Adam Vidiksis

This presentation examines the ways in which performance virtuosity, which in many ways came to maturity in the 19th century, is still a living part of musical styles and practices being created today, and how it will may be so in the near future. The emergence of new technologies in the past few decades, in particular, computers and robotics, has led to the creation of newinstruments, new musical styles, and entirely new performance practices that largely dismiss virtuosity in the traditional sense, and may often be seenas anti-virtuosic. Virtuosity serves as a useful proxy for an examination of performance at large. Looking through the music of performers from various musical styles including EDM, pop, the classical avant-garde, and free improv, this talk explores contemporary questions of the ways in which new electronic instrumental practices are shaping the current and possible future state of the art, including challenges to typical notions of repertoire, terminology, and hybridization

Bio

Adam Vidiksis is a composer, conductor, percussionist, improviser, and technologist based in Philadelphia whose music often explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University, a founding executive member of SPLICE Music, a Resident Artist at the Renegade Theater company, and a founding member of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, a group dedicated to promoting improvisation in the performing arts. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Temple Composers Orchestra and the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). [www.vidiksis.com]