Concert 5 Program
SPLICE Ensemble
Jeff Herriott : eyes, sewn, await the sun
Bahar Royaee : Kücha-lar
Robert Seaback : Mutation (as the mark that noise leaves upon presence)
Silvia Rosani : e poi niente
Igor C. Silva : Smart Alienation
Notes
Robert Seaback : Mutation (as the mark that noise leaves upon presence)Mutation is a mixed work that organizes different types of artificial structures derived from the natural property of acoustic resonance. Mutation explores the resonant properties of the ensemble and establishes a dynamic interplay between the live sound, its processed images, and a sound world completely electronic in origin. The work is a departure from my previous projects in that all electronics are generated or processed in real-time with vary degrees of indeterminacy.
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Flannery Cunningham : Eh/k/oh
Eh/k/oh plays with an instrumental expression of text through using whispered, spoken, and sung vowels which act as filters on noisy inputs. This non-vocal (though vocally controlled) speech combines with motoric, regular rhythms to create a kind of mechanistic quality that contrasts with more “human” sections.
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Bios
SPLICE Ensemble is a trumpet, piano, and percussion trio focussed on cultivating a canon of the most important works composed for instruments and electronics. Called a “sonic foodfight” by Jazz Weekly, SPLICE Ensemble works with composers and performers on performance practice techniques for collaboration and integrating electronics into a traditional performance space, and they were recently awarded a Chamber Music America grant for a commission of a new 25-minute work with composer Caroline Miller. The resident ensemble of both SPLICE Institute and SPLICE Festival, SPLICE Ensemble has been a featured ensemble at M Woods in Beijing, SEAMUS, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, SCI National, Electronic Music Midwest, and New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music 10. They have recorded on both the SEAMUS and Parma Labels.back to program
Silvia Rosani studied composition in Italy, at Mozarteum Universität in Salzburg (Austria) and completed a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London. She also completed a degree in electronics and works with software for sound analysis and live electronics. Silvia's music is performed internationally by ensembles such as Neue Vocalsolisten, ÖENM, and Ensemble Platypus. Some of the venues and festivals in which her music was performed are Salzburg and Venice Biennale, MATA, Music Current, ECLAT, Teatro de la Zarzuela and the Kitchen. Silvia's project White Masks was awarded a Public Engagement Grant by the Institute of Musical Research (IMR), the Francis Chagrin Award and was granted the support of the Goldsmiths Annual Fund. In September 2017, Silvia worked with ensemble In Extensio in Montréal thanks to the Residency New Music / Québec – UK (hcmf) Exchange. Silvia is currently Associate Lecturer at Cardiff University School of Music.
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Robert Seaback is a composer and sound artist interested in the semiotic differences between acoustic and synthetic or digitally mediated sources. He has composed works that pair acoustic instruments with electronic sound, multichannel acousmatic music, and sound installations. He holds a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Florida and also holds degrees in music and technology from Northeastern University and Mills College. His electroacoustic works have been presented at numerous international festivals and conferences such as ICMC, ISCM World New Music Days, NYCEMF, Sonorities Festival, and TIES. Select compositions are featured on SEAMUS and Ablaze records.
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Jeff Herriott is a composer whose music focuses on sounds that gently shift and bend at the edges of perception. He creates unhurried music, using slow-moving shapes with a free sense of time. His works, which often include interaction between live performers and electronic sounds, have been described as "colorful…darkly atmospheric" (New York Times) and "incredibly soft, beautiful, and delicate" (Computer Music Journal). His music has been supported by grants and commissions from the MATA Festival, The American Composers Forum, the McKnight Foundation, and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. Jeff is a Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.
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Flannery Cunningham is a composer and musicologist fascinated by vocal expression, illusion and auditory perception, and the compositional process. She aims to write music that surprises and delights. Among others, she has been commissioned by the Minnesota Center Chorale, the Cornell University Chorus, the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University, and Grace Chorale of Brooklyn. Archival work forms part of her process as both a composer and researcher, and she has written dramatic works including an oratorio about the 6th-century Irish monk St. Brendan the Navigator and a (pre-Hamilton) opera about the Burr-Hamilton duel. An active poet, Flannery often writes her own texts and libretti. She is attracted to both the very old and very new; she has presented on the 14th-century master and fellow poet-composer Guillaume de Machaut at the International Medieval Congress and performed with Cork-based electronic ensemble CAVE at the 2014 International Computer Music Conference. In addition to acoustic ensembles she writes for live players with real-time electronics, always striving to create an environment that foregrounds the skills and musical voice of the performer. Flannery has also scored, performed, and sound designed for theatrical and dance productions in Oxford, UK and New York. She holds a BA from Princeton University, an MA from University College Cork as a Mitchell Scholar, an MA from Stony Brook University, and is currently pursuing a joint PhD in composition and musicology at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Born in Porto, 1989, and currently living in Amsterdam, Igor C Silva is a composer devoted to electronics and new media music, creating projects were performers, computers and many noisy and psychedelic things happen on stage, creating a multi-sensorial experience. Silva works regularly with ensembles, performers and orchestras, receiving many commissions from ensembles and festivals, and publishing several recordings with his music. Igor C Silva also works regularly with soloists, ensembles and jazz groups, devoting part of his musical and composing activity to improvisation and interactive performances with electronics and multimedia tools. Chouette! for flute, cello and piano, was premiered in September 2009 in Austin (USA) and performed at "Future Places Festival”. In May 2010 he participated in the European project "Sound Art In City Spaces", where he created an installation/performance in Porto, along with several foreign artists. Silva was the Resident Young Composer at Casa da Música for 2012 and received several commissions and worked with Orchestra Sinfónica do Porto, Remix Ensemble, among others. He was also the Composer in Residence at Miso Music Studios in 2015, were he started to develop a new multimedia work that will be premiered in 2017. Recently, his work You Should Be Blind to Watch TV, for ensemble and electronics, won a recommendation at the International Rostrum of Composers in Estonia and also won a runner-up prize for the Ossia Ensemble in New York. Igor C Silva won several prizes, including the 1st Prize at the “2nd Composition Competition Casa da Música/ESMAE" with Terminus, for viola, live-electronics and lighting, 1st Prize at the "5th International Composition Competition of Póvoa de Varzim" with Flipbook, for quintet and electronics, and the 1st Prize at the “Concurso Internacional de Composição GMCL/Jorge Peixinho” with Blood Ink, for small ensemble and electronics. On upcoming projects stands out the concerts in many festivals including a portrait concert at Gaudeamus MuziekWeek 2017 and Soundofmusic Festival 2017, premieres of new multimedia pieces, and concerts in Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, USA, Portugal, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Mexico and Korea. Igor C Silva graduated in composition at Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espetáculo (ESMAE) in 2011, and finished a Master degree in Composition and Music Theory in 2013. He also attended seminars with Magnus Lindberg, Jonathan Harvey, Pauline Oliveros, Kaija Saariaho, Wolfgang Mitterer, Betty Olivero, Marko Ciciliani, Pascal Dusapin, Bruce Pennycook and others. In 2017 Silva finished a Master Degree in live-electronics at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Igor C Silva is currently a PhD candidate at VUB (Brussels) and Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.
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