from the architectural motifs of the Newhouse Center at Snug Harbor and Herman Melville’s epic seafaring story Moby Dick. Instrumental and vocal performers hail from a consortium of ensembles including Brooklyn Youth Chorus Bass Ensemble, Grace Chorale, Brooklyn Treble Choir, New York Choir Project, and Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra.
About the Waterfront Museum
The Waterfront Museum is housed aboard the 1914 Lehigh Valley No. 79 listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the last remaining wooden railroad barge afloat from “The Lighterage Era” (1860-1984). Its mission is to provide free and low-cost opportunities for education, exhibition, and the performance arts. Prior to today’s “Age of Containerization” (1956-present), Barge 79 transported up to 300 tons of bags, barrels and bundles of goods, hand-loaded by longshoremen, between ships docked in the islands of the Port of New York and the railroad terminals which lined the adjacent NJ mainland. Barges also have a lesser-known showboat history; they have operated in New York as floating theaters since 1845, bringing live entertainment to communities along New York’s shores. Rescued from the mudflats of Edgewater, NJ in 1985 by David Sharps (a former variety act entertainer with “Serious Foolishness”), Barge 79 made Red Hook its homeport in 1994. This year the Museum celebrates its 31st year of providing Red Hook with arts and education programs. For more information visit: www.waterfrontmuseum.org
About The Indeterminacy Festival (IF)
Founded in 2016 by Stanzi Vaubel, the festival creates site-specific, large-scale works inspired by unique environments such as grain silos, warehouses, fossil parks, and most recently, the historic porches of Nolan Park on Governors Island. Set in these unusual environments, the Indeterminacy Festival is committed to creating exceptional opportunities for lifelong artists.
Forthcoming, IF has received a commission from Snug Harbor, the former home for retired sailors. The world premiere of Into the Charmed Churned Circle will take place on June 14th, 2025, in the Newhouse Center, a historic landmark building whose design evokes the spirit of a 19th century square-rigged sailing vessel. This production brings together an intergenerational ensemble of musicians and dancers to perform the work.
The Festival is a recipient of a NYSCA award for 2025, Fulbright Fellowship, New York Foundation for Arts, with corporate sponsorship from Neuberger Berman Group. IF has been staged by invitation and support from McGill University, the University at Buffalo, the University at Malta, Alfred University, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Governors Island Trust, and the National Arts Club.
Stanzi Vaubel, PhD, as the founder and artistic director of the Indeterminacy Festival, Vaubel’s list of honors include a Fulbright Fellowship, NYSCA and NYFA awards, with invitations to perform at the Watermill Center, the Longhouse, Tanglewood Institute, WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, and Carnegie Hall. Her festivals have been staged around North America and Europe with support from New York, Iowa, Nebraska, and Michigan arts councils. As a radio producer Vaubel has created programs for the Whitney Museum, WNYC, BBC, and Chicago Public Radio. Vaubel is a graduate of the Juilliard Pre-College and Northwestern University. She is currently on faculty at the New York Arts Program.
Philippe Treuille attended The Juilliard School and Northwestern University. Treuille’s Requiem for choir and orchestra was premiered in 2015 by the SymphoNYChorus. His Missa de Aqua, a mass for Baptism, premiered in 2019 by the Long Island Choral Society and Orchestra. Treuille’s music has been performed nationally and internationally including the Rubin Museum, MoMA PS1, the French Consulate, Lincoln Center, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Château de Fontainebleau, the American Institute of Architects, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music and at the Tanglewood Institute. Philippe Treuille’s awards include a National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts Music Composition Merit Award. More of his work is available at www.philippetreuille.com