Friday – March 6, 2020 – Concert 2 – 4pm – Hart Recital Hall

Concert 2 – 4pm – Hart Recital Hall

  • Jeff Kaiser/Albert Kim – Improvising Machine #1347: Dances Apropos of Nothing, for Piano-shaped table, Push 2, Melodica, Laptop, and Human
  • Sean Hamilton – Thank you for everything. I had a really nice time, for feedback and technical equipment
  • Daniel McKemie – Feedback Study No. 3, for modular synthesizer and web browser
  • Eric Sheffield – Hydrokardia, a telematic composition for two laptop performers
  • Gabrielle Cerberville – Phases, for solo electronic instrument
  • John Ritz – Chance Designs n.4, for percussion, analog synthesizer, adaptive digital signal processing
  • Michael Wittgraf – Laissez Vibrer, for gopichand and live electronics

*****

Improvising Machine #1347: Dances Apropos of Nothing, for Piano, Push 2, Melodica, Laptop, and Human

Jeff Kaiser, composer
Albert Kim, piano and melodica

The latest in Jeff Kaiser’s work using machines and humans that make their own decisions.

Jeff Kaiser (Ph.D. in Music, Integrative Studies, University of California, San Diego) is a music technologist, trumpet player, composer, conductor, and scholar. Classically trained as a trumpet player, Dr. Kaiser now views his traditional instrument as hybrid with new technology in the form of software and hardware interfaces that he creates for his performances and recordings. Dr. Kaiser gains inspiration and ideas from the intersections of experimental composition and improvisation and the timbral and formal affordances provided by combining traditional instruments with emerging technologies. The roots of his music are firmly in the experimental traditions within jazz, improvised, and Western art music practices. Dr. Kaiser considers his art audio-centric, but he also works with live video, tracking, and interactive technologies. He has performed in China, Mexico, and throughout Europe and the United States. His work is featured on Clean Feed Records, Leo Records, NineWinds, Cuneiform Records, and his own label, pfMENTUM, among others.

Embracing the idea of being an artist/scholar, Dr. Kaiser has also presented at national conferences, including the Society for Ethnomusicology, the International Society for Improvised Music, SPARK, and invited presentations at colleges and universities. His scholarly work ethnographically explores contemporary musicians who use new, repurposed and reinvented electronic technologies, and critically examines how these musicians conceptualize their practice. He is particularly interested in changing notions of agency, instruments, and virtuosity, and how artists, audiences, and critics construct what is valuable and desirable in these emerging fields. In addition to documenting how creative individuals configure technologies for their own purposes, Dr. Kaiser argues that technologies can also configure musicians and musical communities by affording specific ways of creating sonic and social value.

American pianist Albert Kim engages listeners across the country with energetic and unconventional readings of the solo and chamber repertory. He made his formal recital debuts in the United States and Europe as a Carnegie Hall/European Concert Hall Organization Rising Star, followed by recitals at Ravinia, Caramoor and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as pianist of the former Kim-Jacobsen-Arron Trio. He has performed and taught at the Castleman Quartet Program, Dakota Sky International Piano Festival, Neskowin Chamber Music, Reinhardt Piano Festival and Academy, Dongfang Arts School (Shanghai), Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Texas State University, University of Central Florida, University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, Linfield College and the San Francisco International Piano Festival. An active arranger, he frequently performs his own solo transcription of Ravel’s La Valse and directed the world premiere of his chamber instrumental score of Richard Strauss’s Salome in 2014.

Dr. Kim holds degrees from Harvard University and the Eastman School of Music and completed his formal training with Natalya Antonova and Solomon Mikowsky. He is dedicated to the premise that music, whether created today or centuries ago, belongs to those who free themselves of tradition and seek their own voice through a total knowledge of their craft. He is a New Piano Collective artist and the pianist of TableTop Opera, a multimedia performance collective based in Rochester, New York.

*****

Thank you for everything. I had really nice time.

Sean Hamilton, composer
Sean Hamilton, electronics

“Thank you for everything. I had a really nice time.” explores an interest in the use of feedback and technical equipment as a means of creative expression. The work is performed using a setup that includes graphic equalizers, homemade instruments, and droning instruments configured in such a way to produce various types of feedback and sustained tones.

Sean Hamilton is an experimental percussionist, composer, and improviser currently based in western Colorado. His work primarily focuses on creating musical structures and opportunities that blend composed elements with improvisation, taking influence from avant-garde and experimental music, free improvisation, electroacoustic music, noise, and sound art. Sean has performed throughout the United States and in Europe with notable performances including the Interference Series, the Skronk Sessions, Oakland Freedom Jazz Society, the Racer Sessions, MOXSonic, and SEAMUS National Conference. Sean has also presented guest lectures and clinics at various universities in the United States and United Kingdom, including the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Arizona State University, New York University, Goldsmiths University of London, the University of Leeds, and City University of London. In addition to his creative practice, Sean is an audio engineer specializing in live sound production, and has produced audio for the St. Petersburg Opera (FL), the Vail Dance Festival, Jason Marsalis 21st Century Trad Band, the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, and the Florida Dance Festival. Sean holds a Master of Music degree from the University of South Florida and a BM from Slippery Rock University. He is proud to perform exclusively with Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets and Grover Pro Percussion instruments and accessories.

*****

Feedback Study No. 3

Daniel McKemie

Daniel McKemie, laptop and electronics

I have constructed a modern use and widely accessible version of Pauline Oliveros’ Tape Delay Feedback System in the web browser using JavaScript and the Web Audio API, and will be showcasing the usage of the system in performance with a modular synthesizer and an inexpensive Google Chromebook laptop.  Live performance of the system is enhanced by allowing the user to connect and assign any standard MIDI controller to the elements on the web page, connected using the Web MIDI API. I would like to take the performance time to demonstrate how a classic system developed by one of the pioneering figures in electronic music, can be adapted for modern use and demonstrate the accessibility of power music making tools to those who may have historically been discounted.

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.

*****

Hydrokardia

Eric Sheffield, audio and networking. Anna Weisling, visuals.

Eric Sheffield, laptop. Anna Weisling, remote laptop.

Hydrokardia is a telematic composition for two laptop performers. The performers actuate (via touchscreens) a low-frequency physics-based model that resembles a wave when set into motion. Vibrations in the higher-level wave model generate audiovisual events as they propagate through the structure. Control of the wave and audiovisual parameters is split between the two remote performers. As such, the performance is a culmination of their collective activity within the structure of the virtual instrument.

Eric Sheffield is a musician and maker currently interested in physics-based modeling, networked performance, and popular music. He recently completed a PhD in the Experimental Music & Digital Media program at Louisiana State University. Eric is a founding member of the group Bell Monks, which has several releases available at music.bellmonks.com and on clang (clang.cl). He currently teaches music and sound engineering as an assistant professor at SUNY Broome.

Anna Weisling enjoys exploring the relationship between sound and image and the performance possibilities shared by both. She has a Master’s degree in Sonic Arts from Queen’s University Belfast and is currently pursuing a PhD in Digital Media at Georgia Tech. 

*****

Phases

Gabrielle Cerberville, composer, creative alchemist.

Elizabeth A. Baker, performer, New Renaissance Artist

I wrote “Phases” during a period of very deep depression while on residency in Iceland. The lack of daylight was disorienting and left me feeling constantly exhausted, and the weather was not cooperating with what I had proposed to do with my time there. I was tired of putting notes on a page, and unable to acquire the materials I thought I needed to complete the work I wanted to make. However, through this depression and darkness, I found that sometimes a little light is all that you need. “Phases” speaks to my own journey of learning to open myself up to new possibilities, but it also pays tribute to the transformative power of perspective. This, again, was a direct reflection of the space I was in, and involved a sort of manipulation of my surroundings to recreate an overwhelming landscape in my own image. “Phases” was hand-drawn using drafting tools with ink pen, and painted using watercolors and ink. It is to be performed by an electronic instrument of the player’s choosing, and duration is variable.

Gabrielle Cerberville:
Gabrielle Cerberville (b. 1991 in Sleepy Hollow, NY) is a curious American composer, creative alchemist, and pianist. She writes with an experimental flair that is at once familiar and alien, and her work regularly blends the lines between disciplines and discrete art forms. Her music explores such themes as landscape, disappearing, insecurity, grief, and image. She holds a Bachelor of Music from Butler University in composition and theory, and has studied traditional and electronic composition with Drs. Frank Felice and Michael Schelle. Gabrielle’s works have been featured across the US and Europe. She has been honored with residencies at Listhus in Iceland, Arts Letters and Numbers in New York, NES in Iceland, and Indy Convergence in Indianapolis, and she has been invited to attend several festivals, including highSCORE, SPLICE, EMM, Skammdegi, A! Festival, and MOXsonic. Gabrielle’s striking and unusual compositions have been highlighted by the artistic talents of Elizabeth A. Baker, Ascending Duo, Circuit721, Sotto Voce, DISEnsemble, Forward Motion, Verdant Vibes, and others. Gabrielle currently lives in an RV on a farm in rural Indiana and runs a low-cost veterinary clinic, in addition to her artistic activities.

Elizabeth A. Baker:
Eschewing the collection of traditional titles that describe single elements of her body of work, Elizabeth refers to herself as a “New Renaissance Artist” that embraces a constant stream of change and rebirth in practice, which expands into a variety of media, chiefly an exploration of how sonic and spatial worlds can be manipulated to personify a variety of philosophies and principles both tangible as well as intangible. Elizabeth has received recognition from press as well as scholars, for her conceptual compositions and commitment to inclusive programming. In addition to studies of her work, Elizabeth has been awarded several fellowships, grants, and residencies, in addition to sponsorships from Schoenhut Piano Company and Source Audio LLC. As an experimental filmmaker, her work has been shown at festivals including Women of the Lens (United Kingdom), and the African Smartphone International Film Festival (Nigeria). As a solo recording artist, Elizabeth is represented by Aerocade Music, her first solo album on the California-based label Quadrivium released worldwide in May 2018 to rave reviews. She is founder of the Florida International Toy Piano Festival, The New Music Conflagration, Inc., author of three books, and the subject of a number of scholarly articles, thesis papers, and other academic research. In March 2018, Elizabeth retired from nonprofit arts administration to focus on her international solo career, though she remains committed to the community through workshops and public speaking engagements. Elizabeth is a recipient of a 2019-2020 Individual Artist Grant from the State of Florida as well as a commission for The Great Black Music Ensemble through the American Composers Forum (ACF) Connect programme in partnership with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM Chicago). 

*****

Chance Designs n.4, for percussion, analog synthesizer, adaptive digital signal processing

John Ritz

Performers:
Greg Byrne, percussion
John Ritz, synthesizer & electronics

Chance: a possibility of something happening.

Design: purpose, planning, or intention that exists or is thought to exist behind an action, fact, or material object.

Chance Designs explores notions of chaos theory within the context of sound. A networked system of musicians, instruments, microphones, loudspeakers, and digital signal processing algorithms is established – there is a possibility of something happening. From the very first sound produced (system input), a process of interaction between the musicians and computer proceeds purely in the sound domain. Musical form (design) is then considered an emergent property of this dynamical system of sonic interactions. 

Dr. Greg Byrne is Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Louisville. Byrne is the recipient of the 2012 Kentucky Music Educators Association’s “Teacher of the Year” award. He is consistently honored as a Faculty Favorite and was featured as a University of Louisville Top Ten Faculty Favorites in 2004. Dr. Byrne is an Educational Artist for REMO, Inc. and VIC FIRTH, Inc. He has performed in Japan on several occasions, where he was a member of the Hidano/Byrne Duo, endorsed by VIC FIRTH, Inc. to present children’s concerts. The most notable was at the elementary school in Miyako which was devastated by the 2011 Tsunami. He serves as an advocate for musicians with disabilities through his educational DVD, “Opportunity to Succeed”. Through this role, he has presented at the International Conference for the Arts and Humanities in Hawaii, the College Band Directors National Association Southern Conference in Mississippi, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, and he presented the Keynote Address at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference. He is portrayed by actor Judge Reinhold in the movie “I Am Potential”, based on the book by Patrick Henry Hughes.

Dr. John Ritz is Assistant Professor of Composition & Creative Studies and Director of the Music & New Media program at the University of Louisville School of Music. His recent concert music focuses on chamber music for instruments and interactive computer systems. He has received recognitions for his work from the ASCAP/Morton Gould Composer Awards, the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition, the 21st Century Piano Commission Competition, the Forum Biennial Musiques en Scène, and the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. Ritz’s music has been performed throughout the United States, as well as in France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Canada, and Chile, and has been performed at various conferences and festivals of new music.

*****

Laissez Vibrer

Michael Wittgraf

Michael Wittgraf, gopichand and computer

Laissez Vibrer was composed in 2019 using samples from artwork created by University of North Dakota Art alumnus Jesse Boushee, who was a student at the time. For his senior show, Mr. Boushee created several interactive works using found objects, metal, and musical instrument strings. The pieces are intended to be handled and “played” by the observer. Some of them have guitar pickup installed in order to allow for amplification. Laissez Vibrer uses audio recordings of Mr. Boschee’s art, which are processed and triggered by the performer using a stringed instrument of their choosing.  This performance uses a gopichand. All sounds either originate from Mr. Bouchee’s instruments, or are produced live by the performer.

Michael Wittgraf is an electronic music composer whose recent work explores live manipulation of feedback, interactive improvisation, and time as data.  His music has been performed in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia, and appears on the Ravello, Eroica, New Ariel, and SEAMUS labels.  He has awards, commissions, and recognition from ASCAP, Modern Chamber Players, National Symphony Orchestra, Tempus Fugit, Louisiana State University, University of Minnesota, University of North Dakota, Florida State University, PiKappa Lambda, Zeitgeist, Chiara String Quartet, Bush Foundation, North Dakota Council on the Arts, and more.
Mike is a multi-instrumentalist, having performed with the Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra on bassoon, in a number of rock-and-roll bands on keyboards, saxophone, and electric bass, and as a solo and collaborative performer on computer.  He holds the title of Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor at the University of North Dakota, where his teaching specialties are music technology, composition, theory, and bassoon.

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