RISING: Voiceless Mass by Raven Chacon

RISING: Voiceless Mass by Raven Chacon

  • 30 May 2026
  • 05:00pm - 07:00pm
  • FREE
  • Melbourne City
  • St Paul's Cathedral, 200 Flinders Street, Narrm/Melbourne
event header image

RMIT University and RISING proudly present Raven Chacon's Pulitzer Prize-winning ensemble piece - a sonic reckoning with history, power and silenced voices.

Find a pew in St Paul's Cathedral and feel instrumental reverberations move through you.

Voiceless Mass won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022, by composer, performer and installation artist Raven Chacon, a Diné man born in Fort Defiance, Arizona within the Navajo Nation. Raven is the first ever Native American composer to win the prestigious prize. His Voiceless Mass reflects on the history and access to gathering spaces, the lands on which they sit, and the role of sites of colonial power play in suppressing Indigenous voices.

Composed for organ, flute, clarinet, percussion, strings and sine waves – with the organ holding centre presence – the music reverberates, responding to the architecture, and symbolically resonating within the history of the site. Silences linger, and layered timbres build to a reverberant din. A space to consider the futility of giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space isn't an option for those in power.

There will be a conversation between Raven Chacon and experimental music expert Dr Joel Stern before the performance too. It's a chance to hear about the context of the work and Raven's practice, which spans from Albuquerque's DIY punk and noise scenes to the world stage as a revered installation artist and composer.

Presented by RMIT University and RISING

Share

concentric-circles-reference-1220x732.jpg

The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place

Icon / Small / CalendarCreated with Sketch. 05 Jun 2026 - 29 Aug 2026

'The Concentric Influences of Sol LeWitt: Foundations, Pivots and Place' positions Australia at the centre of an ambitious global dialogue on conceptual art, influence and the circulation of ideas. Instigated and directed by Dr Irene Barberis, the project demonstrates how Australian scholarship and curatorial innovation can actively shape international discourse surrounding one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

venturous-ref-3-1220x732.jpg

VENTUROUS: Design Practice Research Futures in Architecture & Urban Design

Icon / Small / CalendarCreated with Sketch. 31 Jul 2026 - 19 Sep 2026

VENTUROUS brings together the projects and design explorations of innovative contemporary architects and designers associated with the RMIT University School of Architecture & Urban Design’s groundbreaking design practice PhD program, over the last decade.

how-to-draw-a-not-straight-line-1220x732.jpg

How to Draw a Not-Straight Line

Icon / Small / CalendarCreated with Sketch. 20 Aug 2026

Join Erica DiBenedetto, Curator, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconcin—Madison, USA, in a conversation around Sol LeWitt's concept of the 'not-straight-line'.

aboriginal flag float-starttorres strait flag float-start

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples