VP PROGRAMS
Jon Fielder, VP Programs
Statement:
As the Vice President of Programs I would take an active role in continuing the longstanding work on the Miniatures and Interactions CDs/calls, as I feel these are incredibly important, if not understated components of the organization. I would also work alongside the VP of Membership and the Diversity Officer to brainstorm new ideas to foster greater inclusion of underrepresented groups in the organization, as well as discuss the possibility of creating new opportunities, calls, events to help with that goal. Additionally, I would like to find new models for member outreach to make SEAMUS better known to performers, researchers, theorists, and musicologists. SEAMUS’ unwavering commitment to promoting the composition and performance of electro-acoustic is without question, but my goal as VP of Programs would be to find ways to make SEAMUS an organization that promotes all facets electro-acoustic music, by whatever means available and/or possible.
Biography:
Jon Fielder is a composer of electroacoustic and acoustic music, all of which shows a strong interest in timbre, texture, spatialization and narrative. His music is typically inspired by interests in natural landscapes, various topics of science and mathematics, the human voice (spoken, sung or just noise), and literature. Jon is primarily driven by my obsession with sound itself. I’ve always been intrigued by the nature and physics of sound and the physicality of performing music as well the morphology of limited sonic materials over long stretches of time.
Jon’s music has been presented and performed at the SEAMUS conference (2013), ICMC, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Electronic Music Midwest, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, CEMIcircles Festival, N-SEME, NASA conference, LATEX festival, KcEMA, Omaha Under the Radar, the International Double Reed Society Conference (2012), Something Said Only Once (SSOO in Tempe, AZ), the Northern Ohio Music Exchange (NOMA) concert at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Olmsted Festival of the Arts, and inclusion in the Alex Sramek call for scores for the Voxnovus 15-Minutes of Fame series (Sublimation). In 2016 he received an ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission for his piece Dissociation Sequences (C23H28O8) for cello and live electronics and he was the first recipient of the Mark Phillips Distinguished Professor award for composition in 2009 (Ohio University). Jon has received commissions from the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music of the United States (SEAMUS), Tetractys (new music series in Austin, TX), Patchwork, Jacqueline Leclair, Liz Pearse (soprano), Noa Even, ADJ-ective New Music, and Katherine Woolsey.
Jon is currently a full-time instructor of audio and music at SAE Expression College in Emeryville, CA, with courses in music theory (beginning and advanced), electronic music production, foundations of acoustics, and interactive audio with Max/MSP. He received two B.M. degrees in composition and theory from Ohio University in 2005, a M.M. in composition from Bowling Green State University in 2012, and a DMA in composition from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. Previous instructors and mentors include Elainie Lillios, Russell Pinkston, Mikel Kuehn, Franklin Cox, Bruce Pennycook, Mark Phillips and Christopher Dietz.
Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, VP Programs
Statement:
In addition to overseeing the existing responsibilities in the compilation projects for the society, as the VP for programs, I would like to help build an outreach initiative to students and communities who may not have the resources and access to the knowledge, technology, and personnel in the creation of electroacoustic music. This can be hosted alongside the annual conference in the format of public talk / lecture, hands-on practicum, or a demo session in the latest technology developed by members of SEAMUS. Inspired by Dr. Stephen Beck’s talk at SEAMUS 2018, this initiative aims to encourage the composition and performance of electroacoustic music from a broader demography of participants, whose diverse background can in turn further enrich the field of practice.
Biography:
Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh is a Taiwanese-Australian composer currently based in the United States. Her works have been commissioned and performed by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Foundation Royaumont, Ensemble Dal Niente and ELISION Ensemble, among others. She received her doctorate degree from the University of California, San Diego, and is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor of music at Carnegie Mellon University where she teaches courses in music theory and analysis, as well as interdisciplinary approaches in music.
Christopher Hopkins, VP Programs
Statement:
SEAMUS provides its members with several key opportunities for artistic and professional development of peer-reviewed quality at the national level. While functioning on the model of an academic society that represents a discipline to the processes of professional advancement in colleges and universities, and that creates a forum for extending higher education beyond single institutions, SEAMUS is at its heart a community of artistic individuals who believe in developing ever-stronger potentials for highly creative and aesthetically engaging music, in particular from electroacoustic resources. While not shying from material and methodological technicalities of often challenging depth, nor from social justice responsibilities challenging to define and realize, members of SEAMUS largely focus on the challenges of rendering artistic ideas through innovative compositions and performances, these openly and broadly conceived. This is my understanding of SEAMUS, and the foundation for my thinking about potential new programs that balance professional and artistic development, especially those that respond to continuously changing circumstances in our discipline. I will support continuing programs that provide publication opportunities beyond those of the national conference, as well as the emerging efforts for SEAMUS to take an important role in material and interpretive preservation. But I do have one particular new program in mind that focuses on practical electroacoustic artistry: summer workshops/symposia on emerging topics in composition and performance. Details always need to be worked out collaboratively, but I will promote as a prototype an already known to be successful program: the NEH summer research institutes, a program that supports one- and two-week topical workshops/symposia. For SEAMUS, a similar program could support two goals: to provide peer-mentored workshops for mid-career and established members in advanced techniques falling outside their own current expertise, and to establish expertise-driven colloquia on electroacoustic topics the reports out of which become collaborative publications for wider distribution and discussion.
Biography:
Christopher Hopkins is Associate Professor of Music at Iowa State University of Science and Technology. For Iowa State he developed undergraduate and graduate degree programs related to creative digital music and interdisciplinary electronic arts, and has since 2005 directed the Lipa Festival of Contemporary Music, which has a focus on electroacoustic and visual music. His previous leadership experience related to development of professional programs includes Director of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities (2014-2017). In this position he worked with advisory committees, college deans, and vice president for research to develop new programs for artistic and scholarly development for faculty, which included funding for sponsoring national symposia, individual research and artistic creativity, annual arts research summits, and a year-long topical lecture series. He worked with external collaborators from other Iowa universities and the Des Moines Art Center to organize the Iowa Humanities Festival and to lobby Congress with the National Humanities Alliance in support of renewing funding for the NEH and National Archives. He was on the organizing committee for the first national conference of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities. His previous service to SEAMUS was as national conference host (2007) and Director of Conferences (2008-2014).
Ralph Lewis, VP Programs
Statement:
As Vice President of Programs, I would be especially interested in creating concert opportunities that recognize and attempt to address hurdles SEAMUS members experience each year. One of the hurdles I hear about the most as a member is how the cost of travel and lodging for the national conference impacts attendance and participation. In addition to continuing to support solutions to alleviate these particular costs, I believe that building regional events and partnerships would allow members to bypass those larger costs and get to the fun part: making, sharing, and listening to music.
Through these more accessible regional opportunities, SEAMUS be able to accommodate more flexible programming, which could include pieces/ensembles previously too costly to bring to the national conferences, a wider variety of aesthetic practices, and more time to engage, connect, and educate younger composers and performers in that area. These opportunities would not replace the national conference or other electroacoustic festivals, but allow simple entry points for those new to SEAMUS and a way for current members to continue participating rather than wait till the following year, hoping they are both selected and that it will be affordable.
With these issues in mind, I would welcome input from members about programs and ideas they are passionate about as part of this process. Additionally, I would definitely want to support existing projects such as The Interactions and Miniatures CD projects, which are a wonderful, low cost way to support the creativity of members.
Biography:
Ralph Lewis is a doctoral candidate in music composition at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His compositions seek meeting points between sonorous music and arresting noise, alternative tunings and timbre, and the roles of performer and audience. His music has been selected for SEAMUS, Electronic Music Midwest, N_SEME, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, University of Chicago’s CHIMEFest, EMS60, SCI National Student Conference, New Music on the Point, Fresh Inc Festival, Boston Microtonal Society, Xenharmonic Praxis Summer Camp, and the Festival for People and Thingamajigs, and on radio broadcasts throughout the United States, Canada, and the UK. He received 2017’s University of Illinois’s Theodore Presser Graduate Music Award, which was used to extend the reach of his community composition program All Score Urbana, and has had residencies at Banff Centre for the Arts and Wave Farm. Lewis received an M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media and an M.A. in Music Composition from Mills College, studying with John Bischoff, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Frith, and Wendy Reid, and a B.M. in Music Composition and B.A. in Classical Civilization from Oberlin Conservatory and College, studying with Ross Feller, Josh Levine, and Randolph Coleman.
Barry Moon, VP Programs
Statement:
It is time for me to give back to the community, having benefited from conferences and other opportunities made possible by SEAMUS, ICMA, and other organizations over the years. I would devote my time serving as the Vice President for Programs making sure opportunities broaden, especially for underrepresented groups. In addition to being a strong supporter of gender equality (including non-binary genders), I want to get as many people involved as possible, breaking down racial, socioeconomic, and other barriers.
Bio:
I have been combining various forms of art and technology for the past 25+ years. Most of that work involves creating meaningful interactions between humans and computers. This work continues to be presented around the world. I have worked in several collaborations with other artists, and consider sound to be my central focus, but am interested in video, sculpture, dance, data, etc. I teach in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance program at Arizona State University.
Isaac Schankler, VP Programs
Statement:
As VP of Programs, I would like to focus on extending the reach and impact of SEAMUS beyond its current core membership. This would include expanding SEAMUS’s social media presence, organizing local outreach events, and developing a podcast featuring the music of SEAMUS members, interviews with electroacoustic composers, and explorations of various topics of interest in electroacoustic music. These initiatives would support and complement the existing alternating annual releases of the Interactions and Miniatures CDs, which I plan to continue.
Biography:
Isaac Schankler is a composer, accordionist, and electronic musician living in Los Angeles. Their music has been described as “powerful” (Sequenza21), “delightful” (I Care If You Listen), “ingenious” (The Artificialist), “masterfully composed” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), and “the antidote to sentimentality” (LA Times).
Schankler’s recent performances and commissions include works for the Nouveau Classical Project, the Ray-Kallay Duo, Friction Quartet, gnarwhallaby, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Lorelei Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, flutist Meerenai Shim, and bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood. Recent honors include awards and grants from Meet the Composer, the National Opera Association, the American Composers Forum, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the American Prize. Schankler is a past winner of the USC Sadye J. Moss Composition Prize and the ASCAP/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Art Song Competition.
As a composer for video games, Schankler has written music for critically acclaimed and award-winning independent games, including Ladykiller in a Bind, Analogue: A Hate Story, Hate Plus, Redshirt, and Depression Quest.
As a writer and researcher, Schankler has written numerous articles for NewMusicBox, the multimedia publication of New Music USA, and in 2013 was a winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism. Their writing has also appeared in the International Journal of Arts and Technology, Computer Music Journal, and the proceedings of various international conferences.
Schankler is the artistic director of the concert series People Inside Electronics, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from the University of Southern California, as well as Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees in composition from the University of Michigan. Schankler is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Cal Poly Pomona, where they teach composition, music technology, and music theory.
Sam Wells, VP Programs
Statement:
My goal as Vice President of Programs would be to continue and expand the meaningful performance and promotion opportunities that SEAMUS offers its membership. My activity as both a performer and composer makes me well suited to serve all members of the organization. Through the further development of recording projects, concert production offerings, and web-based content SEAMUS can be increase its presence in the community of electroacoustic music.
Biography:
Sam Wells is a composer, performer, and music technologist based in New York City. As an advocate for new and exciting music, he actively commissions and performs contemporary works.
Sam has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in China. He is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund for New Music award, and his work, stringstrung, is the winner of the 2016 Miami International Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He has performed electroacoustic works for trumpet and presented his own music at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, N_SEME, and SEAMUS festivals. Sam and his music have also been featured by the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and Fulcrum Point Discoveries. He has also been a guest artist/composer at universities throughout North America.
Sam is a member of Arcus Collective, Kludge, and SPLICE Ensemble. Sam has performed with Contemporaneous, Metropolis Ensemble, TILT Brass, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra. Sam has recorded on the SEAMUS and Ravello Recordings labels.
Sam has degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University. He is on faculty at SPLICE Institute and Molloy College.
TREASURER
Lyn Goeringer, Treasurer
Statement:
I am interested in the position of Treasurer for SEAMUS because I would like to deepen my connection to the electronic music community. I have benefited for a long time from the members of and membership within the SEAMUS organization, and I would like to take some time to offer my own service in return. The office of Treasurer is of specific interest to me as I am very detail oriented and devoted to fiscal transparency and accuracy. Though I have not managed funds for a large organization, I am the current director of the Electronic Music and Media Studios at MSU, and am regularly writing successful grants for my department and managing our annual budget for gear, guests, and equipment upkeep. I have also organized and successfully funded small symposia, including “Playfest” at Oberlin College and Conservatory in 2015.
Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to serving in this capacity if elected.
Biography:
Lyn Goeringer is an electronic musician and sound artist whose work focuses on the relationship between bodies, space, and the environment. Her sound worlds most often tend to shift between intense focus and noise, combining field recordings with synthesis in live performance environments. Her scholarly research investigates space, place, and the Everday, and she is currently working on her book “Unseen Media: Towards a Media Archeology of EMF” where she explores in depth the use of EMF as a medium by sound artists working in urban environments. She is currently the Director of Electronic Music and Multimedia Studios, and holds the joint appointment of assistant professor in Composition and in Film Studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University, in Lansing, MI. When she isn’t working on new electronic sound pieces, she is either out for a walk, painting, or hanging out with her cats Rinchen and Norbu.
You can find more out about her from her website at:
www.lyngoeringer.com/portfolio
https://www.music.msu.edu/faculty/profile/lyn
https://soundcloud.com/lyn-goeringer
Carter John Rice, Treasurer
Statement:
It would be my most sincere pleasure to serve as the treasurer for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. SEAMUS, as a professional organization, has been a tremendously significant part of my career. I’ve attended nearly every national conference in my time as a member, served as an adjudicator for said conference, been involved with multiple CD projects, and developed professional connections and friendships that have lasted for years. I’ve served in similar professional roles within other organizations, namely The Society of Composers Inc., and I would bring the same energy, enthusiasm, and creativity to SEAMUS that I bring to all other professional commitments. I’ve been a member of SEAMUS for nearly a decade, and working to ensure a vibrant and healthy future for our great organization is something for which I lack no motivation.
I hope you’ll consider voting for me as the next treasurer of SEAMUS.
Biography:
Carter John Rice, a native of Minot, North Dakota, is a composer, audio engineer, and music educator currently based in Kalamazoo, MI. Rice was drawn to music through a desire to instill knowledge in others. He is passionate about music education, and enjoys teaching music at all levels.
Rice currently serves as the chair of the SCI Executive Committee, and previously served as the national student representative. During his time in that position, he revived and hosted the National Student Conference at Ball State University. Rice has also organized and served as the technical director for a variety of other conferences, including the Ball State University Festival of New Music, the Threshold Festival, the SPLICE Festival and Institute, and the SCI National Conference.
Rice holds a Bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition from Concordia College, a Master’s degree in music composition from Bowling Green State University, and a Doctor of Arts in music composition from Ball State University. He has studied with Elainie Lillios, Christopher Dietz, Michael Pounds, Jody Nagel, Keith Kothman, Daniel Breedon, and Steven Makela.
Rice currently works as an assistant professor of multimedia arts technology at Western Michigan University.
Robert Seaback, Treasurer
Statement:
Dear SEAMUS Community:
For nearly a decade, I have benefited from my SEAMUS membership as a student composer/performer, student commission winner, and Music from SEAMUS CD artist. I appreciate the platform SEAMUS provides for composers and performers of experimental electronic music—for the presentation of work, public distribution, and the facilitation of new works. As the organization embarks on a new phase—driven by the prospect of an expanded audience and a more inclusive membership base—I look forward to advocating positive change and I hope to give something back to the SEAMUS community through the position of Treasurer.
I have held other important service positions during my Ph.D. Fellowship at the University of Florida, including Treasurer of the Fine Arts College Council (FACC) from 2013-16, an umbrella group that encompasses many student organizations within the College of the Arts. In this position, I was responsible for the approval and allocation of a $30,000 annual budget for student groups within our network—utilized primarily for guest artist honorariums, student travel/conference attendance, and event production. I also helped students acquire funding that went beyond the scope of FACC by offering instruction on how to petition other college councils/university entities for support. In 2015, I helped organize a successful petition to the College of the Arts and Student Government Acquisitions for the purchase of an octophonic sound system (Genelec) to be used exclusively by members of the FACC for installation or concert works. FACC sponsorship is the primary source of funding for the annual Florida Contemporary Music Festival held at UF, with which we have hosted notable artists including Robert Normandeau, Aaron Cassidy, Keith Kirchoff, Katharina Rosenberger, Bold City Contemporary Ensemble, and the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo.
At the heart of my interest in serving the UF College of the Arts and SEAMUS is the desire to enable publicly accessible art experiences in whatever capacity I am able to. Sound arts are absolutely vital in the larger world of multimedia and performance, and it is exciting to see our practice expand into more diverse modes of creation. It would be a pleasure to channel my prior service experiences in the position of SEAMUS Treasurer as we, as a community, move toward a paradigm of art-making focused on education and inclusion as much as experimental practice and technology.
Biography:
Robert Seaback is a composer and sound artist exploring the semiotic differences between acoustic and synthetic or digitally mediated sources—an approach inspired by the dualistic nature of digitized sound when conceptualized both as an informational entity and an acoustic phenomenon.
He holds a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Florida and degrees in music and technology from Northeastern University and Mills College. He currently teaches courses in music technology at the University of Florida.
SECRETARY
Olga Oseth, Secretary
Statement:
Dear SEAMUS,
I would like to be considered for secretary position of SEAMUS Board. SEAMUS is a great community for artists, educators, students, creativity and learning to come together. Attending and performing at SEAMUS as a student these past several years taught me so many things about electronic music, art of installations and academia. Being an adjudicator for the past three years taught me how to put to use critical listening skills, I learned as a student. SEAMUS has been a great place for me to learn and I am excited to continue learning by being involved with SEAMUS organization. It is time for me to give back to SEAMUS community. I would like to help SEAMUS continue to grow to be inclusive of variety of musical works as well as create more opportunities for students to learn and experience professional music organization. As a young professional, I bring my friendly, hardworking personality, my love for music and creative thinking. Thank you for your time and consideration, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely, Olga Oseth
Biography:
Olga Oseth is a sound artist, composer and pianist. She specializes in live, interactive performance with data-driven instruments, sound design and composition. Olga has completed her Masters of Music in Intermedia Music Technology and now finishing her Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in Data-driven instrument performance at the University of Oregon. She also received Bachelors of Music in Piano Performance and Bachelors of Arts in New Media and Composition from St. Cloud State University, MN. Her native country is Ukraine, where she started taking piano lessons at the age of 5. She has been an active musician in Oregon and Minnesota communities and has won several piano competitions. Olga’s work have been presented through out the United States of America and Internationally at conferences such as: Kyma International Sound Symposium, International Computer Music Conference, Society of Electro Acoustic Music in the United States, and Women in Music Technology conferences. Olga’s work can be heard on SEAMUS Vol. 26 CD as well as on her website at https://olgaoseth.wixsite.com/website
Joshua Tomlinson, Secretary
Statement:
Thank you for your time and consideration of my application for the Secretary position at SEAMUS. I started creating electroacoustic music in 2011 and have since participated at festivals across the country, including SEAMUS, NYCEMF, PARMA, NSEME, EMM, and most recently EABD. I have enjoyed meeting other artists at these conferences, hearing their music and their stories, and while it has been great to be a contributor, the last few years I have had a growing desire to give back to the electroacoustic community in more tangible ways. I think serving as this organization’s Secretary for a season would be a step in that direction.
I do have committee and administrative experience to offer. I have been privileged to serve as an audio technician and steering committee member for the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival for several years. That work has offered me a look into what it takes to serve other creatives and has whetted my appetite for more administrative responsibilities, as these positions are often the most crucial for making great events survive and thrive.
During my DMA studies at the University of Oklahoma, I served as Vice-Chair (2015-2016) and Chair (2016-2017) of the Ways and Means Committee of the Graduate Student Senate. This gave me an important behind-the-scenes view into the university’s systems for funding student research and conferences. Additionally, I have served as a submissions and event coordinator for the ‘inner sOUndscapes’ concert series at the University of Oklahoma and the National Student Electronic Music Event the year it was hosted at OU.
I would like to continue to serve the electroacoustic music community by actively participating in the administrative work that makes valuable organizations like SEAMUS and the conferences it hosts possible.
Thank you again for considering me for this position.
Sincerely,
Joshua D. Tomlinson DMA Composition, ABD
Biography:
Joshua Tomlinson is a composer, sound artist and teacher specializing in electroacoustic music and technology. Originally from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, his background is in rock music with subsequent classical training in voice and guitar, and his compositions incorporate a wide range of musical styles, instrumentation and media.
Highlights of his recent creative work includes a collaborative ballet with choreographer Boyko Dossev and World Literature Today Magazine. He composed the music for Sand, based on the short story by German author Jenny Erpenbeck. It premiered in March at the magazine’s 50th Anniversary Puterbaugh Festival. Joshua has also been an active participant in an ongoing interactive sculpture project titled The Monkey Wrench Sessions that explores active conversation through visual art and sound with artist Daren Kendall.
This past September Ravello Records published Joshua’s fixed media composition, Convergences on the compilation album Mind & Machine Vol. 2. Convergences was also recently accepted for performance in England at the University of Sheffield in the BFE/RMA Student Researchers’ Conference for 2019. Last month Joshua was at Jacksonville University where he performed his theater piece A Short Story, which utilizes a typewriter and lamp to trigger live electronics that advance the narrative.
Joshua serves on the steering committee of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and he has participated as a composer and technician at NYCEMF since 2012. His compositions have also been performed at the PARMA, NSEME, SEAMUS, EMM, and EABD music festivals.
Joshua is currently A.B.D. for his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Oklahoma. His primary instructor is Dr. Konstantinos Karathanasis.
When he isn’t composing or teaching music, Joshua enjoys surfing, reading and traveling with his wife.