In Scott Barton’s recent release, Stylistic Alchemies, expressions that are typically treated as ends, such as a pop songs or acoustic performances of chamber works, become means to a music that is trans- (across and through), poly- (many) and meta- (beyond) genre. The modern production studio is the vehicle for this work, imparting its forms and techniques upon whatever passes through it. It becomes a laboratory; an assemblage; a pot for a stylistic hodgepodge where elements appear, converse, fuse, isolate, compete to be heard, transform, and influence each other to varying degrees. The album shows the studio as a place where the real and the virtual meet, and illuminates the characteristics of each and interactions between the two.
As a group, these works come from pop, classical, electroacoustic, EDM, experimental, rock, and avant garde traditions. Harmonies move in and out of tonality; rhythms lock into a beat and diffuse into asynchronous clouds; pieces have verses and choruses as much as they have discontinuous micro-collages; acoustic instruments stand alongside buzzy synthesizers, and the two sometimes blend. The works synthesize and juxtapose diverse elements and in doing so exhibit a stylistically egalitarian musical perspective.
http://www.ravellorecords.com/catalog/rr7990/index.html
Jeff Boehm performed his piece for trumpet, fx, and backing track at the 2018 Electrobrass Conference held in Brooklyn, NYC.
Kyong Mee Choi reports the following:
what prevails for clarinet, violin, and piano, will be performed at the New Music Mannes Concert at Mannes School of Music in New York, NY on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. The concert is directed by Mannes faculty member Madeleine Shapiro. The piece is dedicated to those innocent people who were killed by acts of crime and violence. The same piece will be performed by Andrea R. DiOrio, clarinet; Elizabeth Brausa Brathwaite, violin; Kuang-Hao Huang, piano at the Chicago Soundings at the Queen of Angels Church (2330 W. Sunnyside Ave.), Chicago, IL on Tuesday, December 4 2018 at 7:30 pm. The concert features works by Kyong Mee Choi, George Flynn, Tom Stevens among others.
The line we can’t cross for alto saxophone and electronics will be performed at the inner sOUndscapes|Sax concert at the Pitman Recital Hall, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK on Sunday, December 2, 2018. The piece represents the composer’s wish to transcend lines or boundaries that we believe we cannot cross due to limitations or conflicts within our mind.
Kyong Mee Choi is a featured guest artist to give a lecture, present her music and give a master class at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK on November 14-15, 2018. Her music including fixed media, instrument/electronics, and video piece will be presented at the concert at the Pitman Recital Hall on Wednesday, November 14, 2018.
rare yet soft for electronics and Slight Uncertainty is Very Attractive for flute and electronics were presented at the In the Realm of Senses, the first multi-sensory art exhibition at 1837 S. Halsted St, Chicago IL for two weekends on November 8-10 and 15-17, 2018 at 7:30-10:00 p.m. The multi-sensory art exhibition is based on the elements such as earth, air, water, fire, and metal in 3000 sq ft of space. Oirignal works in visual art, gastronomic creations, scents, and music will be presented. The exhibition is created and designed by Jeff Yang.
what prevails for clarinet, violin, and piano, was performed at the PICOSA Ensemble Concert in Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University on Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. As a part of Roosevelt University Residency Concert, PICOSA (Jennie Oh Brown, flute; Andrea R. DiOrio, clarinet; Elizabeth Brausa Brathwaite, violin; Paula Kosower, cello; Kuang-Hao Huang, piano) gave a concert featuring works by Valerie Coleman, Kyong Mee Choi, Florent Ghys, Marc Mellits and the student winner of the PICOSA Ensemble Composition Competition.
Tender Spirit II (video) and Flowerlips for solo vibraphone (John Corkill, percussion) were presented at the 6Degrees Composer Concert on November 2, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. in Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University. The concert featured works by Regina Harris Baiocchi, Kyong Mee Choi, Janice Misurell-Mitchell, and Patricia Morehead. The concert featured a program that explores ideas of peace and justice through many musical forms. Subjects ranged from war and peace, to the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, to the treatment of Native Americans.
The Ringling Arts Festival, Transient Landscapes, curated by Matthew Duvall (Eighth Blackbird percussionist), featured more than 70 pieces of music including OM (8-channel sound installation), which was installed and displayed for a month in the Dwarf Garden near The Ringling visitor’s center. In conjunction of this installation, Flowerlips for solo vibraphone was performed by John Corkill. Guest artists were Matthew Burtner, Kyong Mee Choi, Tim Feeney, Cory Hills, Matthew McCabe, George Nickson, Rich Stitzel, beyond this point, and the Kraken Quartet.
Train of Thoughts for electronics was presented at the Electronic Music Midwest at the Philip Lynch Theatre, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL on Friday, October 12, 2018 at 8 p.m. The concert featured works by Elainie Lillios, Christopher Hopkins, Kyong Mee Choi, Ioannis Andriotis, Jeffrey Hass, Carter John Rice, Christopher Biggs, and Tianyi Wang. Train of Thoughts is based on the experience of sitting on a train and having various thoughts evoked by the sounds of the environment. In the piece, the initial train sound morphs into various sonic gestures that represent thoughts. Over time, thoughts are intruded upon and triggered by ambient sounds such as a siren and city noise. Train of Thoughts describes how our mind travels through our present moment via sonic events.
Christopher Dobrian was invited lecturer/researcher at the Centre de recherche Informatique et Création Musicale (CICM) at the Université Paris 8 for the month of October, lecturing on aspects of realtime computer music composition and performance, and doing research on Ambisonic spatialization.
The new album by Jennifer Ellis with saxophonist Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, Launch, was released on December 1, 2018 on Albany Records. It features new electroacoustic and acoustic duos for harp and saxophone by composers Angélica Negrón, Stephen J. Rush, Yusef Lateef, Christine Hedden, Patrick O’Malley, Jasper Sussman, and Natalie Moller. More info here.
On November 16th and 17th, 2018, under the direction of Eli Fieldsteel, the Experimental Music Studios at the University of Illinois celebrated their 60th anniversary with a festival of three electroacoustic music concerts, drawing together EMS community members from across the country for an opportunity to look back and reminisce about their electroacoustic music-making days at Illinois. The festival included compositions by EMS students, faculty, friends, and alumni, including M.O. Abbott, Brian Belet, David Bohn, Carolyn Borcherding, Quinn Collins, Brad Decker, Michael Drews, Robin Julian Heifetz, Lejaren Hiller, Christopher Hopkins, Vahid Jahandari, Paul Koonce, Ralph Lewis, Kerrith Livengood, Ed Martin, Charles Mason, Janis Mercer, Larry Polansky, Richard Power, John Ritz, Paul Schuette, Daniel Swilley, Andy Walters, Scott A. Wyatt, and Mark Zanter, with performances by Sorcha Barr, Greg Byrne, Gabe Evens, Craig Hultgren, Wilson Poffenberger, Chris Scarberry, Drew Whiting, and the Elara String Quartet.
News from Mara Helmuth:
1. A piece I composed collaboratively with Esther Lamneck, Irresistible Flux,
by Mara Helmuth and Esther Lamneck,
appeared on Esther Lamneck’sTarogato Constructions CD (2018) on Innova.
Here is a review:
https://www.popmatters.com/esther-lamneck-tarogato-constructions-2586390010.html
2. Joseph van Hassel commissioned a work Onsen: Hot Springs for vibraphone and fixed media, which he performed at University of Hartford, Make Shift Boston, and Framingham State University.
3. ICMC 2018 inDaeguKorea — performance of Breath of Water, composed by Esther Lamneck and myself, with Esther performing on clarinet.
4. Lindsey Goodman performed myButterfly Withinfor flute and fixed media at Glenview State College, and other places in fall 2018.
5. I was the guest speaker at the Japanese Sonic Arts Society, July 29, 2018 at their annual meeting in Tokyo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViiYaDACzX8
On September 14, Ravello Records released Mind and Machine Vol. 2, an electro-acoustic compilation featuring seven composers. Works by SEAMUS members include Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz’s Les Crapauds de la Fontaine (The Toads from the Fountain), Joshua Tomlinson’s Convergences, Lou Bunk’s Cut featuring Keith Kirchoff, Julius Bucsis’s Some Writings of Spring, and Joshua Harris’s A Tiny Fleck of Blue Crying Light Into the Void.
After 8 years at the American University in Dubai, Professor Brad Moody will be joining the faculty of the DSC School of Photography this spring. He will be serving as an Assistant Chair and leading our Digital and Interactive Media Program.
He now serves as an Associate Professor of Digital Media at American University in Dubai. He is a certified Apple Distinguished Educator and a Blackmagic Design DaVince Resolve Trainer. Please check out his bio and website below.
Professor Moody will be teaching photography, video and interactive media courses this spring. He is a member of our Southeast Center Facebook Group, so please welcome him aboard!
Scott L. Miller presented a series of performances and lectures this fall, beginning with a residency at Boyer College of Music & Dance at Temple University, featuring a presentation on Ecosystemic Music and Performance Practice, followed by a concert with flutist/improviser Carla Rees, supported by members of the BEEP Ensemble. He and the Tallinn-based Ensemble U: presented two performances of his 360º VR concert work, Raba, and his electroacoustic composition Accretion, at Spectrum in Brooklyn. The Lenfest Center for the Arts and Film and Media Studies at Columbia University presented his collection of audio-visual and live cinema collaborations with film/video artists Paul Clipson, Ron Gregg, Ted Moore, Rosemary Williams, and Mark Zaki. Flutist Laura Cocks and guitarist Dan Lippel performed the NY premieres of five works with film/art video projection in this portrait concert. Miller completed his tour with a performance on the Electric Cafe series at Rutgers University in Camden, NJ.
Composer and violinist Charles Nichols premiered Badstar: A Concert of Immersive Audio and Video, an hour show in three movements inspired by fusion, old-time and noise, and drone metal, for electric violin, electric banjo, electric guitar, electronic drums, and computers, with multiple projections of interactive processed video mapped to custom architecture, a collaboration with banjoist and composer Holland Hopson, guitarist and composer André Foisy, drummer Denver Nuckolls, video artist Zach Duer, and architect Jon Rugh, in the 134.2 spatial audio system in the Cube of the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, for three sold-out shows, October 11-13. September 23, his composition Pistons, for violin and computer, was performed by Darragh Morgan on the Plumstead Peculiar Concert Series at The Ascension Church in London, England. His composition Shakespeare’s Garden, for processed environmental sounds and recited poetry, was played from fixed media in the 32 channel spatial audio system at Envelop in San Francisco, CA, October 10. November 1, his structured improvisation and research titled Traffic SONATA, for amplified violin, oud, and qanun, controlling traffic simulations with pitch tracking of musical improvisation in response to sonified traffic data, a collaboration with transportation engineer and oudist Monty Abbas, qanunist Anne Elise Thomas, and transportation engineer Qichao Wang, was presented at the National Conference of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA.
Charles Nichols and André Foisy performing Badstar in spatial audio, surrounded by multiple projections mapped to custom architecture, in the Cube at Virginia Tech
Gil Trythall was the guest of honor and after dinner speaker at Knobcon 7, a synthesizer convention, weekend of September 7-9, 2018, in Chicago, IL, USA. More than 800 attended.
A video of his after-dinner speech is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xi4eOod5Q4.
Ensemble Concept/21 premiered Musica Speculativa, an immersive, multimedia concert work by assistant professor of music, Ryan Olivier on Oct. 27th & 28th at The Ernestine M. Raclin School of the Arts at IU South Bend. The work was a concert-length composition in five movements and three intermezzi for ensemble, interactive audio and video, and dance. Notre Dame professor of conducting Carmen-Helena Téllez led Ensemble Concept/21 with original choreography by Colin Mysliwiec Raybin, and with guest vocalist Claire Shackleton and percussionist Kyle Evan Leffert.
Images from the Musica Speculativa concert
A number of new works by Adam Vidiksis were premiered this fall, including the American premiere of At the Eagle Record Pass at Symphony Space in NYC, and the opening of Project Trans(m)it at the Wimbelon Space in London, United Kingdom. Project Trans(m)it is a 35-minute fixed-media sound and video installation and dance performance created in collaboration with dancers Andrea Lanzetti, Lora Allen, Becca Weber, and Megan Mizanty. Vidiksis performed his own Pulse Reflection for percussion and real-time processing at the Third Practice Festival in Richmond, VA, where he also premiered a new work he commissioned from Heather Stebbins, entitled Things that follow. Vidiksis traveled to Bowling Green State University in Ohio for the second SPLICE Festival, a three-day series of concerts, workshops, and presentations focusing on music for electronics and performers, organized by himself and his fellow SPLICE organization members.