SPLICE Institute 2021 Concert 5 Program
featuring
SPLICE Institute Alumnx Composers and Performers
Friday July 2, 2021
7:30pm EDT
https://youtu.be/E8ASFhCBQfI
Carolyn Borcherding : That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles (2020)
Wilson Poffenberger, alto saxophone
Nathaniel Haering : for social media (2020)
Will Yager, contrabass
Matthew Jay Fountain : Ag⁴⁷ - I. Molten Silver (2019)
Robin Meiksins, alto flute
Teeth and Metals : Apartment 8 (2021), world premiere
Alex Lough, electronics
Mark Micchelli, keyboards and percussion
Mark Micchelli, audio mastering
Alex Lough, video mastering
Brittany J. Green : there is only you and i. (2020)
Sara Constant, flute
Carlos Cotallo Solares : Improvisation (2021), world premiere
Carlos Cotallo Solares, electric guitar and pedalboard
Brian Riordan : succubus (2020)
Anna Elder, voice
Brian Topp : Ljos (2017)
Justin Massey, soprano saxophone
Notes
Carolyn Borcherding : That's the Way the Cookie CrumblesThis is an experiment in improvisation with live electronics. The piece can take on many different forms and styles based on the improviser’s decisions while playing and progressing through the cues. The form and duration are flexible, and there is no score besides short descriptions of each cue displayed in the SuperCollider post window. For me as a composer, this was also an exercise in letting go, as all of my work up until this point has required very specific scored directions to the performer. The title of the piece fits the material well. Whatever the decisions of the performer may be, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. back to program
Nathaniel Haering : for social media
for social media is an explosive, frenetic, raucous and at times abruptly intimate exploration of starkly contrasting materials, juxtaposing and combining extreme cacophonous virtuosity and genuine faltering vulnerability, catalyzed and further intensified by the work’s compressed and highly compact time scale and frame; an intentional consequence of the piece being crafted specifically to be premiered online and to live primarily on social media.
Acoustic performance, fixed media, and live electronics intertwine and reinforce one another to create powerful jarring gestures as well as to signify the return of glistening respites while collectively relishing in and magnifying the irregular, dynamic, malleable, and unstable nature of the materials and phenomena that constitute the work’s core. back to program
Matthew Jay Fountain : Ag⁴⁷ - I. Molten Silver
Molten Silver is the first in a set of standalone flute pieces titled AG47. As the title suggests, this first piece is reflective of the molten state of Silver. This liquid state is represented through pitch bends in the Fixed-Media and Flute. The tonal center is constantly shifting and changing, but like molten metal, it always comes back to where it began. back to program
Teeth and Metals : Apartment 8
In March 2021, Teeth and Metals spent a week together in Mark’s Pittsburgh apartment: improvising, recording, and enjoying some much needed in-person company. Without access to a studio––or even a piano––the duo decided to make the most of what the space had to offer. What resulted was a love letter to Apt. #8 and an intimate portrait of domestic life after a year of quarantine. back to program
Brittany J. Green : there is only you and i.
there is only you and i. (2020) is a piece for flute and live electronics that explores connections between the flute and voice. Fleeting gestures of amplified flute and voice weave in and out of layered textures created through live processing. The text heard throughout the piece is taken from "there is only you and i," a poem generated with GPT-2 computer software. back to program
Carlos Cotallo Solares : Improvisation
Real time composition exploring the electric guitar and effects pedals as a unified electronic instrument. back to program
Brian Riordan : succubus
The composer writes, "did you know it’s possible to write music for soprano and live processing without angelic reverb?" Succubus was written as a way to explore underutilized real-time vocal processing techniques. This piece was commissioned by Anna Elder for Re:sound Festival 2020. back to program
Brian Topp : Ljos
Ljos was originally based on a set of poems entitled ‘Light’ by Souvankham Thammavongsa. The poems themselves focus on various interpretations of ‘light’ and while often very short they convey quite vivid and fragmented imagery. There is not really a direct connection between the poems and the resultant music, but I often found myself reading them during the composing of this piece, and finding inspriation when doing so. Much of the material for the electronics comes from an extended vocal imporvisation with vocalist-composer Katerina Gimon. These recordings were cut into various gestures, which the saxophone often imitates and much of the piece is built around them. back to program
Bios
Carolyn Borcherding is a composer and sound artist predominantly interested in building sounding and visual worlds within which performing bodies and audio gestures can exist together in various fluid relationships. Her body of work ranges from pieces for solo instrument to multimedia ensembles consisting of video, electronically produced sound, and acoustic instruments. In her multimedia works, she considers each medium an essential performing body in which the media interact with, relate to, and inform one another. In fixed media works, she experiments particularly with the creation and destruction of the listeners’ sense of space. Carolyn has had works performed internationally throughout the North American region and at national and regional events such as the Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference, the North American Saxophone Alliance National Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, New Music on the Point, and others. Carolyn received her master’s degree in music composition at Western Michigan University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in music composition at the University of Illinois. back to programDescribed as an “Admirably skilled player” (The News-Gazette), Boston based saxophonist WILSON POFFENBERGER is quickly establishing himself as a soloist, educator, chamber musician and improviser. Currently, Mr. Poffenberger is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in saxophone performance and literature at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he recently received ABD status.
As a soloist, Mr. Poffenberger has performed with the Illinois Modern Ensemble, Illinois Wind Symphony, Dana Symphony Orchestra, Youngstown State University Percussion Ensemble, and Hagerstown Municipal Band. He has presented recitals at the National Student Electronic Music Event (2019), XVIII World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia (2018), EMS60 Conference (2018), Splice New Music Festival (2017), International Navy Band Saxophone Symposium (2011-2019), North American Saxophone Alliance Biannual Conference (2014, 2018), Duquesne Saxophone Day (2014), the Fondation des Etats-Unis and the Fondation Bierman-Lapotre.
Recent accomplishments include first prize at the 2020 UI Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, first prize at the 2020 American Prize Chamber Music Competition, first prize at the 2020 North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition, first prize at the 2019 Mostly Modern Festival Concerto Competition, first prize at the 2019 Krannert Debut Artist Competition, grand prize at the 2017 Enkor International Woodwind and Brass Competition, winner of the 2016-2017 Harriet Hale Woolley award, first prize at the 2014 Dana Young Artist competition, semi-finalist in the 2014 International Saxophone Symposium and Competition, and semi-finalist in the 2018 and 2014 North American Saxophone Alliance Collegiate Solo Competition.
A strong advocate for new music, Mr. Poffenberger has premiered and commissioned dozens of works by composers such as Étienne Rolin, Guillermo Lago, Gregory Wanamaker, Joel Love, David Biedenbender, Ralph Lewis, Elsie Han, Robert Lemay, Alexis Bacon, Vahid Jahandari, Andrew Koss, Drew Farrar, Carolyn Borcherding, Alex Miller, and Aaron Lockhart.
Mr. Poffenberger received his Masters of Music degree from Youngstown State University and his Bachelors of Music Education degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with additional study at CRR Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, France. He has performed in masterclasses with Otis Murphy, Chien-Kwan Lin, Michael Ibrahim, Timothy McAllister, Vincent David, Claude Delangle, Arno Bornkamp, Masataka Hirano, and Christian Wirth. His primary teachers include Debra Richtmeyer, Jean-Michel Goury, James Umble, and Keith Young. Mr. Poffenberger performs exclusively on Selmer Paris saxophones and mouthpieces.
When Wilson’s not playing saxophone, you can find him brewing pour-over coffee, tinkering with his Sony mirrorless camera or watching copious amounts of backpack reviews on YouTube. back to program
Nathaniel Haering is deeply interested in the use of live electronics to expand the artistic capabilities of traditional instruments and augment their timbral horizons while enriching their expressive and improvisational possibilities. This perspective is also highly influential and represented in the gestural power and extended sound worlds of his purely acoustic work. He has collaborated with and had works performed by Grammy Award-winning Vietnamese performer and composer Vân Ánh Võ, Trio Accanto, Ensemble Mise-En, Mivos Quartet, and members of WasteLAnd, Ensemble Ipse, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the LA Phil. Winner of the 2019 ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Award, the 2019 PRIX CIME Residency Prize, the OSSIA New Music International Call for Scores, and the Mixed Media Award of Distinction from MA/IN festival in Matera, Italy, Nathaniel’s work can also be found on Volume 27 and 29 of Music from SEAMUS, flux, vol. 33, and other publications. His pieces have recently been featured at the International Computer Music Conference in Shanghai, China, Seoul, South Korea, and NYC, the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium in Toronto, Canada, Noisefloor Festival at Staffordshire University UK, VIPA in Valencia, Spain, WOCMAT in HsinChu City, Taiwan, SEAMUS 2019 Conference at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and numerous other international venues. Nathaniel is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition at the University of California San Diego. back to program
Will Yager is a bassist/improviser committed to experimental music, improvisation, and collaborating with living composers in the creation of new solo and chamber repertoire for the double bass. He has worked directly with composers Michael Gordon, David Lang, Miya Masaoka, Jean-François Charles, Mary Jane Leach, Sivan Cohen Elias, and Amy Williams, among others. He is a founding member of the soprano/double bass duo LIGAMENT and improvising trio Wombat. Recent solo appearances include performances at the Nief-Norf Virtual Marathon, Oh My Ears Festival, Big Ears Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, New Music on the Point, Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, where he was a Robert Black Double Bass Fellow. Yager has multiple recordings available on the Bandcamp platform, including irreducibility, a recording of new works for solo double bass.
As a member of LIGAMENT, Yager has been an Ensemble Fellow at New Music on the Point (Vermont) and the Cortona Sessions for New Music (Italy). LIGAMENT were also recently semifinalists in the SAVVY Chamber Music Competition at the University of South Carolina. Recent highlights include a performance of Beat Furrer’s Lotófagos at the University of Iowa Center for New Music. Their performance of Lila Meretzky’s All Mute Things Speak Today was recently featured on the ScoreFollower YouTube channel. Upcoming projects include an album of all commissioned works and Forge, an interdisciplinary collaboration with artists Vero Rose Smith and Alyssa Gersony.
Wombat, along with Justin Comer and Carlos Cotallo Solares, is an improvising trio dedicated to experimental and intermedia performance. Wombat has performed at the Oh My Ears Festival (Phoenix, AZ), MOXsonic Experimental Electronic Music festival, and the University of Iowa Center for New Music. Wombat has two self-produced recordings available on Bandcamp. back to program
Matt Fountain is a composer and euphonist from Kalamazoo, Michigan. He graduated in May of 2015 from Western Michigan University with a Bachelors of Music Composition, and from Brooklyn College in Spring 2019 with a Masters of Fine Arts in Media Scoring. He has studied with composers Christopher Biggs, Lisa Coons, Jonathan Zalben, and D.D. Jackson.
Matt writes music that combines elements of popular culture, film music, and classical art music, with the goal of creating pieces that are fun for a variety of listeners, and are challenging/enjoyable for performers. This includes a number of chamber works, large ensemble pieces, and chamber works featuring live, and fixed electronics. As a euphonium player, he is a huge advocate for new music for the instrument(especially works featuring electronics) and has written a number of pieces featuring it, in addition to commissioning new works involving the instrument.
Matt's current focus is on writing music for silent films, and small chamber works for solo performers. His most recent project being a score featuring Euphonium, Guitar and fixed-media for Metropolis. A lover of German Director Fritz Lang, his current endeavors include scores for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Siegfried. Both will feature live performances of the scores. back to program
Robin Meiksins is a freelance contemporary flutist focused on collaboration with living composers. While Chicago-based, she uses the Internet and online media to support and create collaboration, as well as more traditional means of performance.
In 2017, Robin completed her first year-long collaborative project, 365 Days of Flute. In this project she performed 138 works by living composers, as well as works from the established flute repertoire. Each day featured a different work or movement and each video was recorded and posted to YouTube the same day. In 2018, Robin launched the 52 Weeks of Flute Project. This project builds on the ideas of internet performance and collaboration from the 365 project. Each week, Robin works with a different living composer to workshop a submitted work, culminating in a performance on YouTube.
Robin has premiered over 100 works by living composers and has performed at SPLICE Institute, the SEAMUS national conference, Oh My Ears New Music Festival, and Frequency Festival. In 2018, she was a guest artist at University of Illinois for their first annual ’24-Hour Compose-a-thon.’ Robin was awarded the Mrs. Hong Pham Memorial Recognition Award for New Music Performance at Indiana University in 2016.
In 2013, Robin was the Ontario woodwind representative at the Federation of Canadian Music Festival’s National Competition, where she placed second overall. She has performed in master classes with Michael Hasel, Conor Nelsen, Jeanne Baxtresser, and Jeffery Khaner. In 2014, she was a recipient of the Kingsway Humber Foundation Scholarship. Robin was also a two-time recipient of the Musical Arts Society of Cleveland’s scholarship. Robin holds a masters degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Kate Lukas and Thomas Robertello. Robin received a Bachelors of Music with Distinction from University of Toronto, having studied with Leslie Newman. Other notable teachers include Marisela Sager, Linda Miller and Joseph Juhos. back to program
Teeth and Metals was formed in early 2017 by Alex Lough and Mark Micchelli. Driven by their shared passion of adventurous music for piano+electronics, the duo has recorded and performed a number of ambitious projects across the United States and internationally. Their work focuses on new models of creative activity that obfuscates the traditional composer-performer relationship and challenges normalized work/flow paradigms. In other words: they make things, they break things, they have fun, they play, they experiment, and they like to entertain. back to program
Alex Lough is a composer, performer, and multimedia sound artist. His work focuses on implementing experimental technology in order to discover new performance contexts with particular attention given to the body and the physicality of sound. His research is primarily concerned with the new taxonomic distinction of "performed electronics" and embodied performance practices as an electronicist. back to program
Mark Micchelli is a pianist, composer, technologist, and scholar whose work bridges the jazz and new music worlds. Recent projects include developing software applications for a wearable motion sensor, arranging a set of jazz standards for piano and electronics, and compiling a detailed analysis of Cecil Taylor’s solo piano music. Mark’s music has been featured at ICMC, SPLICE, the Bowling Green New Music Festival, the Oh My Ears Festival, and New Music on the Point. Mark is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, where he splits his time between the Jazz Studies and Composition/Theory departments. back to program
Described as “cinematic in the best sense” and “searing” (Chicago Classical Review), Brittany J. Green’s music works to facilitate collaborative, intimate musical spaces that ignite visceral responses. The intersections between sound, video, movement, and text serves as the focal point of these musical spaces, questioning and redefining these relationships. Recent works engages sonification and black feminist theory as tools for sonic world-building, exploring the construction, displacement, and rupture of systems.
Her music has been featured throughout the US and Canada, including at the NYC Electronic Music Festival, Society of Composers National Conference, and Experimental Sound Studio. Her music has been commissioned and performed by The JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Mind on Fire, and Transient Canvas. In 2021, Brittany’s work was awarded a Creative Development Fund Grant from New Music USA. Brittany is a PhD student at Duke University studying Music Composition as a Dean's Graduate Fellow. back to program
Sara Constant (she/her) is a musician and flutist working with a specialization in contemporary and experimental music.
Sara’s performance practice and research focus on ecological theory, cultural identity, and materiality in music and sound. Active as a soloist, improviser and ensemble musician, she has performed recently at festivals/series in Canada (WRCMS, Innovations en concert, CMC Presents), Sweden (Fylkingen), Austria (Klangspuren Schwaz, Impuls), France (Fondation Royaumont) and the United States (Oh My Ears, SPLICE), as well as in self-organized projects in Toronto and Montreal.
From 2018-2020, Sara participated in CoPeCo, a program in experimental music co-hosted in Tallinn, Stockholm, Lyon, and Hamburg. There, her projects included the development of new music for amplified flute/electronics, installation work with loudspeakers, and tours to Finland and Italy playing improvised music.
Sara is currently based in Toronto, where she works as a flutist, music writer (Musicworks), community organizer, and curator (Music Gallery), and from 2016-2019 co-organized the Toronto Creative Music Lab (TCML)—a summer workshop for early-career composers, performers, and ensembles. back to program
Carlos Cotallo Solares is a Spanish composer and performer currently living in Philadelphia. His work deals with subjects like quotation, meter and tempo polyphony, improvisation, and the relationship between music and language. His pieces often focus on a single concept or technique that is interpreted in multiple ways.
His music has been performed in festivals in the US (Oh My Ears Festival, MOXsonic, Seamus National Conference, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, SCI National Conference, National Student Electronic Music Event, Electronic Music Midwest) Germany (International Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt, Mehrklang, Crescendo), Spain (Ciclo de Música Actual), and Finland (Time of Music). He has worked with ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, handwerk, Accroche Note, Duo Contour, Ensemble Chronophonie, POING, Ensemble Container, Ensemble Alarm, Ensemble Kuraia, and Black Forest Percussion Group.
His audiovisual collaborations with the filmmaker Timothy David Orme have been presented in film festivals in the US, Colombia, the UK, and Greece. He also produces and performs experimental rock music under the name Black Stork and is a member of the free-improvisation trio Wombat.
In 2019, Carlos finished a PhD in composition at the University of Iowa, completing previously a Master's degree at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and a Bachelor's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. back to program
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: An 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, andPlay, The Meridian Arts Ensemble, Kamraton, Untwelve, The H2 Quartet, Alia Musica, Wolftrap, and his compositions have been featured at STEIM, SEAMUS, 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 70 albums for the group and have commissioned 52 compositions. back to program
Brooklyn based Soprano Anna Elder’s voice has been described as being, “ethereal” or “a voice that has blues, reds and purples in it” by The New York Times or “a voice that could match, pitch for pitch, the grumble of a truck’s engine or squeak of a scooter’s horn.”- Wilmington Star News. She performs new music with her ensembles Kamratōn and wolfTrap. Most recently, Anna presented a voice and electronic set with Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio as part of their Quarantine Concerts. She was a featured artist at The Tanglewood Music Center, where she sang Andrew Hamilton’s “Music for People Who Like Art” with The New Fromm Players for Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary music. Other engagements have included performing with New Music Detroit and appearing as a guest vocalist with Quince Ensemble. She has appeared on Music on the Edge’s Beyond Microtonal Music Festival, The Pittsburgh Festival of New Music, and The Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s Re:Sound festival. back to program
Brian Topp is a Vancouver based, composer, XR developer and interactive music technologist.
His main interests are in the intersection of art and technology, and how we can design and develop new ways of creating, interacting with, and presenting various artistic forms through new technologies. This has included technologies such as body and facial motion capture, textile/touch interfaces, mixed media, mobile and web platforms, as well virtual and augmented reality.
Currently, Brian is completing a Doctorate in Music Composition and Interactive Music Technology at the University of British Columbia with Dr. Keith Hamel, including the research and development of live performance softwares in virtual reality at the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS). Brian also holds a Masters Degree in Music Composition from Western University, and a Bachelors in Music Theory and Composition from Acadia University.
Brian’s works, music and research and have been presented across North America and Europe including CBC Arts, VIFF Immersed, Performance and XR (PXR), ICMC, NYCEMF, Electric Spring Festival, Cluster, Matera Intermedia (Ma/In), SEAMUS National Conference, Cannes Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Music in New Technologies (MINT), Edinburgh Fringe, BEAMSFest, SPLICE! and others.
Brian’s work has been supported by SOCAN, BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, CBC Arts, CreativeBC, Mitacs, the University of British Columbia, Go Global, SSHRC, and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Brian is a founding member of Chroma Mixed Media, a Vancouver based arts collective focuses on collaborative works involving music, new technologies and performance. In this role he serves as the lead developer, audio director and co-composer for the majority of Chroma's projects.. back to program
Canadian saxophonist and composer Justin Massey is an interpreter of contemporary music based in Toronto, Ontario. 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. He is currently working in collaboration with Camila Agosto to create and perform the five movement Paracusia series for saxophone and live electronics.
In the past concert season, Justin has presented new works for saxophone at festivals and conferences in the United States, Canada, and Europe including SEAMUS, BEAMS, SPLICE! Fest, the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, Matera Intermedia Festival, the Marshall University New Music Festival, the West Fork New Music Festival, and the Ensemble Evolution residency at the Banff Creative Arts Centre.
Justin completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at West Virginia University. He has previously studied at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, and has earned degrees from Bowling Green State University, the University of Alberta, and Grant MacEwan University. He has studied with Michael Ibrahim, Marie-Bernadette Charrier, John Sampen, Allison Balcetis, and William Street.
As a grant writer, Justin has received awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Edmonton Arts Council, and the Government of Alberta. He is a multi-year recipient of the Winspear Fund Scholarship and the Friends of the Anne Burrows Music Foundation Scholarship. Justin-Massey.com back to program