International electroacoustic composer and sound artist Ina Thomann

ESCANABA — International electroacoustic composer and sound artist Ina Thomann will appear at 2 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday in the Besse Theatre on the Bay College Escanaba Campus.

The performance and lecture are free and open to the public.

Thomann has emerged as a distinctive voice at the intersection of research, technology and immersive listening, according to a Bay College news release. Based in Graz, Austria and trained at the University of Art in Graz, Thomann’s practice is driven by a concept-first methodology that transforms questions into deeply experiential sonic works.

Combining self-programmed sound systems, field recordings and custom-built instruments, their compositions challenge conventional formats, unfolding across extended durations that blur the boundaries between concert and sound installation.

A recipient of Austria’s prestigious “Staatsstipendium fur Komposition” in 2025, Thomann continues to gain international recognition for work that redefines how sound is perceived — not as a fleeting event, but as a space to inhabit.

“My practice begins with a question, often a what if. Something read, something seen, a passing thought, and from there, a process of thinking with and through sound, of making audible what is not yet hearable. This research-driven, concept-first approach is the engine of everything I do: before a piece becomes sound, it is a question, an image, a provocation. I work from a position of openness, with self-programmed sounds and self-built instruments that offer a kind of tabula rasa, a blank page from which I can move in any direction the concept demands. Since 2023, this practice has led me deeper into the question of duration: how extended time transforms perception, how a composition can be inhabited rather than just witnessed, and how the threshold between concert and sound installation becomes a space for a different kind of listening,” Thomann said in the news release.