Brian Belet’s composition Loose Canon, for any three instruments and Kyma (2017), was premiered by the SPLICE Ensemble (Sam Wells, trumpet; Keith Kirchoff, piano, & Adam Vidiksis, percussion) at the 2018 SPLICE Festival on January 27, 2018, hosted by Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. Belet also presented a paper on the technical and aesthetic issues of the composition. The SPLICE Ensemble performed the composition again at the BEAMS Festival, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA on March 16, 2018.
A Strange Diversion, co-composed with Stephen Ruppenthal (2017), for Buchla synthesizer and Kyma system (from their ‘BuchKyma Sequence’), was included on the “EM | 3” concert series at Ball State University, Muncie, IN on February 6, 2018. Belet and Ruppenthal performed the composition at SEAMUS 2018, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR on March 29.
Allen Strange’s Misty Magic Land (2004), for any number of performers and electronics (fixed and interactive) was performed by Sarah Jones (violin), Brian Belet (viola), and Stephen Ruppenthal (flugelhorn), in San Jose, CA on April 10, 2018 at the Hammer Theater.
Jeff Boehm will be performing a new multimedia work during the Dance Screen Symposium at Bath Spa University (UK) in June. The work, “To be Watched While Eating an Orange” is a collaborative effort with Christopher Lewis-Smith, head of MA Dance at BSU. Jeff will be performing using Ableton Live/Push 2 and his trumpet through a 5.1 array in accompaniment to Chris’ screen dance movie. The recorded improvisation will then be mixed for binaural reproduction and will remain on ‘display’ with the movie (which is created for of a two-story media wall). . . and yes, the audience will be given oranges to eat during the performance.
Julius Bucsis performed a set of original music for electric guitar and computer processing at the OEM New Music Festival in Phoenix, Arizona in January. His composition Portraits of Nine Revolving Celestial Spheres (fixed media) was selected for presentation at MUSLAB 2017 held in Mexico City, Mexico in November, at CICTeM 2017 held in Buenos Aries, Argentina in October, and at ICMC 2018 held in Daegu, South Korea in August. The Dawn of Memory – Awakening of the Ancients (fixed media) was also selected for presentation at CICTeM 2017, at EABD 2018 held in Jacksonville, Florida in February, and at the 2018 SCI Student National Conference held in Bloomington, Indiana in September. Some Writings of Spring (fixed media) was selected for presentation at SEAMUS 2018 held in Eugene, Oregon in March and at NYCEMF held in New York City in July. It was also selected for inclusion on a CD to be released by PARMA Records in 2018. In the Interest of Time (fixed media) was selected for inclusion on another PARMA Records CD titled Mind & Machine Volume 1 to be released in 2018. The Message (fixed media) was included in the Foldover Radio playlist in November and was selected for inclusion on the Electro Acoustic & beyond 3 CD released by RMN Classical in December 2017. Blue (fixed media) was selected for inclusion on the Electronic Masters Volume 6 CD released by Ablaze Records in May 2018. He also gave a poster presentation on improvisation at IMEA 2018 held in Fort Wayne, Indiana in January.
This spring, Seth Cluett joined Columbia University as the Assistant Director of the Computer Music Center and Sound Art Program and will focus on fundraising and facility design while teaching topic courses in sound art and computer music. In May, he’ll leave his joint-appointed faculty position at Stevens Institute of Technology where for three years he has directed the Sensory Computation/Experimental Narrative Environments (SCENE) Lab immersive media research group. In parallel to the move to the CMC, the residency he began at Nokia Bell Labs in the Experiments in Art and Technology program in Spring 2017 has been extended through summer 2018, when he will present a new work for the International Contemporary Ensemble using network-addressable 3D-printed instrument modifications.
Ashkan Fakhrtabatabaie’s Metamorphosis got its fourth performance in VU2 Symposium in Park City, Utah last summer on July 18, 2017. On February 28, 2018 the Utah Philharmonia performed his orchestral piece Five Years in Libby concert hall. It was the US primier of the piece and was conducted by Matthew Mainella along with other compositions by Beethoven, Debussy, Adams, and Bernstein.
On March 10, 2018 he presented my paper called “Critical Band: A Symbiotic Instrument that Plays Directly for the Central Auditory System” in MOXsonic Missouri Experimental Sonic Art Festival.
Finally, his Piano Trio received its premier by the NOVA Chamber Music series on April 29, 2018.
Jon Fielder was hired to a full-time position at SAE Expression College in Emeryville, CA, teaching electronic music, music theory and acoustics. He premiered Think (an acousmatic composition) at the University of Nebraska Kearny New Music Festival on March 9, 2018.
The opening of Orlando Jacinto Garcia Contemporary Arts Program (CAP)-commissioned installation at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami took place on December 5 and will continue running until April 2. The installation brings to life the instruments in the music room that given how old they are no longer playable. To “activate” the instruments, I created digital samples of each (a harpsichord, harp, and dulcimer) that are triggered by a motion sensor as the public walks by the room. The title of the work Deconstructed Strings refers to the juxtaposition of the samples. More information here http://vizcaya.org/overload.asp
On January 26 at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, three virtuosi string players, violinist Mari-Liis Pakk, violist Chauncey Patterson, and cellist Jason Calloway, presented the premiere of my 40 minute site specific work titled those at peace shall see their wake for string trio, chimes, wine glasses, and electronics. The site specific work created as part of my Contemporary Arts Program (CAP) commission from the museum was performed from the pool grotto deck area at Vizcaya with the audience seated in the drained pool. The resonant frequencies of the space were utilized in the creation of the work. More information here http://miami.carpediem.cd/events/5527118-sold-out-pool-grotto-performance-members-exclusive-at-vizcaya-museum-and-gardens/
Una Marea Creciente (A Rising Tide): An Interdisciplinary work was premiered on May 7 at the Faena Forum located in Miami Beach. A brief description follows:
A team of professional performing and visual artists and designers have developed a new way of expressing the nuances and complexities of sea level rise through the creation and production of an evening long large-scale site-specific interdisciplinary work. With the collaboration and support of the James L. Knight Foundation and Faena Art, this site-specific multimedia work is a fusion of architecture, movement, music, and light. During the work the audience will be invited to walk throughout the Miami Beach location of the Faena Art Forum while the piece is in progress, to experience sound and visuals spatially, from different vantage points. Musicians (instrumentalists and vocalists) and dancers will be placed at several listening/performance stations each with a multi-speaker set up and accompanying video projections. The work will be divided into various segments occurring concurrently at each station. Each segment will address a different thematic related to sea level rise and will be experienced sequentially and/or randomly depending on how each of the audience members move throughout the space. Faena Art is providing the space and funding assistance as is the James L. Knight Foundation through its Arts Challenge grant program. The artistic team for the creation of the work consists of South Florida based innovators composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia, choreographer Augusto Soledade, poet Campbell McGrath, visual artist Jacek Kolasinski, and architect John Stuart. Although working together as a team for the first time, all 5 artists have collaborated together previously in numerous interdisciplinary works. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/faena-forum-una-marea-creciente-a-non-narrative-opera-about-sea-level-rise-tickets-45145916652?aff=efbeventtix#
News from Lauren Hayes:
LLEAPP is a cross-discipline researcher-led project that provides a forum for exploring shared issues around sound, visuals, movement, performance, and technology, and to foster collaborative, practice-based dialogue between faculty and doctoral practitioners at Arizona State University and invited participants from the UK, USA, and Mexico.
LLEAPP was started by creative music practitioners and early career researchers at the University of Edinburgh, UK, in 2008. It provides a forum for self-directed creative practice research and has since been hosted at the University of East Anglia (UK), De Montfort University (UK), and Newcastle University/Culture Lab (UK). PARIESA are proud to host its 6th edition within the School of Arts, Media + Engineering, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University.
LLEAPP 2018 offers two public concerts, the first showcases the current practices of the performers involved through a series of short solo and group compositions and improvisations. The second presents the outcome of a three day workshop, focusing on ensemble responses to the theme of interdisciplinary improvisation.
Monday 9th April, 7:30pm (start time), iStage, Matthews Center (free)
Thursday 12th April, 7:30pm (start time), iStage, Matthews Center (free)
LLEAPP is generously supported by an Interdisciplinary Project Collaboration Grant from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, in collaboration with The University of Edinburgh. Thanks also to Synthesis Center for supporting this project.
More details: https://www.pariesa.com/single-post/LLEAPP-2018
Kevin Kay’s new work Reaching, for string quartet and live electronics, was premiered 4/5/2018 by Spektral Quartet at the University of Chicago. The most defining element of the piece is that it utilizes harmonic scordatura: the lowest string of the cello is retuned to C1, and all of the strings of the ensemble are retuned to integer frequency ratios of this fundamental. Here’s a link to the recording:
https://soundcloud.com/kmkay/reaching-for-string-quartet-and-electronics
Steven Kemper’s album Mythical Spaces was released on Ravello Records in January 2018: http://www.ravellorecords.com/catalog/rr7980/. The album combines acoustic instruments and electronics to create meditative compositions that explore the connections between real and imaginary worlds, and features performances by Mike Truesdell (percussion), Wayla Chambo (flute), David Wegehaupt (saxophone), Dana Jessen (bassoon), and Aurie Hsu (piano). The Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology commissioned the piece Why Should Our Bodies End at the Skin for sensor-equipped belly dancer, robotic percussion, and live sound processing by Kemper and Aurie Hsu for Intersections: the 16th Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology. This piece premiered on February 17 and will be performed again at NIME in June at Virginia Tech. Kemper and Hsu also performed Teka-Mori for sensor-equipped belly dancer and live sound processing at the SEAMUS National Conference on March 29.
Chad Langford’s new album “The Multitudes” is now available for streaming and download on Bandcamp (https://chadlangford.bandcamp.com). With a large cast of guest performers featuring Billie Howard (violin), the album combines richly contrapuntal electroacoustic textures, electro-pop, field recordings, and atmospheric sound design with a beautiful cover illustration by graphic artist Sophie Franz.
For three days in March, Charles Nichols premiered his composition Shakespeare’s Garden, continuously generating a soundscape of processed environmental sounds and recited poetry, spatialized in 124 channels divided into four quadrants in three levels, accompanying an immersive art installation of the same title, with recordings of acted sonnets, soliloquies, and scenes played from narrow-beam speakers into five spotlighted stations, and dynamic graphic design projected on six cycs hung from the ceiling, a collaboration with directors Amanda Nelson and Natasha Staley, graphic designer Meaghan Dee, lighting designer John Ambrosone, and media engineer Tanner Upthegrove, installed in the Cube of the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech. In late April and early May, Nichols premiered his structured improvisation Traffic Sonata, where pitch tracked amplified violin, oud, and qanun control intersection phases in traffic simulator software, and the resulting traffic is sonified with plucked and bowed strings, collaborative research with transportation engineer and oudist Monty Abbas, qanunist Anne Elise Thomas, and transportation engineer Qichao Wang, played from fixed media for ICAT: Open (at the) Source: Trace and performed live for the DISIS Concert, in the Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech. At the beginning of June, Nichols’ Tsuga, for solo piano, will be premiered by Richard Steinbach, at the Iowa Music Teachers Association Annual State Conference in Iowa City, IA, where he will be awarded Distinguished Composer of the Year by the Iowa Composers Forum. Late June, the Hypercube ensemble will premiere his Bluestone, for alto saxophone, electric guitar, piano, and drum set, at the Charlotte New Music Festival in Charlotte, NC, where he will teach the Max Computer Music Workshop.
On March 29 Maggi Payne presented Black Ice at SEAMUS 2018 and on April 6 she will present Sferics and Apparent Horizon at the Chabot Space & Science Center (Oakland, CA). On March 3 she presented Coronal Rain and Sferics at The lab (San Francisco, CA), and on January 5 she diffused her four-channel version of Coronal Rain over 24 speakers in the Victoria Theater (San Francisco, CA). She presented Apparent Horizon, Black Ice, Sferics, Coronal Rain, Quicksilver, and Beyond in the exquisite Hamon Observation Tower in the de Young Museum (San Francisco) on November 10. For the 51 st Anniversary of the Center for Contemporary Music Festival at Mills College (Oakland, CA) she premiered Coronal Rain.
Eli Stine did sound design for a virtual reality adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis for the Goethe-Institut in Prague (and soon to be around the world) recently that was written up in The Economist here: https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21738344-one-morning-you-might-wake-up-find-you-have-been-transformed-gregor-samsa
More information about his involvement and a trailer for the work can be found on his website here: http://elistine.com/events-blog/2017/12/25/the-metamorphosis-vr-installation-opening
Transient Canvas performed their electroacoustic program, Wired, as part of the performer curated program at SEAMUS 2018. Their 2017-18 concert season features tours of Wired in Ohio, California, and Massachusetts with performances at University of California Riverside, Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, Bowling Green State University, Framingham State University, New Music Gathering (at Boston Conservatory at Berklee), and more. Wired will be released as an album on New Focus Recordings in November 2018. For bookings or more information visit www.transientcanvas.com or contact us at [email protected]
Adam Vidiksis composed multiple works as Composer-in-Residence this year for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, including a quartet for improvised electronics entitled Murmurations and a concerto grosso for chamber orchestra and a concertino of improvising musicians entitled Open Spaces. Murmurations was premiered in NYC at the Morgan Library, and then in Philadelphia at the Annenberg Center. Open Spaces was premiered at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia by the Chanber Orchestra, featuring renowned players from the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz as the soloists. Vidiksis taught a series of workshops on improvisation and graphic scores with students jointly from the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and the Primavera Fund. Vidiksis performed his composition Hyperdyne for floor tom and electronics and led his student ensemble BEEP in a work for specialized mobile device entitled Density Function at IRCAM’s ImproTech festival. Vidiksis performed new works with his trio, SPLICE Ensemble, at the first annual SPLICE Festival—this year held at Western Michigan University. SPLICE Ensemble was also a featured group in Brandeis University’s BEAMS Festival. Vidiksis performed Martim Galvao’s Hassle-Free Packaging at the 2018 SEAMUS National Conference in Eugene, Oregon. Vidiksis conducted a premiere performance in both NYC and Philly of Gene Coleman’s new work for pianist Marilyn Nonken and Ensemble N_JP, featuring Naomi Sato on sho, Naoko Kikuchi on koto, and Toshimaru Nakamura on no-input mixer.
