SPLICE Institute 2022 Concert 4 Program
featuring
SPLICE Faculty and Guests
Thursday June 30, 2022
7:30pm EDT
Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University
Livestream simulcast on SPLICE YouTube (unique link)
download program pdf (does not include notes/bios)
Joo Won Park : Func Step Mode (2019)
Joo Won Park, no input mixer and drum machine
Per Bloland : Points of Light in Shadow (2021)
Stephen Marotto, cello
This performance was supported by a PREP grant from Miami University
Adam Vidiksis and Christopher Biggs : Child's Play (2022)
Adam Vidiksis, percussion and Christopher Biggs, electronics
Flannery Cunningham : Three Frogs in Arco, Idaho (2018)
SPLICE Ensemble: Sam Wells, trumpet, Keith Kirchoff, piano, and Adam Vidiksis, percussion
Dana Jessen : Through a Fragile Traverse (2020)
Dana Jessen, bassoon
Eli Stine, video
Notes
Joo Won Park: Func Step ModeIn Func Step Mode, I send a drum machine's output to the no-input mixer's feedback loop. The no-input (or rather, one-input) mixer then becomes an analog audio processor with too many knobs to control. It makes every performance thrilling and daunting for me.
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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 summarize: multiphonic 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 was composed for and with Stephen Marotto, and is dedicated to him.
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Adam Vidiksis and Christopher Biggs: Child's Play
This is a freely improvised piece for drum kit and live electronic performance.
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Flannery Cunningham: Three Frogs in Arco, Idaho
Three Frogs in Arco, Idaho was written during a 2018 residency at Craters of the Moon National Monument. It uses field recordings from the monument and surrounding preserve that I made during my three weeks there. Craters is a strange, beautiful, and even unearthly landscape, filled with hills of black cinder, sagebrush, and jagged lava flows. It is part of Idaho’s Great Rift zone, and its relatively recent volcanic activity is almost unparalleled in the lower 48 states. Three Frogs asks its players to respond to the sounds of this landscape by playing with, through, and over field recordings. Each player is filtered live, and the trio takes turns affecting aspects of the recordings (and being affected by them in turn). I hope this web of interactions will set up a satisfying and meditative space for musical response.
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Dana Jessen: Through a Fragile Traverse
Through a Fragile Traverse is the result of a collaboration between performer-composer Dana Jessen and video artist Eli Stine. The work travels through unexplored terrain with mesmerizing visuals and other-worldly sounds, all largely informed through themes of vulnerability and impermanence.
The piece was produced by Continuum Culture & Arts as part of its Soup & Sound Online program, made possible by public funds from the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.
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Bios
Dr. Joo Won Park is an Associate Professor of Music Technology at the Wayne State University. He studied at Berklee College of Music (B.M.) and University of Florida (M.M. and Ph.D.) and has previously taught in Oberlin Conservatory, Temple University, Rutgers University Camden, and Community College of Philadelphia. Dr. Park's music and writings are available on MIT Press, Parma Recordings, ICMC, Spectrum Press, Visceral Media, SEAMUS, and No Remixes labels. He is the recipient of Knight Arts Challenge Detroit (2019) and Kresge Arts Fellowship (2020). He also directs Electronic Music Ensemble of Wayne State (EMEWS).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.
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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.
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Adam Vidiksis is a drummer and composer based in Philadelphia who explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. His music examines technological systems as artifacts of human culture, acutely revealed in the slippery area where these spaces meet and overlap—a place of friction, growth, and decay. Vidiksis is a sought-after champion of new works for percussion and electronics, performing as a featured artist in venues around the world. 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, serving as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University and President of SPLICE Music. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). [www.vidiksis.com]
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Christopher Biggs is a composer, electronics performer, and multimedia artist whose “original and unique musical language” blends dense, contrapuntal textures with direct, visceral expression. His music presents a “masterful combination between acoustic instruments and electronics” (Avant Scena), and has been described as “heartbreakingly beautiful” (Classical Music Review), and a “sonic foodfight” (Jazz Weekly). His recent projects focus on integrating live instrumental performance with interactive audiovisual media.
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Flannery Cunningham is a composer and musicologist fascinated by vocal expression, text, and auditory perception. She aims to write music that surprises and delights. Called “silken” by the Washington Post, her work has been performed at festivals such as Aspen, June in Buffalo, Toronto Creative Music Lab, SPLICE Institute and Festival, and Copland House’s CULTIVATE and by performers such as International Contemporary Ensemble, TAK, New York New Music Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, and Music from Copland House. Flannery is attracted the very old and very new; she has presented at the International Medieval Congress and performed at the International Computer Music Conference. In addition to acoustic ensembles she writes for players and singers with interactive electronics, always striving to foreground the musicality of human performers. Flannery holds degrees from Princeton University, University College Cork, and Stony Brook University, and she is currently a PhD candidate in composition and musicology at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), Dana Jessen tirelessly seeks to expand the boundaries of her instrument through original compositions, improvisations, and collaborative work with innovative artists. Over the past decade, she has presented dozens of world premiere performances throughout North America and Europe while maintaining equal footing in the creative music community as an improviser. Her solo performances are almost entirely grounded in electroacoustic composition that highlight her distinct musical language. As a chamber musician, Dana is the co-founder of the contemporary reed quintet Splinter Reeds, and has performed with Alarm Will Sound, Amsterdam’s DOEK Collective, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Tri-Centric Ensemble, among many others. A dedicated educator, Dana teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has presented masterclasses and workshops to a range of students from across the globe. More at: www.danajessen.com.
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Eli Stine is a composer, programmer, and educator. Stine is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oberlin Conservatory. Stine received Ph.D. and Masters degrees in Composition and Computer Technologies as a Jefferson Fellow at the University of Virginia and bachelor’s degrees in Technology In Music And Related Arts and Computer Science from Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory.
Stine's work explores electroacoustic sound, multimedia technologies (often custom-built software, video projection, and multi-channel speaker systems), and collaboration between disciplines (artistic and otherwise). This work has been mentioned in publications including USA Today, The Economist, and on NPR. Recent projects include an interactive music tunnel for the City of Helsinki, Finland and a virtual reality experience that premiered in New Delhi, India in March 2022.
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SPLICE Ensemble is a trumpet, piano, and percussion trio focused 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.
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Sam Wells is a musician and video artist based in Los Angeles. 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 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 Scarp Records, New Amsterdam/Nonesuch, New Focus Records, SEAMUS, and Ravello Recordings labels.
Sam is a Cycling ’74 Max Certified Trainer and holds degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University, and a doctoral degree at the California Institute of the Arts. This fall, Sam will join the faculty at Temple University as an Assistant Professor of Music Technology.
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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.
You can follow Kirchoff on Twitter @keithkirchoff and learn more at his website: keithkirchoff.com.
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