Electroacoustic Exploration
What happens when you put a cellist and a modular rig on the same stage?
A monthly improvisation series at Heights Theater Studio B, where acoustic players and electronic musicians are grouped on the spot - no auditions, no prep. Just listening, and creating.
The Scene
Studio B is upstairs at Heights Theater - the former balcony of a 1919 movie palace, now part of a working scoring stage. Doors open at 5:30. By 6, small mixed groups are forming on stage: an acoustic player or two paired with someone running synths or a laptop. Most haven't played together before. Each group gets ten to twenty minutes. Then we reshuffle.
What it is
Electroacoustic Exploration is a recurring improvisation lab - a partnership between TERRA Songwriting, Cleveland Scoring, and Heights Theater. Players form rotating mixed groups on stage, acoustic and electronic, and explore sound together in short sessions.
There's no audience yet. No performance pressure. No genre. The point isn't to make a song - it's to listen, respond, and find out what the room sounds like when these particular humans are in it.
If TERRA's retreats are about the craft of building a song, this is the other lung: the breathing-out. Form-free. Product-free. Just musicians in a room.
How it goes
You arrive. Doors at 5:30, first round at 6:00.
The night unfolds in rotating mixed groups - mostly small ensembles paired in real time, mixing acoustic and electronic players who haven't worked together before. Each grouping plays for ten to twenty minutes, then we reshuffle.
Three hours, all in. By the end, you'll have played with people you'd never have met otherwise, and heard combinations of instruments and ideas you'd never have thought to put together.
No audition. No prep. No expectation that anything become a "piece." Just show up, play, and explore.
The Partnership
This series exists because of an unusual ecosystem.
Cleveland Scoring records film, TV, and video game scores out of Heights Theater - drawing on a century of Cleveland's orchestral tradition and the kind of room that can hold a hundred musicians comfortably. It's a serious facility built for serious work. (Joel Negus, Cleveland Scoring's CEO and Heights Theater's artistic director, has a thing about getting people in a room together to make magic. This is one of the ways that thing shows up.)
TERRA Songwriting has spent years building a community of songwriters across Cleveland and beyond - through retreats, online groups, concerts, and mentoring.
Electroacoustic Exploration is what happens when those worlds open the doors to each other. The scoring stage opens up to the songwriter community. The songwriters find themselves in a room built for cinematic-scale sound. Acoustic meets electronic. Trained meets self-taught. Curious meets curious.
Logistics
Where Heights Theater Studio B, 2781 Euclid Heights Blvd Cleveland Heights, OH 44106
When Monthly-ish. Check upcoming sessions below.
Cost Free. Donations welcome and put right back into keeping the series going.
For Players only for now - acoustic instrumentalists, vocalists, and electronic musicians of all levels. We may open up to listeners down the road.
What to bring
Your instrument (an upright piano lives at the studio along with various synths and effects and a drum set)
Electronic players: a plug-and-play setup; PA is provided, amps welcome
Curiosity. A willingness to listen first.
Parking Free along the streets
Accessibility Unfortunately, Studio B is accessible only by stairs.
Upcoming Sessions
Monday, May 18, 2026 — 6–9 PM • RSVP
More to be announced
Questions
Reach out anytime: info@terrasongwriting.com
Electroacoustic Exploration is one corner of TERRA Songwriting's work. We also host songwriting retreats and online songwriting groups for writers at every level.