Author Archives: jo57@nyu.edu

3 early may concerts at or with NYU composers and performers

Ensemble mise-en continues its ACOUSTIC+ series tonight Friday, May 1st (8:00 p.m. at MISE-EN_PLACE Bushwick, 678 Hart St., #1B): ensemble mise-en presents ACOUSTIC+ #4. Works by Timucin Sahin, Ryan Olivier, Taylor Brook, Joe Pfender, and Jason H Mitchell. Admission: $15 More info here.

First Performance continues the waverly~project:

Monday, May 4th (7:00 p.m., Silver 220): Marcella Lucatelli, singer/ performer/ improviser, is invited to give a concert where seven new works for voice and other mediums (computers, live electronics, lights, video-projection, sensors etc) will be premiered, including a new work by Bernardo Barros. more info here.

Tuesday, May 5th (7:00 p.m., Silver 220): Mirjam Frank, singer/performer, is invited to give a concert where works by John Cage, Claudio Monteverdi, and Cathy Berberian will be performed. The composition seminar will meet right after the end of this concert, and there will be an open discussion about the works performed in these two concerts. more info here.

Waverly Project – Festival of New Music by Graduate Student Composers

Starting tomorrow, NYU Music will present the Waverly ~ Project Festival with concerts by Talea Ensemble, Iktus Percussion, ensemble mise-en, The Soon-Another & Bernardo Barros, with works by Angelakis, Barros, Beeferman, Camara Halac, Fournet, Kern, Rust, Sahin, Wang Jie, Wang Jue, & Young HA.

Thursday, April 16, 8pm: Talea Ensemble performs works by I. Angelakis, G. Beeferman, Wang Jie, T. Sahin, and Jue Wang.

Friday, April 17, 8pm: Iktus Percussion performs works by F. Cámara-Halac, J. Rust, and Moon Young followed by a live electroacoustic performance by Bernardo Barros and The Soon Another performs Colorwheel by Adele Fournet.

Saturday, April 18, 7:30pm: Mise-En Ensemble performs works by B. Barros, F. Cámara Halac, F. Kern, J. Rust, and Moon Young.

All concerts are free and open to the public at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center on 107 Suffolk (F M J Z to Delancey/Essex)

24.Mar.2015 Steve Antosca & Pictures on Silence + National Gallery of Art New Music Ensembles

WHEN: Tuesday, Mar. 24th, 10:00AM //// WHERE: NYU Music Dept. Rm 220 (24/32 Waverly Place, NY 10003) /// This event is free and open to the public.

DC-based Composer Steve Antosca will present his work My End is My Beggining, with live performances by harp-sax duo Pictures on Silence of Noah Getz and Jacqueline Pollauf and the National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble members Ross Karre on percussion and William Brent on electronics with guest pianist Jacob Greenberg from ICE.

bio

antosca The music of composer Steve Antosca focuses on the integration of instruments with computers. Through the realization of scores that combine elements of indeterminacy and traditional notation with technology, musicians craft sonically rich performance environments.

Named Artistic Director of the National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble, which he formed in 2010, Antosca was the Gallery’s composer-in-residence in the Fall of 2013. His compositions for the NGA NME blend the architectural resonances of the Gallery’s unique performance spaces with computer treatment of performers’ sounds to generate a rich fusion of sonic textures.

Antosca’s compositions have been described by the Washington Post as “spectacular, wonderfully provocative” and “a shimmering, multilayered sea of sound, surging with power under a surface of delicate detail — a fascinating dance between the human players and their electronic ghosts.”

Included among Antosca’s numerous awards and commissions are the American Composers Forum/Argosy Foundation, Bourges International Competitions, Chamber Music America and Pictures on Silence, DC Commission on the Arts, Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, Georgetown University, International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition from the National Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, Maryland State Arts Council, McKim Fund in the Library of Congress, Meet the Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, and the US Department of Education.

Antosca has a master’s degree in computer music composition from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University.

Ross Karre performing Antosca’s Habitat at the National Gallery of Art

Program Notes

my end is my beginning was commissioned by Chamber Music America in 2012 and composed for the Pictures on Silence duo and the National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble. The premiere performance took place in September 2013 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

A significant component of my end is my beginning is the use of real-time audio processing and spatialization over a multi-channel audio system. The technology for my end is my beginning was developed by computer musician William Brent in collaboration with the composer.

my end is my beginning employs a robust structural framework of layered material which generates overlapping patterns whose function is to connect instrument pairs. These pairings are sometimes exploited for their similarity, sometimes for their contrasting characteristics. These structural mappings generate a flowing textural thread providing continuity and movement throughout the piece.

The Ensemble

The ensemble performing today at NYU includes the Pictures on Silence duo of Noah Getz, saxophone, and Jacqueline Pollauf, harp, who commissioned the work through Chamber Music America, and National Gallery of Art New Music Ensemble members Ross Karre, percussion, and William Brent, computer musician. They are joined by pianist Jacob Greenberg.

This project is a collaboration between composer and performers who have exceptional ability and willingness to perform demanding contemporary music, and to seamlessly integrate their performance with imaginative and innovative technology.

10.Mar.2015 Steven Takasugi @ NYU Music – FAS

WHEN: Tuesday, Mar. 10th, 10:00AM //// WHERE: NYU Music Dept. Rm 220 (24/32 Waverly Place, NY 10003) /// This event is free and open to the public.

Steven Takasugi will present his recent work Slideshow.

bio

Steven Kazuo Takasugi, born 1960 in Los Angeles, studied composition with Noah Creshevsky, Bunita Marcus, Morton Feldman, Brian Ferneyhough, Joji Yuasa and Roger Reynolds (PhD chair), as well as computer music with Charles Dodge, F. Richard Moore, and Harold Cohen. His undergraduate work began at the University of California, Los Angeles and completed at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, City University of New York. He received his masters and doctoral degrees in composition from the University of California, San Diego and has held artists and guest residencies in Japan, Germany, France, Israel, Austria, and the United States.

His work has been presented worldwide including: Salt Festival, Victoria, British Columbia; Ensemble Dal Niente, Evanston; SiMN, Brazil; Forma Leipzig, Germany; Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore; Spark Festival, Minnesota; MusikFabrik, Cologne; University of North Texas, Denton; Acousmain, Frankfurt; E-werk, Freiburg; Transit Festival, Leuven, Belgium; Ultraschall and MaerzMusik, Berlin; HaTeiva, Jaffa, Israel; University College Cork, Ireland; Bucharest Academy of Music, Romania; Symphony Space, New York; Stockholm New Music; State Theater, Freiburg; Bludenz Festival for Contemporary Music, Austria; ISCM Geneva; ICMC Thessaloniki, Greece; IRCAM, Paris; Asia Music Week 2000, Yokohama; Tempus Novum, Tokyo; The Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing; the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, Germany.

He’s the recipient of numerous awards including a 2010 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Japan Foundation Artist Fellowship and Residency, a DAAD HSK Award, a Heinrich-Strobel Foundation Experimentalstudio Grant, an ASCAP Award, a UC Regents Fellowship, the Maxwell H. and Muriel Gluck Endowed Fellowship for Music Composition, a UCLA Pierre Boulez Residency, and a special scholarship from the Mayor of Darmstadt. He has lectured extensively and is author of many articles on New Music and aesthetics.

Takasugi is an Associate of the Harvard University Music Department and also Managing Director of its Summer Composition Institute. He is permanent faculty at the International Summer Academy for Composition, Academy Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and the Tzlil Meudcan Summer Course for Contemporary Performance and Composition in Israel. He has taught at the University of California, San Diego, the California Institute of the Arts, the Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo, HaTeiva in Jaffa, Israel, and the Dian Red Kechil International Young Composers Residency in Singapore. He is one of the founding editors of Search Journal for New Music and Culture and is co-director of the Darmstadt Forum at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Germany.

4.Mar.2015 Phil Niblock @ NYU Music – FAS

WHEN: Wednesday, Mar. 4th, 6:00PM //// WHERE: NYU Music Dept. Rm 220 (24/32 Waverly Place, NY 10003) /// This event is free and open to the public.

The legendary composer and film maker Phil Niblock will present some of his recent work.

bio

Phill Niblock makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, or computer driven black and white abstract images floating through time.

Phill Niblock is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video and computers. He makes thick, loud drones of music, filled with microtones of instrumental timbres which generate many other tones in the performance space. Simultaneously, he presents films / videos which look at the movement of people working, or computer driven black and white abstract images floating through time. He was born in Indiana in 1933. Since the mid-60’s he has been making music and intermedia performances which have been shown at numerous venues around the world among which: The Museum of Modern Art; The Wadsworth Atheneum; the Kitchen; the Paris Autumn Festival; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Akademie der Kunste, Berlin; ZKM; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard; World Music Institute at Merkin Hall NYC. Since 1985, he has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist/member since 1968. He is the producer of Music and Intermedia presentations at EI since 1973 (about 1000 performances) and the curator of EI’s XI Records label. In 1993 he was part of the formation of an Experimental Intermedia organization in Gent, Belgium – EI v.z.w. Gent – which supports an artist-in-residence house and installations there. Phill Niblock’s music is available on the XI, Moikai, Mode and Touch labels. A DVD of films and music is available on the Extreme label.

http://www.phillniblock.com/ ………. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phill_Niblock ………. http://www.experimentalintermedia.org/

26.Feb.15 Curtis Roads on “Rhythm in Electroacoustic Music”

WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 26th, 5:30PM (Dept. Colloquium Series) //// WHERE: NYU Music Dept. Rm 320 (24/32 Waverly Place, NY 10003) /// This event is free and open to the public.

Curtis Roads, (UC Santa Barbara), will present a lecture referencing his chapter Rhythm in Electroacoustic Music from his newest book Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic (Oxford Press, 2012) in the Department of Music Colloquium Series. He’ll also participate in the Spatialized Music Concert.

Bio

Curtis Roads creates, teaches, and pursues research in the interdisciplinary territory spanning music and sound technology. He studied computer music composition at California Institute of the Arts and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and received a Doctorate from the Université Paris 8.

He was Editor and Associate Editor of Computer Music Journal (The MIT Press) from 1978 to 2000, and cofounded the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) in 1979.

A researcher in computer music at MIT (1980-1986), he also worked in the software industry for a decade. He taught electronic music composition at Harvard University and sound synthesis techniques at the University of Naples. He was appointed Director of Pedagogy at Les Ateliers UPIC (later CCMIX) and Lecturer in the Music Department of the Université Paris 8.

Among his books are the anthologies Foundations of Computer Music(1985, The MIT Press) and The Music Machine (1989, The MIT Press). His textbook The Computer Music Tutorial (1996, The MIT Press) is widely adopted as a standard classroom text and has been published in French (1999, second edition 2007), Japanese (2001), and Chinese (forthcoming) editions. He edited the anthology Musical Signal Processing in 1997. His book, Microsound (2001, The MIT Press) presents the techniques and aesthetics of composition with sound particles.

A pioneer in the development of granular synthesis (1974), he also developed (with Alberto de Campo) the program PulsarGenerator (2001), distributed by the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE) at UCSB. Another invention is the Creatovox, an expressive instrument for virtuoso performance that is based on the synthesis of sound grains and other sound particles. The Creatovox, developed in collaboration with Alberto de Campo, was first demonstrated to the public in March 2000. In 2008, CREATE released EmissionControl, a new program for sound granulation written by David Thall in consultation with Curtis Roads.

His composition Clang-tint (1994) was commissioned by the Japan Ministry of Culture (Bunka-cho) and the Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo. His music is available on compact discs produced by the MIT Media Laboratory, Wergo, OR, Mode, and Asphodel. His collection of electronic music compositions POINT LINE CLOUD won the Award of Distinction at the 2002 Ars Electronica in Linz and was released as a CD + DVD on the Asphodel label in 2005.

He is keenly interested in the integration of electronic music with visual and spatial media, as well as the visualization and sonification of data.

Since 2004, he has been researching a new method of sound analysis that is the analytical counterpart of granular synthesis called dictionary-based pursuit (DBP). This research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation in 2007-2009.

Roads’s new book is Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic (forthcoming) Oxford University Press. A new revised edition of The Computer Music Tutorial by The MIT Press is also in progress.

24.Feb.15 Experimental Music and Sound Art from Spain through the work of Álvarez-Fernández, Ferrer-Molina, & Isaac Diego

WHEN: Tue, Feb. 24th, 10:30AM (Comp. Seminar) //// WHERE: NYU Music Dept. Rm 220 (24/32 Waverly Place, NY 10003)

abstract

The works of Ferrer-Molina, Isaac Diego and Miguel Álvarez-Fernández inhabit the margins between experimental music and sound art, while also exploring conceptual art, performance, experimental video and other possibilities for developing our relationship with sound. Their activities are channeled through concert pieces, sound installations, sculptures, curatorial projects and many other manifestations, which will be presented in this session.

The three Spanish artists also work as musicologists/sound theorists, researching the fields of sound art and experimental music, always in connection with their artistic endeavors. Their visit to the US is related to a lecture scheduled at Harvard University on February 26^th (where they will be joined by Prof. Jaime Oliver La Rosa; more info here).

Since 2014, Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Isaac Diego and Ferrer-Molina serve at the board of directors of the AMEE (Spanish Association for Electroacoustic Music), which —among many other activities— holds the annual festival “Punto de Encuentro” in different cities of Spain and abroad.

bios

Ferrer-Molina is a sound artist, musicologist, conductor and critic, with degrees in guitar, piano, choir conducting, music education, musicology and composition at different conservatories of Valencia and Madrid, Spain. He studied electroacoustic composition mostly at LEA (Conservatory of Valencia) and LIEM / CDMC (Reina Sofía, Madrid). Having finished his Masters degree, he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of Valencia under the guidance of Miguel Molina. He is the author of the upcoming book “Heterodoxy of the guitar. Taxonomy of new artistic practices”, by the “Notebooks of Fine Arts/Music Collection”.

Isaac Diego García (Madrid, 1978) is a musicologist, composer, sound artist, performer and singer. In 2011 he finished his Ph.D. in experimental music in Spain at the University of Oviedo. He has studied classic guitar, renaissance lute, voice and choir conducting at different conservatories in Madrid and Oviedo University, Spain. In 2009 he was a guest researcher at the Experimetal Intermedia Foundation of New York with the composer and video-artist Phill Niblock. Isaac Diego is a teacher of music at the International University of Rioja (UNIR) and the European University of Madrid (UEM).

Miguel Álvarez-Fernández is a sound artist, musicologist, sound theorist and curator, born in Madrid in 1979. After his studies in Composition at the Conservatory of El Escorial (Madrid), he was appointed composer-in-residence at the historical “Residencia de Estudiantes” between 2002 and 2005. He is finishing his Ph.D. in Musicology (M.A. from the University of Oviedo). Álvarez-Fernández is a teacher of music at the European University of Madrid (UEM) and since 2008 he hosts “Ars Sonora”, a weekly radio broadcast featuring experimental music and sound art aired on Radio Clásica/RNE (Spanish National Radio).

Abtan & Alessandrini Residence

Abtan, left; Alessandrini, right

Freida Abtan and Patricia Alessandrini from University of London, Goldsmiths are guest artists in residence at NYU Waverly Labs from February 10-March 1st. During this time they will be electronically augmenting NYU’s collection of early keyboard instruments towards the production of a new work inspired by the mythological story of Orpheus. The instruments will be on display as part of an installation in the Elmer Holmes Bobst library, and will be used in their performance in the ‘Spatialized Sound’ concert at Skirball Hall on 27 February, 8PM.

Patricia and Freida will be working in Room 219, so be sure to drop by if you’re interested in their work. We hope to program a presentation of their work in the department.

Spring-2015 @ Waverly Labs

This Spring Semester 2015 we have a lot of activity, some of which is outlined below.

New Spaces and Resources:

Room 365 is almost ready and we expect to be listening to new sounds through our 12 channel system in no time. Rooms 219 and 319 will undergo gradual renovation, but will be in working condition and gradually improving.

Guest Talks:

We’re delighted to have some amazing visitors such as Curtis Roads, (UC Santa Barbara), who will be presenting on February 26th Rhythm in Electroacoustic Music in the Department of Music Colloquium series from his newest book Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic (Oxford Press, 2012). He’ll also participate in the Spatialized Music Concert.

Phil Niblock

We’ll also have visits by Steven Takasugi, (Harvard / Schloss Academy) on March 10th and Steve Antosca on March 23rd, as well as the legendary Phil Niblock on March 5th, amongst many other visitors. But we start this coming Tuesday Feb 24th with a talk by spanish composers and sound Artists Miguel Alvarez Fernández, Issac Diego, and Ferrer Molina,

In Residence:

Patricia Alessandrini

This semester we’re excited to have several artists doing small residencies in our department:

Patricia Alessandrini and Freida Abtan from Goldsmiths, will be working in Room 219 on an installation for the Spatialized Music Concert curated by Elizabeth Hoffman at the Skirball Center on February 27.

Bryan Jacobs

Bryan Jacobs from Qubit/Columbia will also be working in Room 219 in a research collaboration with J. Oliver building a robotic arm for music performance, installation, and other sound explorations.

Concerts:

On February 27th, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society series sponsors a Spatialized Music Concert at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts with 5 world premieres or 2 nyc premieres of electroacoustic or mixed media by composers Patricia Alessandrini, Oliver, Hoffman, Curtis Roads, Eric Lyon, Spencer Topel, and Monique Jean, with the Flux Quartet and cellist Michael Nicolas.

On April 16, 17, and 18th, we launch the new waverly~project concert series by NYU composers with performances by Talea, Iktus percussion and ensemble Mise-En amongst many others!

Courses:

E. Hoffman will be teaching an undergraduate course on sonification and J. Oliver a graduate seminar on the interactions between sound and image.

More Information Soon…!

9.Dec.14 Ashley Fure on “Matter vs. Maker: Chaos and Creative Practice”

WHEN: Tue, Dec. 9th, 10:30AM (Comp. Seminar) //// WHERE: NYU Music Dept. Rm 220 (24/32 Waverly Place, NY 10003)

abstract

Despite their wildness, chaotic spectra are rich with acoustic detail that can inform broader musical structures. Sounds like scraped metal and bowed cardboard bring a visceral materiality that highlights the friction and muscularity in sound production. This lecture tracks my engagement with chaotic material behaviors through a range of diverse projects and media. From the 40-foot field of spinning elastic in Tripwire (2011 – Multimedia Installation) to the multiphonic microfluctuations in Soma (2012 – Sextet), I elaborate a productive tension between matter and maker central to my aesthetic practice.

bio

Ashley Fure (b. 1982) is an American composer of acoustic and electroacoustic concert music as well as multimedia installation art. Her work explores the kinetic source of sound, bringing focus to the muscular act of music making and the chaotic behaviors of raw acoustic matter. She holds a PhD in Music Composition from Harvard University and further degrees from IRCAM (Cursus 1 and 2), Oberlin Conservatory, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. Currently a Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow at Columbia University, Fure will join the Dartmouth College Department of Music as an Assistant Professor of Sonic Arts in September 2015.

Notable recent projects include Ply, a 55-minute electroacoustic ballet commissioned by IRCAM for the 2014 Manifeste Festival; Feed Forward, a sinfonietta commissioned by Klangforum Wien for the 2015 Impuls Festival; Albatross, for large ensemble and electronics, commissioned by the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players for the 2014 Sweet Thunder Festival; and Something to Hunt, a septet commissioned for the 2014 Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkursen für Neue Musik. Her kinetic installation Tripwire, created with visual artist Jean-Michel Albert, premiered at the 2012 Agora Festival in Paris and has since toured to BOZAR (Belgium), the International Digital Arts Biennale/Elektra (Montreal), Seconde Nature (Aix-en-Provence), Stereolux (Nantes), Nemo (Paris), l’Ososphère (Strasbourg), and Panorama (Tourcoing).

Winner of the 2014 Kranichsteiner Music Prize, Fure also received the 2014 Busoni Prize from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, a 2013 Fulbright Fellowship to France, a 2013 Impuls International Composition Prize, a 2012 Darmstadt Stipendienpreis, a 2012 Staubach Honorarium, a 2011 Jezek Prize, a 10-month residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude, an Adalbert W. Sprague Prize, two ISCM World Music Days nominations, a George Arthur Knight Prize, an SCI/ASCAP Young Composer’s Prize, an IAWM Pauline Oliveros Prize, and a Blodgett Composition Prize.