photo credit: Harold Li
Program will be streamed at https://www.facebook.com/SPLICEorg/live_videos/
Concert 2 Program
Cecilia Suhr : AI (artificial intelligence) vs. Human Consciousness
Cecilia Suhr, violin
Federico Foderaro, patch programming
Yuqian Yang : Dream Yuqian Yang, piano
Eric Lyon : The Man with the Golden Arm
Alan Weinstein, cello
Dan VanHassel : Fracture
Joseph VanHassel, percussion
Theocharis Papatrechas : Grit
Dimitris Paganos Koukakis, piano
Theocharis Papatrechas, video and binaural mixing
Brett Masteller Warren : Feedbacz
Drew Whiting, saxophone
Brett Masteller Warren, electronics
Sensory Advisory: This video contains flashing lights
SPLICE Festival IV is supported by a State-of-the-Art Conference Grant from the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.
Notes
Cecilia Suhr : AI (artificial intelligence) vs. Human ConsciousnessAI vs. Human Consciousness imagines the sonic environment and visual representation of AI conversing with the human consciousness. Using musical improvisation as a way of tapping into streams of consciousness, this interactive audiovisual performance expresses the blurred boundaries between several sets of dichotomies, including machine vs. human, analog vs. digital, spirit vs. matter, old vs. new, past vs. future. In doing so, this work carefully reflects on AI’s potential as well as limitations and risks pertaining to certain areas.
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Yuqian Yang : Dream
Dream was inspired by a series painting of my artist friend. The artist's original intention was to express that everyone is unique and has her own unique beauty. Women rate other women who beautiful as more dominant. In this piece, the main character thought if she can make herself beautiful, she will have power. In the dream, she made up what she wanted to be, but in the end she lost herself. I am seeking some unique timbre to express the dream, abstract, and Ink painting color in this work. The Chinese instruments Zheng and Dulcimer can provide some tension and mysterious sound. back to program
Eric Lyon : The Man with the Golden Arm
The Man with the Golden Arm is a computer-driven, computer-processed improvisation for cello, with automated, autonomous, interactive computer processing. A computer program generates a new structure for each performance, randomizing structure, length of sections, parametric configuration of processors, and performer guidance. The performer is presented with evolving performance suggestions that are both specific and open to interpretation. Once started, the interactive computer program is entirely autonomous, requiring no further intervention.
Each performance records the solo part, which is added to a library of sounds that may recur on subsequent performances, as well as during the current performance. As the piece receives more performances, its surface becomes richer and less predictable. On occasion, the soloist improvises against grooves constructed from pieces of previous performances.
Despite ongoing, intense, unpredictable processing, the expressive contour of the piece is predominantly architected by the musical choices made by the cellist during the performance. back to program
Dan VanHassel : Fracture Fracture is a two-part counterpoint between noise and pitch. The vibraphone notes form a calm, floating, underlying melody that continually expands and contracts, yet is always emotionally stable and consistent. Meanwhile, the percussion part is sharp, rhythmic, incisive; over time becoming ever more frenetic and anxious. These two layers weave in and out of each other, each developing in parallel with the other, yet never forming any kind of synthesis or unity.
The electronics act as an extension of both parts. The pitched part is extended through rhythmically irregular loops, building from the pulsing of the vibraphone motor. The percussive part is extended through a diverse array of samples consisting of short snippets of various rock and pop songs, with each sample corresponding to a specific pattern or rhythm.
Fracture was commissioned by and dedicated to my brother, Joseph VanHassel and supported by a Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation. back to program
Theocharis Papatrechas : Grit Grit explores the nature and capabilities of the granular synthesis technique and applies its principles to construct the various levels of the composition (i.e. gestural character, phrasal momentum, form, fixed media, live signal processing, interaction between piano and electronics, and spatialization). The outcome is a wide, dense, and complex sonicscape, in which the electronically processed sounds along with the sounds of the instrument mix and contrast, contributing equally to the experience. back to program
Brett Masteller Warren : Feedbacz Feedbacz is a structured improvisation for saxophone and computer inspired by, and dedicated to, Steve Baczkowski. I enjoy dense textures. When I used to live in Buffalo, NY I would visit the Albright Knox museum on Saturday mornings. It was free before 1pm. I was drawn to the paintings of Clyfford Still because of the thick, heavy textures in his work. In the past, a lot of my fixed-media works explored this idea of density, but surprisingly my instrumental music did not. Before I left Buffalo, I engineered a two-day recording session with a free jazz octet. During one session Steve and I recorded some solo bari sax improvisations. Being drawn to one specific recording, I used it to create a 6-channel fixed-media piece. A couple of years later, while living in Chicago, I turned that piece into this live performance piece. That’s when Feedbacz became my first, dense instrumental work.
The performer is given a series of time frames within which to improvise based on a changing set of parameters. As the performer progresses a variety of processing techniques are employed to alter the sounds of the instrument. One of the techniques involves what I call a spectral freezer. As the performer is playing, the audio is transformed into the frequency domain and snapshots of overtone information are recorded into a series of buffers. The information stored in the buffers is then fed through feedback loops before being transformed back into the time domain. The results of this process produces resonating (i.e. frozen) overtones. The fundamental pitch and amplitude of the instrument are also tracked by the computer and used to control parameters of cross-synthesis, ring modulation, and spatialization. Last, the performer has control over a a set of wavetables (small buffers containing a variety of digitally generated samples). Based on the pitch and amplitude of the performance, the artist is able to control the sound and rate of change of the buffers… generating an accompaniment. back to program
Bios
Cecilia Suhr (www.ceciliasuhr.com) is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and researcher, multi-instrumentalist (violin/cello/voice/piano), improviser and author, who is working at the intersection between art, music performance and interactive media. Crossing the boundaries between analog and digital, vision and sound, her creative work has been exhibited and performed across the U.S. and overseas in U.K., Australia, Greece, France, Russia, Portugal, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, etc. through galleries, biennials, museums, conferences, and festivals. She is an author of Social Media and Music: The Digital Field of Cultural Production (2012, Peter Lang Press) and Evaluation and Credentialing in Digital Music Communities (MIT Press, 2014). She also served as an editor and contributing author to Online Evaluation of Creative Arts (Routledge Press, 2014). She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Creative Arts (an affiliate professor of art) in Miami University, OH. back to programYuqian Yang is a composer, pianist, and video artist. Her work, which range from solo pieces to large-scale works for orchestra, earned her third prize in the New Generation Contest in (2010, 2011). Her works have been performed internationally at festivals and concert such as: Beijing Music Festival, Splice, EMM, TURN UP, the Composition Concert in the University of Arizona. She received commission for large ensemble by the University of Arizona 2017. She Invited for membership on project 21 2012-14. Third Prize in New Generation Competition 2010. Third Prize in New Generation Competition 2008. Important previous performances include the orchestra piece White Sands and White Snow (2019), commissioned piece Tornado (2017), 忆(2015), 思绪 (2015), the Symphony No. 1 (2014), the Peking opera “Farewell My Concubine” (2013). Yuqian received her D.M.A. at the University of Arizona in Composition. She previously received a M.M. from the Wanda L. Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University, where she was a member of Project 21 and a B.A. from the China Conservatory of Music. Her teachers have included Jia Guoping, Quan Jihao, Edward Knight, Daniel Asia, Craig Walsh, Kay He and Lendell Black. back to program
Eric Lyon is a composer and audio researcher. His software includes FFTease and LyonPotpourri, written for Max/MSP and Pd. He authored the book “Designing Audio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd.” Lyon was guest editor of the Computer Music Journal, editing two issues dedicated to the subject of high-density loudspeaker arrays. Lyon also curated the 2016 Computer Music Journal Sound Anthology, which was the first binaural anthology published by the CMJ. Lyon’s creative work has been recognized with a ZKM Giga-Hertz prize, MUSLAB award, the League ISCM World Music Days competition, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Lyon currently works at Virginia Tech. back to program
Alan Weinstein, cellist, performs across a wide spectrum of disciplines. He is a founding member of the Kandinsky Trio, winner of the Chamber Music America Residency Award, the NEA American Masterpieces Grant and a NEA Meet the Composers Award. He has performed in venues including Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, Spivey Hall and the Kennedy Center. As an electric cellist he has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, soloed with the Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall and is a member of the improv trio Nagging Mother.
His dedication to new music has led him to premiere compositions by artists such as Mike Reid (“Tales of Appalachia” performed in over 150 cities), Richard Danielpour, and Hilary Tan. His jazz collaborations have included performances with Larry Coryell, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Dave Samuels, John D’earth and as a harmonica player with Ray Charles.
Virginia Tech has awarded Mr. Weinstein, an Associate Professor, the Alumni Teaching Award, the Certificate of Teaching Excellence Award and the Sturm Award for Faculty Excellence in the Creative Arts. He has recorded for Arabesque Records, Brioso and OmniTone labels. back to program
The music of composer and multi-instrumentalist Dan VanHassel has been described as “energizing” (Wall Street Journal), “an imaginative and rewarding soundscape” (SF Classical Voice) and “funky machine music” (SF Chronicle). Recent performances include the Gaudeamus Festival, MATA Festival, Shanghai Electronic Music Week, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. He has received grants from Chamber Music America, the Barlow Endowment, the Boston Foundation, and New Music USA. Dan is artistic director and electric guitarist with the Hinge Ensemble, and was a founding member of Wild Rumpus. Currently living in Boston, Dan has degrees from UC Berkeley, New England Conservatory, and Carnegie Mellon University. back to program
Joseph Van Hassel is a North Carolina-based percussionist specializing in orchestral and chamber music. Performance highlights include Carnegie Hall, the Cincinnati MusicNow Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and the Hindemith Center in Switzerland. Active in the performance of new repertoire, Joseph has individually commissioned and premiered works by many composers, and can be heard on recordings for the Innova, Mode, Equilibrium, nobrow.sounds, Ohio Percussion, and Soundset record labels. He is published in Percussive Notes, and his compositions are published by Media Press and PerMus. He is on the percussion faculty at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and previously taught at Ohio University and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Joseph earned degrees from the Hartt School, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Ohio University. He also spent time studying music and dance in Ghana, West Africa. back to program
Originally from Athens, Greece, Theocharis is a composer of acoustic, electroacoustic, and acousmatic music, currently based in San Diego, CA. The focus of his work is centered around the ideas of duality, fragility, and fragmentation when considering the dimensions of materiality, form, electronics, and spatialization.
Theocharis holds a PhD in Composition from the University of California, San Diego. He also holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Sibelius Academy, and Ionian University.
Theocharis’s works have been performed by renowned ensembles in important new music contexts, such as, Ircam’s Manifeste Academy with ensemble Intercontemporain, SEAMUS at the Berklee College of Music, Mixtur Festival with Proxima Centauri, VIPA with the [Switch~ Ensemble], Workshop for Young Composers in Tchaikovsky City, FORUM with Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Shanghai New Music Week with Mivos Quartet.
Since 2016, Theocharis is running the artistic direction of the ilSUONO Contemporary Music Week, a summer composition academy, which takes place annually in Città di Castello, Italy. Since the summer of 2020, he is the composer-in-residence at the Paxos Festival in Greece. He has also given master-classes at the Ionian University as well as talks at Stanford University and the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC).
His music has been released by ArsPublica. His scores are published by Babel Scores. www.theocharis-papatrechas.com
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Dimitris's been practicing the art of music and dance since a very young age. For so long, these two played a different role in his career as an artist. Recently, he's started to focus on the combination and interplay of body movement through music performance. He plays the piano, I dance, move, improvise, teach, learn. He's currently doing his Doctorate in Contemporary Music Performance and holds the positions of Teaching Assistant and Associate Instructor at UC San Diego. He's fortunate to be collaborating with composers and bring new works into life. His research is focused on the music for piano and electronics, improvisation and the coexistance of a dancer and a musician through performance practice. His life is shared between Europe and the USA, having a very active performing career. back to program
Brett Masteller Warren is a sonic artist. Additional monikers include: composer, audio engineer, sound designer, performer, programmer, hacker, builder, appropriator. The use of technology plays a vital role in his work. Algorithmic process, chance procedure, and structured improvisations inform the sonic results. back to program
Saxophonist Drew Whiting has established himself as a virtuosic musician performing new and experimental music performing in solo, chamber, and electroacoustic settings. He is described as having “remarkable versatility” (Computer Music Journal), “superb musicianship” (The Saxophonist), and is a “superb advocate of the music he champions” (Fanfare Magazine). Drew was recently the featured performer at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival in 2019, where his performances where described as “exquisite and emotive… manag[ing] everything with aplomb” (diakcritical.com). He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Drew is a proud Yamaha Performing Artist and Vandoren Artist-Clinician. back to program