- Lars Bröndum and Ander Sjölin—Descending into the NOW!—15:00 (s)
- Chloe Liuyan Liu—Culture is the Body IV-Toward the Ground—8:50 (s)
- Mike Frengel—Fireflies—9:00 (s)
- Mark Zaki—Masks—9:00 (s)
- Seth Shafer—r u ok—13:45 (8)
Lars Bröndum and Ander Sjölin—Descending into the NOW!—15:00 (s)
The duo explores the immersion through live perfromance with hardware electronics. The instantaneous interraction in the now emerges between two live improvisers. Textures and sound environments are explored in the digital and analog realms. The duo Brytpunkt 2 works with improvised live electronics and have played around Sweden at for example in Stockholm, Vadstena, Norrköping, Gothenburgh etc. Their main philosphy is to coax and tweak analog and digital hardware synthesizers to the edge. Their music ranges from GRM-like micro sounds fabrics to noise structues.
Anders Sjölin: live-electronics, is a senior lecturer at the University Skövde and teaches experimental sound and music. Sjölin has a doctorate in music at the University of Westminster, London. He specializes in the perception of constructed sound environments. He frequently performs live with Lars Bröndum in the duo Brytpunkt 2.
Lars Bröndum: live-electronics: live electronics is a professor in music at the University of Skövde and teaches music theory & composition and experimental sound and music. Bröndum has a doctorate in music theory and composition at the University of Pittsburgh. He specializes in interaction between live electronics and acoustic instruments. He frequently performs live with Anders sjölin in the duo Brytpunkt 2.
Chloe Liuyan Liu—Culture is the Body IV-Toward the Ground—8:50 (s)
The interactive music series Culture is the Body is a response to the Japanese theatre director Tadashi Suzuki’s book of the same title. Suzuki’s insistence on the use of animal energy in theatre impactfully calls for a re-evaluation of our relationship with our body in the modern world. Stomping on the floor is the starting point in Suzuki’s training method. It is through stomping that our body establishes a communication with the ground, anew, and therefore encourages a stronger body awareness.
In an age where technology is rapidly advancing, I urge us to pause and reflect on our
physical existence through this interactive music series. Can we still feel our body? Can we bring our body with us into the next development of technology? In Toward the Ground, the fourth exploration of Culture is the Body, two performers explore the physical energy through stomping. Their stomping is in a constant interaction with triggered electronic music. I want to express my deepest thanks to Drew Neal for this pleasant and inspiring collaboration. Drew’s personality as a percussionist and artist provided the crucial direction for this work. While we did not have the fortune to be strictly trained in Suzuki’s method, we created this work using our basic body’s instincts in the hope to bring the animal energy back to the stage and ordinary life.
I humbly present this work in homage to Tadashi Suzuki and in dedication to Mr. Derek
Roberts and Mrs. Robin Roberts.
Liuyan Liu is a composer who earned her Master of Music in Music Composition from Indiana University in May 2023, following her Bachelor of Music in Composition at Wheaton College in 2021. In 2019, she achieved recognition by winning both the Schultheis Composition Competition Award and the Josephine Halvorsen Memorial Composition Prize. Liu has studied composition under professors such as Shawn Okpebeholo, Xavier Beteta, David Dzubay, Annie Gosfield, and Han Lash. She also pursued a minor in computer music under the direction of John Gibson and Chi Wang. During her time at Indiana University, she focused on interactive music with data-driven instruments for her computer music compositions. Additionally, she has gained experience in conducting through instruction from Jerry Blackstone, Mary Hopper, Daniel Sommerville, and John William Trotter. She served as the Honors Conductor for both the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra and the Wheaton College Women’s Chorale.
Mike Frengel—Fireflies—9:00 (s)
Hundreds of luminous yellow points in the distance, hovering, slowly pulsating, some near, some far—a mesmerizing natural light show. Fireflies in inspired by the beautifully strange behavior of these little insects and the countryside they inhabit. The guitar is placed in an open tuning and prepared with a third bridge—a wooden dowel inserted between the strings and fretboard and positioned at the 10th fret. The guitar is played face-up on the lap with left and right hands engaging both front and back tones. Aside from fingernails, a small variety of objects are used to engage the strings.
Mike Frengel is a composer, performer, researcher, software developer, and educator. He holds degrees in electroacoustic music from San Jose State University, Dartmouth College and City University, London. Mike had the great fortune to study with Jon Appleton, Charles Dodge, Larry Polansky, Denis Smalley, Allen Strange, and Christian Wolff. His works have received international recognition and have been included on the Sonic Circuits VII, ICMC’95, CDCM Vol.26, 2000 Luigi Russolo and ICMC 2009 compact discs and are performed at music events around the world. His book, The Unorthodox Guitar: A Guide to Alternative Performance Practice, is available through Oxford University Press. His latest compact disc, Music for Guitar and Electronics, is available through Ravello Records. Mike is currently on the faculty of the music department at Northeastern University, where he teaches courses in music technology. He is also founder of Boom Audio Technologies, LLC, a software company devoted to bringing high-quality audio software to market. Their first product is Soundbug, an audio editor for macOS.
Mark Zaki—Masks—9:00 (s)
“Below the surface I lie dreaming,
haunting images, in all colours and black.
Sunlit sometimes there is no sun there.
I keep the dream below the surface,
the cracked mask absolute.”
― Wynand de Beer
Mark Zaki’s intermedia work often considers how modes of perception are changing in modern life. Probing subjects such as authenticity of identity, self-curation, and virtual anonymity, a central question asks about our view of personal interaction in a contemporary world. Many of his pieces are populated with uncanny characters that become fragmented in their relationships to their environment and their own identity. His work is influenced by visual music practice and music composition, aesthetically referencing visual abstraction, non-conventional film, and montage.
Zaki’s work has been presented by the Composers Concordance in NYC, NY Philharmonic Biennial, National Sawdust, New Adventures in Sound Art (Toronto), the Boston and NYC Visual Music Marathons, the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, Third Practice, the Not Still Art Festival (NYC),Nuit Bleue (France), the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, SEAMUS, Primavera en La Habana (Cuba), and the Pulse Field International Exhibition of Sound Art (Atlanta).
His commercial work includes more than 50 films, television programs, theater productions and recordings for PBS, Paramount TV, Disney, Touchstone Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures, Sony/Classical, and Chandos. His most recent score was for the five-part docuseries Missing Kenley for Terra Incognita Films. Dividing his time between New York City and Princeton NJ, Zaki is currently Professor of Music at Rutgers University-Camden, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2008.
Seth Shafer—r u ok—13:45 (8)
Shelby VanNordstrand, soprano
do you love dark, heavy, dark heart, dark heart, dark heart music (in a whole new world)? In a whole new world it’s all wrong, wrong, wrong. But when you hear it, lock the car door and turn it up, yeah, heavy (mmm), heavy (so hard), it’s heavy (drum hit), heavy (pound it, pound it in my head, kick so hard, oooh) — what the? — love trickles gently but constantly accuses you like a precious treasure.
Seth Shafer is a composer and researcher whose work hybridizes technology, new media, and art/science. His artistic practice represents musical exploration at the extreme edge of performance where he often looks for opportunities to explore ephemerality and multiplicity. This often involves performance situations that have limited or impossible rehearsal scenarios, purposeful impediments to ensemble coordination, live sight-reading, and unavoidable failure. Seth is Assistant Professor of Music Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and holds degrees from the University of North Texas and California State University, Long Beach.
Shelby VanNordstrand is an Associate Professor of Voice and Voice Area Coordinator at the University of Nebraska Omaha. You can hear her on the recently released album “Storms & Stars, songs for soprano and piano by Jodi Goble”. She was awarded a finalist honorable mention in The American Prize, Women in Art Song in 2023. As a teacher, her students have been named winners of the NATS Student Auditions at the state, regional, and national levels and winners of the NOA’s Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition. She currently serves on the National Opera Association Board and the Opera Omaha Advisory Board.
www.shelbyvannordstrand.com, insta: @shelbyvn