Canines in Six Musical Portraits
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Canines in Six Musical Portraits: A Dog is a Machine for Loving performed live at the Museum.
The sound of a dog’s bark is instantly recognizable. In English, it’s “woof woof.” In Spanish, it’s “guau-guau.” In Japanese, it’s “wan-wan.” But what is it in music, specifically through the piano? For that we turn to Alec Hall’s A Dog Is a Machine for Loving.
This piece is what happens when a composer spends a decade listening—really listening—to the dogs in his life. Over the course of six movements, we are introduced to a cast of unforgettable canine characters. There’s Mabel, whose contented moans inspire tender pet names from the pianist; Merckx, who somehow has Schubert hiding in his bark; Buddy and Piper, whose sniffing and yapping get transcribed note-for-note into the piano; and Mathilda, whose play-fighting with a frisbee escalates just a little too far. Along the way, there are the freely roaming dogs of Sagres, Portugal—whose late-night chorus sparked the whole project—and the buzzing soundscape of two New York City dog parks.
The piece was written for a speaking pianist, but in this performance the roles are divided: Ning Yu takes the piano, while Vinson Cunningham, staff writer for The New Yorker, handles all the speaking—narrating, lecturing on canine behavior, scolding, cooing, and carrying on full conversations with the dogs on the recordings. The piano, meanwhile, acts as a kind of translator, converting the actual acoustic pawprint of each dog’s voice into playable music. The result is funny, tender, surprising, and genuinely unlike anything else in the concert hall.
Where better to showcase this piece than the Museum of the Dog—one of the only venues in the world devoted entirely to celebrating our longest companions. Guests are warmly invited to linger after the performance for a reception with composer Alec Hall and the performers. It will offer a chance for humans and dogs alike to continue the conversation, compare notes, and perhaps provide a bark or two of appreciation.
Members at the Individual level and above sign in for a discounted rate.
Please note: dogs are welcome but as this is a performance piece, we ask that dogs be kept quiet throughout the duration of the performance. If your dog is continuously disruptive, you will be asked to step away from the performance area.
Ning Yu is a Chinese-American pianist who has performed across four continents as a soloist, chamber musician, and theater collaborator. She has given dozens of world premieres by composers including Tristan Murail, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley, and has performed with ensembles such as Bang on a Can All-Stars, ICE, and Yarn/Wire. Her solo albums Of Being and Iron Orchid on New Focus Recordings have received wide acclaim. She teaches piano and chamber music at the George Washington University.
Alec Hall is a composer and Guggenheim Fellow. His operas, mixed-media works, and concert music draws on the sounds of everyday life and beyond: Chinese factories, online fitness classes, psychoanalysis, and dogs, among other topics. He studied with Tristan Murail at Columbia University, where he earned his doctorate. His music has been commissioned and performed worldwide, and his debut portrait album was released on the Kairos label in 2025. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Qubit, an experimental music company that has produced some of the most innovative programming in New York City for the past 15 years.
Vinson Cunningham joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2016. Since 2018, he has served as a critic for the magazine, writing about theatre, television, and more. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2024, and was awarded the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for 2021-2022. And, in 2020, he was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for his Profile of the comedian Tracy Morgan. He teaches at the Yale School of Art and Columbia University’s School of the Arts, and is a co-host of Critics at Large, The New Yorker’s weekly podcast about culture and the arts. His début novel, “Great Expectations,” came out in 2024.