SPLICE Institute 2021 Concert 4 Program
Thursday July 1, 2021
7:30pm EDT
https://youtu.be/k4MN6bkKx-c
Elsa Justel : D'un souffle lointain (2018)
Sam Wells, trumpet
Sam Wells, audio and video mastering
Kunal Gala & Chris Ferree : wood thrush (2021)
Adam Vidiksis, drumset and electronics
Per Bloland : Points of Light in Shadow (2021), world premiere
Stephen Marotto, cello
Alex Christie : Quiet Music for Ensemble (simple switches cause hits and misses) (2017)
SPLICE Ensemble
Sam Wells, trumpet
Keith Kirchoff, piano
Adam Vidiksis, percussion
This Video Contains Flashing Lights
SPLICE Ensemble : Improvisation (2019), world premiere
SPLICE Ensemble
Adam Vidiksis : Global Equilibrium Dynamics (2015/18)
SPLICE Ensemble
Notes
Elsa Justel : D'un souffle lointainD'un souffle lointain arises from memory and nostalgia, from the wind that snatches my ideas and drags me aimlessly, without sorrow, looking at the infinite horizon.
This piece was composed for trumpeter Valentín Garvié whom I met as a child prodigy of the instrument. Many years later I had the satisfaction of working with him on this project with which I try to highlight his interpretative abilities. The project tends to highlight certain sound effects of the instrument and the development of extended techniques.
Taking advantage of Valentine's collaboration, I developed an electroacoustic material based on the direct recording of the trumpet, which allowed me to build a fluid discourse, both organic and expressive. back to program
Kunal Gala & Chris Ferree : wood thrush
Movement I is constructed from bird song of the wood thrush native to eastern North America. Each section introduces a new melodic fragment followed by variation (which the bird also does naturally and quite skillfully). Movement II explores timbre and texture and suggests the surrounding wood and glade the bird calls home.
Per Bloland : Points of Light in Shadow
This piece calls for two sound exciters to be strapped to the cello. These small devices are similar to speakers but only vibrate the surface upon which they rest. A cello makes for a lousy speaker, but the hybrid nature of the sounds can lead to some interesting combinations.
The audio sent through these sound exciters was generated by Orchidea, software designed for computer-assisted orchestration. When fed a target sound and a list of instruments, Orchidea combines samples of those instruments to create an emulation of the target sound. In my case, the target sounds were drawn from bass clarinet and bassoon multiphonic recordings. It’s a bit of a tangled path, but to sumarize: mulltiphonic recording -> Orchidea orchestration -> audio exciter -> cello. Simple!
The title of the piece comes from the novel Stillaset by the Norwegian author Pedr Solis. Many of my pieces have drawn inspiration from Solis’ writings, but this isn’t one of them.
Points of Light in Shadow is dedicated to Stephen Marotto. back to program
Alex Christie : Quiet Music for Ensemble (simple switches cause hits and misses) Light and sound are independent forces. Here, they both emanate from the same digital system and they bring that system to life in physical space. But they do this in different ways, because light and sound are different, and they act in, speak to, and touch the physical world with their own unique bodies.
Any synchronicity of light and sound is purely coincidental. What you see/hear is an environment of collisions and disconnections in which new details and perspectives are revealed. back to program
SPLICE Ensemble : Improvisation In this continuous set, SPLICE Ensemble performs a free improvisation that connects Christie's Quiet Music to Vidiksis's Global Equilibrium Dynamics without pause. This intermezzo does not contain direct material from either piece, rather, it transports the listener from the world of the micro-sound to the encompassing gestural energy of the other. This set was recorded on May 3, 2019 at Molloy College. Special thanks to Ryan Lerette for technical assitance. back to program
Adam Vidiksis : Global Equilibrium Dynamics Global Equilibrium Dynamics is a work for trumpet, piano, and percussion processed in real-time algorithmically by the computer, which also plays several fixed audio files. The trio perform various scripted interactions throughout the piece, dived into grouped categories such as collaboration, disruption, and dispersion of the sound the others produce. The live processing complicates this relationship even further as the performers are responding to changing undetermined computer audio manipulation, even as they follow a linear gestural score. As these musicians perform within this entwined space, they variably help and hinder each other as the work progresses. This creates increased moments of tension in both the musical output and the performance dynamic between the musicians. The title nods to a principle in thermodynamics, local equilibrium dynamics, whereby the thermal state of a system can be determined if the variations within it happen slowly enough in space and time. This concept serves as a metaphor for the system formed by the interplay between the three performers and the electronic processing generated by the computer. back to program
Bios
Born in 1944 in Mar del Plata (Argentina), Elsa Justel obtained a Professor Diploma in Music Education and Choral conducting at the Conservatory of Mar del Plata. She studied composition at the University of Rosario with Virtú Maragno and electroacoustic music in Buenos Aires with José Maranzano and Francisco Kröpfl.In 1998 she moves to France where she graduated with a Doctorate in Esthetics, Sciences and Technologies of Arts at the Université de Paris VIII, under the direction of Horacio Vaggione. She taught new composition techniques at the Conservatorio Provincial de Música Luis Gianneo in Mar del Plata (Argentina), sound techniques and sound form at the Universite Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (France) and electroacoustic music at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (Spain). She has published various articles on electroacoustic music and videomusic and has participated in many conferences as a speaker.
Her music was awarded at several competitions: TRINAC (Tribuna nacional de compositores, Argentina, 2016); Viseu Rural 2.0 — Explorações Sonoras de um Arquivo Rural (Portugal, 2016); Prix biennal Presque rien (France, 2011); Prix Ton-Bruynèl (The Netherlands, 2005); Concours de musique radiophonique de La Muse en Circuit (France, 2003); Concours Phonurgia (France, 2001); Tribunas de música contemporánea et electroacústica (Argentina, 1987, ’89, 2000); Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1992); Stipendienpreis (Darmstadt, Germany, 1990); Concours international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (France, 1989); and Juventudes musicales (Argentina, 1986).
Elsa Justel has also realized audiovisual projects and music for films and the stage. Her videomusic Destellos won prizes at the Video Evento d’Arte competition (Italy, 2002), and the Bourges competition (France, 2002). back to program
Sam Wells is a Los Angeles-based trumpeter, composer, and improvisor who creates evocative and narrative multimedia performances.
Sam has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in China. He is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund for New Music award, and his work, stringstrung, is the winner of the 2016 Miami International Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He has performed electroacoustic works for trumpet and presented his own music at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, N_SEME, and SEAMUS festivals. Sam and his music have also been featured by the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and Fulcrum Point Discoveries. He has also been a guest artist/composer at universities throughout North America.
Sam is a member of Arcus Collective, Kludge, and SPLICE Ensemble. Sam has performed with Contemporaneous, Metropolis Ensemble, TILT Brass, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra. Sam has recorded on the New Amsterdam/Nonesuch, New Focus Records, SEAMUS, and Ravello Recordings labels.
Sam is currently enrolled in the Performer-Composer DMA program at the California Institute of the Arts. He has degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University. He is on faculty at SPLICE Institute, Molloy College, and the California Institute of the Arts. back to program
Heather Mease is a composer and graduate student at the University of Virginia whose work focuses on the appropriation of media, recorded materials, and found objects as a means for exploring material culture, waste, and the consequences of nostalgia. Heather releases electronic music as corncob. www.hmmease.com back to program
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. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing”, “dramatic”, “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable”, “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes), and have noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His work is frequently commissioned and performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in recitals, festivals, and major academic conferences. 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 recently served as composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and was selected by the NEA and Japan-US Friendship Commission to serve as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work by Gene Coleman during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University, President and founding member of SPLICE Music, which includes the annual Institute, Academy, and Festival, 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). He produces real-time generative improvised electronic music (a.k.a 4EA and Circadia of Circadia & Currency). [www.vidiksis.com] back to program
Per Bloland is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music whose works have been praised by the New York Times as “lush, caustic,” and “irresistible.” His compositions range from intimate solo pieces to works for large orchestra, and incorporate video, dance, and custom-built electronics. He has received awards and recognition from organizations including IRCAM, ICMA, SEAMUS/ASCAP, the Ohio Arts Council, Digital Art Awards of Tokyo, ISCM, the Martirano Competition, and SCI/ASCAP. His first opera, Pedr Solis, commissioned and premiered by Guerilla Opera in 2015, received rave reviews from the Boston Globe and the Boston Classical Review. He has received commissions from loadbang, Keith Kirchoff, Wild Rumpus, the Ecce Ensemble, Ensemble Pi, the Callithumpian Consort, Stanford’s CCRMA, SEAMUS/ASCAP, the Kenners, Michael Straus and Patti Cudd. His music can be heard on the TauKay (Italy), Capstone, Spektral, and SEAMUS labels, and through the MIT Press. A portrait CD of his work, performed by Ecce Ensemble, is available on Tzadik.
Bloland is the co-creator of the Electromagnetically-Prepared Piano, about which he has given numerous lecture/demonstrations and published a paper. In 2013 he completed a five-month Musical Research Residency at IRCAM in Paris. He is currently an Associate Professor of Composition and Technology, and coordinator of the Composition area at Miami University, Ohio. He is also a founding composition faculty member at the SPLICE Institute, and recently established the Composition program at the Montecito International Music Festival. He received his D.M.A. in composition from Stanford University and his M.M. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Scores may be purchased at www.babelscores.com/perbloland For more information visit: www.perbloland.com back to program
A 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 plays regularly with groups such as Sound Icon, Callithumpian Consort, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and also performs on various new music concert series in the Boston area and beyond. Stephen has attended music festivals at the Banff Centre, Cortona Sessions for New Music and SoundSCAPE festival in Italy, and the and the Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany. Stephen has a wide range of musical interest that include contemporary chamber music, improvisatory music, and electroacoustic music. As a soloist, Stephen has commissioned several new works for the instrument, and is concerned with expanding and augmenting the tonal pallet of his instrument both with and without technology. Stephen can be heard as a featured artist on Mode Records. In his spare time, Stephen is an avid hiker and outdoorsman.
As a teacher, Stephen aims to inspire students of all ages to ignite their passion for music and expand their musical horizons. Stephen’s teaching philosophy includes building a fundamental understanding of the instrument through slow focused practicing with intent, and a broad academic and theoretical approach to supplement. Stephen is comfortable teaching in the common practice classical mold as well as jazz, contemporary improvisation, and eclectic styles of music. back to program
Alex Christie makes acoustic music, electronic music, and intermedia art in many forms. His work has been called “vibrant”, “interesting, I guess”, and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day”. He has collaborated with artists in a variety of fields and is particularly interested in the design of power structures, systems of intervention, absurdist bureaucracy, and actor-network theory in composition. He is currently based in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Recently, Alex’s work has explored the ecology of performance in intermedia art and interactive electronic music. Through real-time audio processing, instrument building, light, video, and theater, Alex expands performance environments to offer multiple lenses through which the audience can experience the work. Alex has performed and presented at a variety of conferences and festivals whose acronyms combine to spell nicedinsaucesfeeeemmmmmmfogascabsplotnort.
Alex serves as faculty and Director of Electronic Music at the Walden School of Music. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College and is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia. Other interests include baseball and geometric shapes. back to program
SPLICE Ensemble is a trumpet, piano, and percussion trio focussed on cultivating a canon of electroacoustic chamber music. 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
Pianist and composer Keith Kirchoff has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Southwest. A strong advocate for modern music, Kirchoff is committed to fostering new audiences for contemporary music and giving a voice to emerging composers, and to that end has premiered over 100 new works and commissioned over two dozen compositions. Specializing on works which combine interactive electro-acoustics with solo piano, Kirchoff's Electroacoustic Piano Tour has been presented in ten countries, and has spawned three solo albums. Kirchoff is the co-founder and a director of SPLICE and the founder and Artistic Director of Original Gravity Inc. Kirchoff has won awards from the Steinway Society, MetLife Meet the Composer, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and was named the 2011 Distinguished Scholar by the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association. He has recorded on the New World, Kairos, New Focus, Tantara, Ravello, Thinking outLOUD, Zerx, and SEAMUS labels. back to program