Decoda makes its Penn State debut with special guests Ringdown, the cinematic electro-pop duo featuring composers and vocalists Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan—an “ecstatically blissful” (Night After Night) and “irresistible” (Feast of Music) pair creating music that floats up from the dusty record bin between Brahms and Brandi Carlisle, and centers around joy, human connection, and trying to inspire people to feel more love.

The program, Reverberations, explores the profound relationship between inspiration and imagination, revealing an interconnected web of musical influence. Two works by Aaron Copland—Midday Thoughts and the beloved Appalachian Spring—showcase his singular approach to American musical identity, borrowing, distorting, amplifying, and reinventing folk material. Appalachian Spring will feature a special side-by-side collaboration with Penn State School of Music students.

Ringdown’s new work, Every Stone in Cambridge Reminds Me of You, reflects Copland’s musical lens and his friendship with Leonard Bernstein through a bold contemporary voice, and was written for and will be performed with Decoda. Ringdown will also perform selections from their latest album, The Lady on the Bike. The program further features Hanns Eisler’s kaleidoscopic Septet No. 1, merging Expressionist textures with fragments of American children’s songs, and Eisler on the Go—a brooding folk ballad by Woody Guthrie and Billy Bragg, arranged by Decodan Claire Bryant, chronicling Eisler’s exile during America’s Red Scare.

Public Performance:
Tuesday, March 31, 2026; 7:30 PM
Center for the Performing Arts
The Pennsylvania State University
Eisenhower Auditorium
367 Shortlidge Road
University Park, PA 16802-2108