Thursday – March 5, 2020
Opening Night Party and Nightlife 1
UCM Art Gallery in the Arts Center
7:00pm
(20 minute sets)
- Benjamin Penwell/Izi Austin – look love, see how each of us is a wilderness, for violin and laptop
- Brian Riordan/Jake Sentgeorge – Elk Splat, for voice and electronics
- Daniel McKemie – Live Code Synthesizer Control Etude #1
*****
look love, see how each of us is a wilderness
izi ocean, violin
benjamin j. penwell, electronics
Originally hailing from the West Coast, Benjamin J. Penwell is a composer and sound artist based out of Chicago. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition & Music Technology at Northwestern University under Alex Mincek. He previously did his Master’s degree at Boston University under Joshua Fineberg and his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon under Robert Kyr and David Crumb (composition) and Jeffery Stolet (electronic composition). His work focuses on the mysticism of time and on soundscape-oriented composition. In recent years, his work has increasingly focused on the use of technology including electroacoustic work, live-electronic processing, sound art installation work, Max/MSP, Arduino, sensor data, and custom-built electronics in an electroacoustic music context.
Izi Austin is a composer and violinist based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her music explores interactions between sound and the body, as well exploring the fragile sentimentality of life in a postmodern world. She has a love of all things accidental, broken, and forgotten, which often inspires her compositional work. Her work as a composer also draws from her experience in music production and her past work on both sides of the recording booth as a recorded performer and as a recording engineer. As a performer, she is an advocate for new music and promotes collaboration between composers and performers to emphasize the permeability of the two artistic processes. Since 2014, she has premiered over 50 newly composed works, as well as performing and recording her own music. She is currently in her final year of her Masters Degree in Composition at Boston University, where she is a student of Dr. Joshua Fineberg. Previously she attended the University of Oregon, where she earned degrees in both Composition and Violin Performance studying under Dr. Robert Kyr and Dr. Kathryn Lucktenberg, respectively.
*****
Elk Splat
Brian Riordan, Electronics
Jake Sentgeorge, Voice
In this poem, Elk Splat, the poet Taneum Bambrick makes violence, rural living, class conflict, and ecological devastation into a funny poem. She worked summers as a 19 year old woman on an all-male trash-picking crew in Washington state. Her collection Vantage is rooted in that experience. Brian Riordan and Jake Sentgeorge present the poem as a jumping off point for an improvised piece of meditation these themes.
Brian Riordan is a composer, performer, improviser, producer, and sound artist originally from Chicago, IL. He is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow and a PhD candidate in Music Composition and Theory at University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches a class he designed called “Programming Environments in Music: An Introduction to Max/MSP”. His research interests are in temporal discontinuity, delay-based performance, real-time digital signal processing, and laptop performance aesthetics. As an avid collaborator, he has performed in numerous ensembles ranging from rock, jazz, classical, and experimental throughout North American, Europe, and Asia. His compositions have been performed by The JACK Quartet, The Callithumpian Consort, Wet Ink Ensemble, andPlay, The Meridian Arts Ensemble, Kamraton, Untwelve, The H2 Quartet, Alia Musica, Wolftrap, and his compositions have been featured at STEIM, SEAMUS, SICPP, New Music On The Point, SPLICE, EABD, and The Walden Creative Musicians Retreat. As a member of the Pittsburgh ensemble “How Things Are Made,” he produced and performed on over 70 albums for the group and have commissioned 52 compositions.
Tenor Jacob Sentgeorge has enjoyed sharing music with audiences in oratorio, concert, and recital performances across the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Italy. In 2017 he completed a national call for new works for voice and electronics, followed by a national concert tour of these works. In November 2019 he performed his original composition “Brownshirts in the Hundred Acre Wood” at the 9th Annual Electroacoustic Barn Dance in Jacksonville, FL, an international festival of electroacoustic performers/composers. He has also performed often as a soloist with the chamber ensemble Spire in Kansas City, following successful performances of Baroque music with Pro Music Colorado and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Sentgeorge received the Doctor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Indiana University, where he studied with Mary Ann Hart, with a dissertation focused on the songs of Charles Ives. He has taught Applied Voice, Diction, Vocal Literature, and directed in both Opera Workshop and Musical Theatre productions. He has served at University of Central Missouri as Assistant and Associate Professor since 2008.
*****
Live Code Synthesizer Control Etude #1
Daniel McKemie, computer & modular synthesizer
This work is one in a series that explores the relationship between live coding and control signals of a modular synthesizer. In this first etude, using ChucK, control signals are coded, generated and sent out to the modular synthesizer in real time, allowing the performer to explore two planes of performance tools.
Daniel McKemie (né Steffey) is an electronic musician, percussionist, and composer based in New York City. Currently, he is focusing on technology that seeks to utilize the internet and browser technology to realize a more accessible platform for multimedia art. He is also researching and developing new ways to interface modular synthesizers to software and vice versa. This recent work has allowed for complex, interactive performance environments to emerge, in which the software generates compositional processes and actions in the form of control voltage generation sent to the synthesizer, and conversely can analyze control voltage signals from the synthesizer to determine future activity.