The performance
An immersive collision of music, theater and moving image, where artistic anxiety takes the form of an unlikely companion
The Cockroach Diary is a song cycle for voice, classical guitar and electric guitar. Through theatrical interludes and surreal conversations with a Periplaneta americana—a symbol of the insecurities, fears and nightmares that haunt an artist—the work explores vulnerability, resilience and artistic identity through contemporary classical music, storytelling, noise and humor.
For its National Sawdust performance, The Cockroach Diary expands into an immersive audiovisual work. Created in collaboration with new media artist and filmmaker Xuan, the performance transforms the stage into a shifting dreamscape in which sound, image and theatrical gesture become part of the same world.
October 20, 2026
Show 7:30 PM
Brooklyn
Brooklyn, NY 11249
October 20
National Sawdust
Seated performance · Doors at 6:30 PM
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Nicoletta Todesco
Nicoletta Todesco is a Brooklyn-based guitarist and composer whose performances move between classical and electric guitar, original music and storytelling. Her debut album The Cockroach Diary was released in 2025. She studied at the Yale School of Music and is the director of the New York City Guitar Orchestra.
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Xuan
Xuan is a new media artist, filmmaker and pianist whose work brings music, visual art and technology together. A classically trained pianist, she creates experimental animation, interactive installations, projection mapping and multimedia performances. Her collaborations include Glenn Kotche, Third Coast Percussion and Eighth Blackbird, with work presented at venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Explore Xuan’s work →