Member News

SEAMUS Member News — Summer 2015

Brian Belet’s composition Summer Phantoms: Nocturne (piano and computer-processed piano sounds) is included on Kai Schumacher’s (www.kaischumacher.com) new CD Insomnia, published June 2015 on the SWR Music/Hänssler Classic label in Germany. The CD also includes night music by George Gershwin, John Cage, George Crumb, and Bruce Stark. Schumacher has performed the music from the CD in Kaiserslautern and the Duisburg ‘Traumzeit Festival’ (June 2015), and in Berlin (August 2015).

Belet’s ensemble SoundProof (Patricia Strange, violin; Stephen Ruppenthal, trumpet; & Belet, viola & bass) will be the resident ensemble for the 2015 Kyma International Sound Symposium, August 9-13, Bozeman, Montana.

Details posted at: www.BeletMusic.com

Julius Bucsis will be performing a set of original material for electric guitar and computer processing at the Electro-Music 2015 festival in Huguenot, New York in September. His composition In the Interest of Time (fixed media) was selected for NYCEMF 2015 held in New York City in June. The Drama in Her Eyes (fixed media) was selected for the Summer 2015 issue of the online journal ink&coda. I Am Who Am I (fixed media) was selected for the Si15 conference held in Singapore in August. The Message (fixed media) was selected for Electroacoustic Barn Dance 2015 held in Fredericksburg, Virginia in October and for Electronic Music Midwest 2015 held in Kansas City, Kansas in November.

Ben Fuhrman co-hosts the podcast Sound Notion, which recently featured an interesting interview with Morton Subotnick, available here.

Orlando Jacinto Garcia‘s mixtura for cello and fixed media was performed at the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival on June 24 by cellist Mirjam Ingolfsson. In August Garcia will be in residence at the Visby International Center for Composers working on a new work for bass clarinet and fixed media for Harry Sparnaay and his proteges as well as several other bass clarinetists in the US and the Americas.

Keith Kirchoff recently performed at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and was on faculty for the inaugural season of SPLICE in July. He will be touring New Zealand and Australia with performances at the New Zealand School of Music, the University of Canterbury, the University of Waikato, the Audio Foundation, and the University of Western Sydney in August featuring works by Peter Van Zandt Lane, Scott Miller, Steve Ricks, Robert Seaback, Dan VanHassel, and himself.

Tornado Project CD release July 10 on Ravello Records: Music for flute, clarinet, and computer by US and UK composers: Ricardo Climent, Eric Lyon, Andrew May, Russell Pinkston, Robert Rowe, Paul Wilson performed by Elizabeth McNutt (flute) and Esther Lamneck (clarinet).
http://www.ravellorecords.com/tornadoproject/

http://tornadoproject.xyz

Philip Schuessler recently received the President’s Award for Artistic Excellence at Southeastern Louisiana University. The merit-based award is among the highest awards a faculty member can receive at the institution. A recording of Schuessler’s electronic music was recently released on the Centaur label on an album called Embers (CRC 3385) featuring saxophonist Richard Schwartz and Schuessler on piano.

Brian Sears‘s new work, “Live in the Breath” for Trumpet and Live Interactive Electronics, was performed this week by Sam Wells at the SPLICE summer Institute. This performance, as well as 17 other participant pieces capped off a week of classes, concerts and workshops that made up the inaugural season of SPLICE. Faculty Keith Kirchoff, Elainie Lillios, Adam Vidiksis, Christopher Biggs, Per Bloland, Richard Johnson, Sam Wells, and David Wetzel led a few dozen composers and performers in an inspiring week dedicated to the creation and performance of electroacoustic music and multimedia. Feedback from the participants was universally positive, and with this week being such a huge success, the future of SPLICE and its unique offerings looks very bright!

Kyle Shaw‘s new work for piano and electronics, Locomotion, was performed by Keith Kirchoff on Saturday, 11 July at the SPLICE institute at Western Michigan University. Several other premiere performances were given that day as part of SPLICE’s week long festivities. Altogether, the institute included 8 concerts; several classes, workshops, and lectures; private and group lessons; and invigorating discussions of aesthetics and techniques. SPLICE’s first go-round was an excellent opportunity to get to know and work with some incredible artists in an intimate setting. Many, many thanks to Christopher Biggs, Keith Kirchoff, Richard Johnson, Per Bloland, Elainie Lillios, Sam Wells, Adam Vidiksis, and David Wetzel for an amazing week!

Adam Vidiksis recently returned from serving on the faculty of the SPLICE Institute at Western Michigan University, where he led daily workshops in SuperCollider, performance masterclasses and lessons, and gave numerous performances, which included his own works, and those of Elainie Lillios, Per Bloland, and Shaun Cayabyab. He was joined by fellow SPLICE faculty member, Keith Kirchoff, in the premiere of Vidiksis’s new work, Local Equilibrium Dynamics for piano, percussion, and live computer processing. Other recent performances include a new commission from Renegade Theater for interactive audio entitled Cognition Condenser, which was premiered at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in July, a concert performance by Bowerbird, which included a new work for chamber ensemble and electronics, called We Begin Everywhere, as well as a performance of Vidiksis’s Things that Live in the Whirligig. Vidiksis recently performed in collaboration with guitarist Quinn Dougherty original works for guitar, percussion, found sounds, speech, and live computer processing. Vidiksis also performed a set of his works on Joo Won Park’s album release party at <fidget>, as well as a performance of Whirligig at NYCEMF this June. Vidiksis will lead his electronic music ensemble, BEEP, in a concert of works by Temple University composers at the New York Electronic Art Festival at Harvestworks later this month.

Benjamin D. Whiting‘s pentaphonic fixed media composition, Melodía sin melodía, received its world première at this year’s SEAMUS National Conference at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and received further performances at the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music – “Fractured Narratives” at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and at NYCEMF at the Abron’s Arts Center in New York City. The piece is scheduled to be performed at this year’s TIES at the Wychwood Theatre in Toronto, Ontario; at ICMC at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas; and at EMM at the Kansas City Kansas Community College in Kansas City, Kansas. Whiting participated in the inaugural session of the SPLICE Institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where his piece for harp and electronics, Dreamscape No. 1, performed by harpist/composer Jennifer Ellis, received its world première. His quadraphonic fixed media piece Under Lock and Key was released in its stereo reduction on the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios Transient Images album, and was quadraphonically realized at the CMS South Central Regional Conference at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and at N_SEME at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Whiting’s stereo fixed media composition, FL, was performed at this year’s TUTTI festival at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and at the CMS South Central Regional Conference.

Maurice Wright‘s sweet, picturesque for piano, electroacoustic sound and projected video, was performed as part of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival by Australian pianist Siang Ching Ngu (pictured below.)