Post-Concert Hang
Steinkeller
15 E High St, Oxford, OH 45056
https://www.steinkellercircle.com/
Concert 3 Program
Brian Riordan : Book Burner
Stephen Marotto, cello
Taylor Brook : Set
Dana Jessen, bassoon
Elliott Lupp : Brux No. 1
Elliott Lupp, iPad
Margaret Schedel & Christopher Howard : Tattoo of a Gesture
Patti Cudd, percussion
Dan Tramte : 👽💅
Kyle Hutchins, saxophone
Notes
Brian Riordan : Book BurnerBook Burner (2019) is a piece for solo cello and live electronics written for and premiered by Stephen Marotto. The piece features elements of live improvisation, timbral exploration on the cello, looped playback, and granular synthesis. All sounds are either direct from the cello or processed live. The cellist is instructed to improvise based on the sounds generated from the electronics.
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Taylor Brook : Set
Set (2019) is a brand-new composition for bassoon and live electronics that blurs the lines between composition, interpretation, and improvisation, and redefines the traditional composer-performer relationship. The new work is approximately twenty minutes in duration, throughout which fully notated music is juxtaposed with sections of guided improvisation. Set will draw on bassoonist Dana Jessen's background as an improviser and interpreter, while engaging with both pre-recorded electronic sounds and new live-processing techniques. Brook's electronics are presented through two modes of operation. The first mode is tightly controlled and pre-determined, accompanying the bassoon through strictly notated sections of the piece that combine pre-recorded bassoon sounds with the solo part, while requiring precise rhythmic and harmonic coordination. Microtonal harmonies present throughout these sections engage in a high degree of precision and predictability. The second mode employs an interactive approach, with live sound processing to create a complex and dynamic framework for improvisation that allows the performer free agency in their musical decisions. The electronic processing will record, analyze, and rearrange the music being improvised in real time. The overall effect will be of fluid movement between notated and improvised music, and reflect the blurred lines between composition, interpretation, and improvisation. back to program
Elliott Lupp : Brux No. 1
Brux No. 1 is the first in a series of experimental works for iPad controlled laptop that aims to explore the possibilities of the laptop as an expressive, dynamic, solo instrument. It was incredibly important during the development of this piece that the performer have as much expressive/gestural control as they would on any traditional instrument. The result is a work that utilizes a variety of precomposed fixed and triggered samples that are manipulated via Max patch and controlled in real time with iPad/faders. back to program
Christopher Havel : S
Composer Christophe Havel’s instrumental writing is undeniably inspired by the electro-acoustic experience in both he design of the sounds – especially in the details of the morphological writing – and the use of new technologies at different stages of the elaboration of the work. His work often combines several instruments with live electronics, as in S (1994), which won the first prize at the 6th electro-acoustic composition contest of Braunshweig in 1995. In his metamorphoses serial work initiated in 2000 he imagines a new way of writing, putting the musicians through to the computer in open structures using synthetic sounds. In this outlook he started a research project at Scrime (University Bordeaux I) on the percussion gesture recognition. In 1991 he funded Proxima Centauri together with Marie-Bernadette Charrier, a chamber ensemble dedicated to the contemporary music. S was written for saxophonist Marie Bernadette Charrier. This virtuosic work is for one saxophonist playing tenor, soprano, and baritone saxophones with electronics. back to program
Elliott Lupp is a composer, improvisor, visual artist, and sound designer whose work often invokes images of the distorted, chaotic, visceral, and absurd. This aesthetic approach as it relates to both acoustic and electroacoustic composition has led to a body of work that, at the root of its construction, focuses on the manipulation of noise, extreme gesture, shifting timbre, and performer/computer interaction as core elements. back to program
Margaret Schedel & Christopher Howard : Tattoo of a Gesture In 2013, percussionist Patti Cudd asked me to write her a piece which could travel well and used her twenty-inch bendir as a focal point. This constraint dictated the orchestration—a small bongo rounds out the membraneaphones while elephant bells, singing bowls and cymbals create a metallic orchestra. Inspired by the range of sounds Xenakis and Gordon were able to coax out of simple 2x4’s, I included three slats of wood cut to fit the dimensions of her suitcase with various treatments including moleskin, sandpaper, and drilled holes. A number of striking and muting implements allow me to generate a wide variety of sounds and textures from this small set of instruments which are then processed and augmented by the electronics. The piece has 9 movements: I gave Patti ten phrases, she chose one for the title and ordered the remaining nine. Each of the movements uses the same processing techniques in the same order, although they can be compressed to 1.5 minutes or develop over 6.5 minutes. These fixed positions define the form, but the live percussion projects through these potentialities in very different ways. The first step of the processing acts almost like a sieve—only allowing certain sets of frequencies at specific times in to be analyzed and manipulated by the computer. In this way, each movement shows a different angle to the piece; the whole is only suggested, heard behind a tattered veil. The piece also exists as shorter paths through the movements in order to make it more flexible for concert presentation. The entire piece is almost forty minutes, but three of the four alternate paths are under ten minutes. back to program
Dan Tramte : 👽💅
Evocative of the meme-like style of cute glitchy Vine videos, “alien nail polish” is the product of a collaboration between performer and composer to create a unique performance work incorporating techno, saxophones, movement, dancing, and video. Improvised material from a recording session was super-imposed onto a techno track to generate groove loops and outtake/blooper video content that was later workshopped to create the live performance material, choreography, and score. The resulting work from this alliance is one that could not have existed without the distinct queer voice of the performer and aesthetic vision of the composer to produce a work unique to the relationship, exploring a new kind of process and workflow for both in the creation of genre-bending new music. back to program
Bios
Brian Riordan is a composer, performer, improviser, producer, and sound artist originally from Chicago, IL. He is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow and a PhD candidate in Music Composition and Theory at University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches a class he designed called “Programming Environments in Music: And Introduction to Max/MSP”. His research interests are in temporal discontinuity, delay-based performance, real-time digital signal processing, and laptop performance aesthetics. As an avid collaborator, he has performed in numerous ensembles ranging from rock, jazz, classical, and experimental throughout North American, Europe, and Asia. His compositions have been performed by The JACK Quartet, The Callithumpian Consort, Wet Ink Ensemble, The Meridian Arts Ensemble, Kamraton, Untwelve, The H2 Quartet, Alia Musica, Wolftrap, and his compositions have been featured at STEIM, SICPP, New Music On The Point, SPLICE, and The Walden Creative Musicians Retreat. As a member of the Pittsburgh ensemble “How Things Are Made,” he produced and performed on over 54 albums for the group and have commissioned 52 compositions. back to programA native of Norwalk, Connecticut, Stephen Marotto has received a Bachelors degree with honors from the University of Connecticut, and Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Boston University. Stephen’s formative teachers include Michael Reynolds, Kangho Lee, Marc Johnson, and Rhonda Rider. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Stephen performs with the contemporary sinfoniettas Sound Icon, Callithumpian Consort, and has also played with several new music ensembles in the Boston area. Stephen has attended music festivals at the Banff Centre, SoundSCAPE in Maccagno, Italy, and the Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. Stephen has played in master classes for artists such as the Arditti Quartet and JACK Quartet. Stephen has a wide range of musical interest that include contemporary chamber music, improvisatory music, and electronic music. In his spare time, Stephen is an avid hiker and outdoorsman. back to program
Taylor Brook is a Canadian composer living in New York, writing and producing music for concert, film, theater and dance. Brook studied composition with Brian Cherney, Luc Brewaeys, George Lewis, Fred Lerdahl, and Georg Friedrich Haas. Described as “gripping” and “engrossing” by the New York Times, his compositions have won numerous awards and prizes. His music has been performed around the world by ensembles and soloists such as the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Quatuor Bozzini, JACK Quartet, MIVOS quartet, Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Ascolta, and others. Brook has won several SOCAN Young Composers awards, including two first place prizes and the grand prize in 2016 for his solo cello piece, Song. In Kolkata, India, he studied Hindustani musical performance with Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya. His music is often concerned with finely tuned microtonal sonorities, combining his interest in exploring the perceptual qualities of sound with an individual sense of beauty and form. Brook holds a master’s degree in music composition from McGill University. He lives in New York, where he completed a DMA in music composition at Columbia University in May 2018, with Fred Lerdahl. Brook is on faculty at Columbia University as a Core Lecturer. He also teaches beginner and advanced electronic music composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Brook is the technical director of TAK ensemble. back to program
Praised for her diverse talents, bassoonist Dana Jessen is active as a soloist, improviser, chamber musician, and new music specialist. Dana is the co-founder of Splinter Reeds, an Oakland-based reed quintet, and has performed with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Alarm Will Sound, Amsterdam's DOEK Collective, and Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra, among others. Dana's debut solo album, Carve, was released through Innova Recordings in 2017 and features four newly commissioned works for bassoon and electronics alongside solo acoustic improvisations. The album has received celebrated reviews and mentions from the Chicago Reader, All About Jazz, and ATTN:Magazine, among others. Additional recordings can be heard on Cantaloupe Records, New Focus, Innova Recordings, Ravello, RIOJA, Oberlin Music, Evil Rabbit and New World Records. Dana is currently based in Oberlin, Ohio, where she serves as Associate Professor of Contemporary Music and Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory as well as the Director of Professional Development. More at www.danajessen.com back to program
Composer Christophe Havel’s instrumental writing is undeniably inspired by the electro-acoustic experience in both he design of the sounds – especially in the details of the morphological writing – and the use of new technologies at different stages of the elaboration of the work. His work often combines several instruments with live electronics, as in S (1994), which won the first prize at the 6th electro-acoustic composition contest of Braunshweig in 1995. In his metamorphoses serial work initiated in 2000 he imagines a new way of writing, putting the musicians through to the computer in open structures using synthetic sounds. In this outlook he started a research project at Scrime (University Bordeaux I) on the percussion gesture recognition. In 1991 he funded Proxima Centauri together with Marie-Bernadette Charrier, a chamber ensemble dedicated to the contemporary music. S was written for saxophonist Marie Bernadette Charrier. This virtuosic work is for one saxophonist playing tenor, soprano, and baritone saxophones with electronics. back to program
Canadian saxophonist Justin Massey is an interpreter of contemporary music currently based in West Virginia. With an obsession of creating new sonorities and textures through the saxophone, Justin searches for obscure and unexplored sounds offered by the instrument and its unparalleled potential to create visceral and emotional music. Justin presents music of his generation in all of his performances by commissioning new repertoire and collaborating closely with composers in search of these new sounds, often through electronic manipulation of the saxophone. Recently, Justin has commissioned and premiered new works for saxophone and live electronics by Carolyn Borcherding, Camila Agosto, Brian Lee Topp, Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie, and Jason Charney. back to program
With an interdisciplinary career blending classical training, sound/audio data research, and innovative computational arts education, Margaret Anne Schedel transcends the boundaries of disparate fields to produce integrated work at the nexus of computation and the arts. She has a diverse creative output with works spanning interactive multimedia operas, virtual reality experiences, sound art, video games, and compositions for a wide variety of classical instruments and custom controllers and is internationally recognized for the creation and performance of ferociously interactive media. As an Associate Professor of Music at Stony Brook University, she serves as the co-director of computer music and leads the Making Sense of Data Workgroup at the Institute of Advanced Computational Science. She also teaches composition for new media at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. She co-founded www.arts.codes, a platform and artist collective celebrating art with computational underpinnings. back to program
Percussionist Patti Cudd is an active performer of the music of the 21st century. As a champion of modern music, she has given concerts and master classes throughout the United States, Korea, Thailand, China, Mexico, South America and Europe. Patti has worked closely with some of the most innovative composers of our time such as Brian Ferneyhough, Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros, John Luther Adams, John Zorn, Julia Wolfe, Christian Wolff and Frederic Rzewski.
As a percussion soloist and chamber musician she has premiered over 200 new works and has recorded under such labels as Hat Hut, Bridge, New World, CRI, Innova, Emf Media and Mode. She recently released on Innova Recordings, a solo CD of percussion and electronic pieces. Patti is a Yamaha Performing Artist, an endorser of Sabian Cymbals and a member of the Vic Firth and Black Swamp Education Teams.
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In his compositions, Dan Tramte embraces his digital-nativeness, acknowledging what it means to live in a media saturated post-internet wasteland. As such, his music resembles the experience of playing a video game, or scrolling through a social network feed. For Tramte, mobile social media is in fact his primary platform for composition. 500+ videos on his Vine feed thoroughly documents nearly all of the constituent audio-visual composition materials in his [notated] work and installations from 2014 through 2017—works often featuring oddity-instruments such as DJ Hero controllers, morse code straight keys, GoPro cameras, and mobile devices. Persistent in his efforts to find and cultivate his voice, Tramte values building enduring relationships with performers. He collaborates with musicians/ensembles Nico Couck (two solo works and Ine Vanoeveren duo), Noa Even (solo work and Patchwork duo), Weston Olencki (solo work and Wild Rumpus), Morehshin Allahyari (two audio/visual collaborations), InterSpheres Trio, Murat Çolak, Marek Poliks, Keith Kirchoff, working on multiple projects with each performer/composer/group. back to program
Kyle Hutchins is a performing artist, improviser, chamber musician, and educator. His work focuses on the creation and promotion of experimental art music, both as a soloist and in close collaboration with composers, performers, and interdisciplinary artists. He often makes sound wielding a saxophone, his voice, and technology. Kyle's playing has been described as "formidable" (The Saxophone Symposium), "masterful" (Signals for Images), "an impressive achievement" (VitaMN), "so much chaos" (I Care If You Listen), and "a full on noise-jazz symphony" (Raised by Gypsies). He has performed across Asia, Europe, and North America, and participated in the creation of more than 130 new works for the saxophone. He is a member of 113 (One Thirteen), AVIDduo, Binary Canary, The Broken Consort, Hutchins/Qiang Duo, The Poem Is Done, and Strains New Music Ensemble, and is the Artistic Director of NME at Virginia Tech. Kyle has a D.M.A. and M.M. in Saxophone Performance from the University of Minnesota where he studied with renowned saxophonist Eugene Rousseau. He has B.M. and B.M.E. degrees from the University of North Texas where he studied with Eric Nestler, and has additional studies in contemporary music with James Dillon and Marcus Weiss. Kyle is Artist/Teacher of Saxophone at Virginia Tech and is a Yamaha, E. Rousseau, and Légère Performing Artist. back to program