SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Concert 5 Program

featuring

SPLICE Ensemble

A concert of world premieres by SPLICE Ensemble!

Friday January 24, 2025
7:00pm EDT
Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University

All times are Eastern Time and various events will be streamed live.
Check the WMU School of Music Youtube channel for links.

Chloe Liuyan Liu : Suffocating Convenience
  Written for SPLICE Ensemble

Zheng Zhou : Echoes of the Transformation
  Written for SPLICE Ensemble
    I. Emergence
    II. Turbulence
    III. Reflection
    IV. Recurrence
    V. Resolution

Anthony Donofrio : Fractures/Webs
  Written for SPLICE Ensemble

Dan VanHassel : DYSTOPIA
  Commissioned by SPLICE Ensemble

    1. i do not belong here
    2. Extricate
    3. DEMONS
    4. …against the machine

Interested in donating to SPLICE? Now you can!
All donations go directly toward scholarships for our summer Institute - and no amount is too small.

Notes

Chloe Liuyan Liu : Suffocating Convenience
My dear friend Danning Lu has dedicated her research to environmental sustainability, particularly focusing on the environmental and social harms that single-use items bring. Because of her, I have also started paying more attention to the plastics present in my daily life. While plastics make our lives more convenient and seemingly cleaner, do we ever consider where all the plastics go once we discard them after a single use? As I composed this piece, I couldn't help but think of the famous photo of a sea turtle trapped in a plastic bag. I saw this picture many years ago, and I remember feeling a deep sadness. To escape this overwhelming sadness and guilt, I forced it out of my mind, just as I did with many other stories and photos of animals falling victim to human pollution. However, Danning’s work in environmental sustainability has given me the courage to confront these harsh realities. Facing the truth is the first step toward making meaningful changes. The sea turtle was freely swimming in the ocean until it got caught in the plastic bag and suffocated. One day, we could all find ourselves in the position of that sea turtle. The convenience we tirelessly pursue is suffocating us.
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Zheng Zhou : Echoes of the Transformation
Echoes of Transformation is a sophisticated exploration of the interplay between acoustic instruments and electronics, crafting a sonic journey through contrasting musical landscapes. This five-part electroacoustic work delves into the dialectics of sound—where melody meets texture, fast meets slow, and the organic merges with the digital. Trumpet, piano, snare drum, and electronics unite to form a richly textured sound world, constantly evolving in dynamic interplay. The composition evokes a sense of fluid transformation, with each movement embodying a unique growth stage, turbulence, introspection, and resolution.

I. Emergence
The piece begins with delicate, fragmented piano motifs, gradually intertwined with electronic textures. The electronics subtly shadow the acoustic sounds, suggesting the organic growth of natural elements. The trumpet adds harmonic layers, while the snare drum punctuates with occasional rhythmic accents, creating a contemplative atmosphere that evokes the beginning of a transformation.

II. Turbulence
In contrast to the tranquil opening, this movement introduces fast, energetic rhythmic patterns between the piano and snare drum, with the trumpet cutting through the texture. Through real-time processing, electronics capture and reshape the acoustic sounds, forming swirling, unpredictable digital patterns. This section reflects the chaotic forces of change, where layers build tension and complexity, symbolizing the turbulent energy that drives transformation.

III. Reflection
The pace slows as the piece moves into a more reflective space. Soft, sustained harmonies on the piano are delicately interrupted by electronic manipulations, creating an uneasy balance between calm and disruption. The trumpet introduces a lyrical, meditative line, while the electronics transform the acoustic sounds into distant echoes using reverb and delay, suggesting a contemplative reflection on the transformative process.

IV. Recurrence
Rhythmic patterns from earlier resurface with heightened intensity, but this time, the interaction between electronics and acoustic instruments becomes even more intertwined. The snare drum drives the rhythmic momentum forward, while electronics manipulate the acoustic timbres, continually reshaping them in real time. The trumpet and piano revisit earlier motifs, representing a cyclical recurrence of transformative forces, blending the acoustic and digital worlds into an intricate dialogue.

V. Resolution
The final movement draws from earlier motifs, but now in a softened, reflective form. Electronics provide a subtle, atmospheric backdrop, with the trumpet and piano offering sustained, contemplative harmonies. The electronics, through techniques such as reverse processing and delay, blend with the acoustic instruments to create a unified, serene soundscape. The piece closes on a note of balance, suggesting that transformation, though turbulent, ultimately leads to harmony.

Throughout the piece, advanced digital processing techniques, including EQ, delay, granular synthesis, and reverb, shape the electronic landscape. These electronics transform the acoustic instruments, offering a constantly shifting perspective on the relationship between natural and artificial elements, and drawing attention to the idea that transformation is both an internal and external process—fluid, inevitable, and ever-evolving.

Performance Note: To ensure continuity and fluidity in the performance, the five sections of the piece should be played without any pauses.
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Anthony Donofrio : Fractures/Webs
In 2016, I wrote an evening-length piece that applied my observations of water droplets on a block of unfired porcelain. That piece's structure and content was based on the changes in the block up to the point of fracture.

In Fractures/Webs, the structure on content shifts to a series of interpretations and tiny meditations on the actual point of fracture in the block.
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Dan VanHassel : DYSTOPIA
DYSTOPIA (2024) for trumpet, drum set, piano, and electronics was commissioned by and dedicated to the SPLICE Ensemble and was composed mostly in the summer of 2023 and completed in early 2024. I am very grateful for their amazing support, musicianship, and friendship which have been integral in bringing this piece to life.

Following the pandemic I found it extremely difficult to write music for several years. Apart from one short piano piece completed in early 2021, DYSTOPIA is my first completed composition since early 2020. It is my longest piece to date (about 30 minutes), and perhaps also my most personal. I realize looking at it now that the work is a sort of emotional retrospective of the past few years, almost as if I needed to purge these feelings from my system in order to start composing again.

The form of the piece is inspired by Haydn’s Symphony #49 in F Minor “The Passion” which I first heard in the depths of the pandemic and at that moment struck me as the most beautiful and deeply affecting music I had ever heard. This symphony was part of Haydn’s “sturm und drang” period, known for its turbulent and dramatic emotions, and was composed in the archaic “sonata de chiesa” format. Rather than the typical fast, upbeat Allegro movement, it starts with a devastating and intense Adagio. The 2nd movement then suddenly shifts to a blistering and intense Allegro. The 3rd movement is a minuet (still in F minor) and the 4th a relentlessly driving Presto. This ordering of the movements creates a powerful emotional trajectory; beginning in a place of intense and drawn out emotion, followed by an incredible release of pent-up energy that only builds in intensity as the piece progresses.

DYSTOPIA’s 1st movement “i do not belong here” begins in a place of utter despair, with moody, sustained piano harmonies sharply contrasting with blunt and strangled air sounds and split-tones from the trumpet. The 2nd movement “Extricate” strikes a suddenly more upbeat and optimistic mood that slowly spirals into frantic madness. This movement’s attempt at sonata form is thwarted by the sudden return of material from the 1st movement, a relapse rather than a recapitulation. In place of the minuet, I thought of the 3rd movement as the “metal” movement. In the Classical era this was the place where a symphony became more streamlined and direct in its musical language, using a popular dance form that listeners at the time would have intuitively understood. For me, rock and metal music fills that role. This movement is titled “DEMONS” after the novel by Dostoevsky that I was reading while writing the piece. Although set in late 19th century Russia, this novel struck me as eerily prophetic of present day America, depicting a society slowly driven mad by destructive, nihilistic ideas. The final movement, “…against the machine,” is a fast-paced presto whose relentless pace is increasingly driven by the electronics.

A subtext throughout the piece is the sinister and growing influence of technology, represented by both live and fixed electronics. DYSTOPIA begins totally acoustically, with just the trumpet amplified; one small element of dissent from its surroundings. At the end of the 1st movement, live electronic processing is introduced, enhancing and extending the instruments. The 3rd movement features more elaborate processing and fixed electronic elements also begin to creep in. In the final movement, the musicians must play to a fixed electronic track created from a multi-genre collage of music sampled from various recordings. The musicians alternately try to fight or conform to the electronic track as it gradually takes over.
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Bios

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. 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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The music of composer/performer Anthony Donofrio questions ideas of linearity, subjectivity, and formal structure. Fascinated with how music intersects with all fields of creativity – especially literature, film, and painting – Anthony’s music is introspective, patient, fragile, and conflicted.

Their work has been featured on numerous festivals, conferences, and symposiums, including the Darmstadt Summer Courses, the Prague Quiet Music Festival, the World Saxophone Congress, SEAMUS National Conference, the Bowling Green State University New Music Festival, the Deep Listening Institute Conference, and others.

Anthony has received commissions from the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, the Western Illinois New Music Festival, Music Teachers National Association, and from soloists and ensembles such as soprano Liz Pearse, pianists Ashlee Mack, Amy O’Dell, and Stacey Barelos, percussionist Aaron Michael Butler, harpist Ben Melsky, double bassist James Ilgenfritz, and clarinet/piano duo Duo Per Se. National and international performances include the International Contemporary Ensemble, the S.E.M. Ensemble, Longleash Piano Trio, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and Duo Harpwerk, among others.

Specializing in concert-length works, Anthony’s catalog includes chamber pieces, works for instruments with electronics (both live and fixed media), and large ensemble works for orchestra and concert band. These works can be heard on Edition Wandelweiser Records, Sawyer Editions, Centaur Records, and August Two Editions.

As an educator, Anthony teaches composition, theory, and directs the new music ensemble at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In addition, Anthony is also the director of the UNK New Music Series and Festival, which brings specialists in contemporary music to central Nebraska to present recitals, master classes, and lectures.

Anthony holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of Iowa; past teachers include Frank Wiley, David Gompper, Paul Schoenfield, and John Eaton. When spare time exists, Anthony enjoys book collecting, studying occultism, and cooking.
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Chloe Liuyan Liu is a composer who earned her Master of Music in Music Composition from Indiana University in May 2023, following her Bachelor of Music in Composition at Wheaton College in 2021. She achieved recognition by winning the special prize at the 4th Ise-Shima International Composition Competition, the Global Music Award, the Schultheis Composition Competition Award, and the Josephine Halvorsen Memorial Composition Prize. She also received third place in the 2024 American Prize (Vocal Chamber Division). Liu has studied composition under mentors such as Shawn Okpebeholo, Xavier Beteta, David Dzubay, Annie Gosfield, and Han Lash. She also pursued a minor in computer music under the direction of John Gibson and Chi Wang. During her time at Indiana University, she focused on interactive music with data-driven instruments for her computer music compositions. Outside of academia, she composes Chinese pop music and soundtracks for short films and games.
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The music of composer and multi-instrumentalist Dan VanHassel has been described as “energizing” (Wall Street Journal), “a refreshing direction” (I Care If You Listen), and “an imaginative and rewarding soundscape” (San Francisco Classical Voice). His works create a uniquely evocative sound world drawing from a background in rock and heavy metal, Indonesian gamelan, free improvisation, and classical music.

VanHassel’s compositions have been featured at top national and international contemporary music festivals, including the MATA Festival, Gaudeamus Music Week, International Computer Music Conference, Bowling Green New Music Festival, UnCaged Toy Piano Festival, Shanghai Conservatory Electronic Music Week, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. His music is played regularly all over the world by ensembles and performers such as the Talea Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, pianist Jihye Chang, Verdant Vibes, Keuris Saxophone Quartet, Transient Canvas, pianist Gloria Cheng, Symphony Number One, Red Fish Blue Fish, Empyrean Ensemble, Hotel Elefant, the Boston Percussion Group, Ensemble Pamplemousse, and the UC Santa Cruz Wind Ensemble. Recordings of his works are featured on albums by the Now Hear Ensemble and Ignition Duo, as well as releases on the New Focus, Soundset, and Thinking OutLoud labels.

VanHassel was awarded a Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation, as well as commissions from Chamber Music America, the Barlow Endowment, and the Johnstone Fund for New Music. As an electric guitarist, VanHassel has performed with leading contemporary ensembles including the Callithumpian Consort, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Eco Ensemble, and Kadence Arts. He was a founding member and artistic director of contemporary chamber ensemble Wild Rumpus in San Francisco until 2016, and is the founder and executive director of the Boston-based Hinge Quartet.

VanHassel received degrees in composition from the University of California, Berkeley, New England Conservatory, and Carnegie Mellon University. He has taught composition and electronic music at: MIT, Brandeis University, UC Berkeley, Clark University, and Connecticut College and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
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Dr. Zheng Zhou (b. 1992) is a composer, songwriter, and Di-zi (Chinese bamboo flute) player whose music has been performed globally, including in the United States, Europe, and China, etc. He has worked with ensembles from different regions, such as Utah Philharmonia, DuselForty58, PHACE, NOVA, Fear No Music, etc. Dr. Zhou’s music is multicultural, employing various elements of different genres. He also absorbs compositional ideas from vivid images of the world around him. Dr. Zhou has been working on the composition and research of “visual-musical combination” and “electroacoustic music with cultural diversity.” His works have been published by Universal Edition, UCLA Music Library, China Scientific & Cultural Audio-video Publishing Co., Ltd, and Central China Normal University Publishing Company. Dr. Zhou was selected as winner of The American Prize in Composition, 2023, in the professional orchestra division, for his piece Loess for Orchestra and Live Multimedia. His string quartet, Glen Echo (2020), was published on the official site of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA), in which he was interviewed by UMFA and the “@theU” Newsletter at the University of Utah. He also participated in an interdisciplinary collaboration regarding climate change at the University of Utah, “Artivism for Earth,” in which he composed a sextet piece, Reflection (2021). Dr. Zhou holds a degree in musicology from China University of Mining and Technology (B.A.) and music composition from California State University, Northridge (M.M.). In 2022, Dr. Zhou received his Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Utah, where he also served as an instructor of record in musicianship/theory areas and the president of the University Composers Collective. Currently, Dr. Zhou is an Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the School of Music at Central China Normal University.
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SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Workshop 2

Saturday January 25, 2025
4:00-4:55 EDT
    AND
5:00-5:55 EDT
Dalton Computer Lab, Western Michigan University

Dmitri Volkov

Getting Started with Pivotuner

Pivotuner is a plugin which tunes MIDI data in pure intonation in real time. Besides enabling beautiful purely-tuned chords on keyboards, this also enables many other cool things such as microtonal modulation, and unusual chord sonorities! This workshop goes over the fundamentals of how to use Pivotuner, and some of the more advanced features, and practical techniques for achieving different musical results! Topics include: setting up Pivotuner with MPE or MTS-ESP protocols, general Pivotuner concepts, Pivotuner tuning modes, key determiners, pitch/key locking, bendback.

Bio

Dmitri Volkov primarily operates within the realms of music and computer science. Musically, Dmitri is an award-winning composer and producer who seeks to use bleeding-edge experimental techniques in convincing ways; he is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist. With computer science, Dmitri is comfortable with both the theoretical and the practical, having published academic papers as well as mobile apps and websites. He actively seeks out ways to combine the two disciplines, by publishing work on quantum computer music and developing audio plugins such as Pivotuner (which enables adaptive pure intonation and microtonal modulation for virtual instruments). Dmitri also wants you to know that he does not usually write in the third person.

SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Lectures 2

Saturday January 25, 2025
1:50-3:00pm EDT
Dalton Lecture Hall D1110, Western Michigan University

Jeremy Muller
Music for Instruments + Mobile Phones

This lecture-performance, which includes a performance of Blackwater: The Little Prince, explores how multimedia participation via the mobile phone can transform the concert experience. With this work, the devices “perform” in real-time using open, interoperable, and ubiquitous technology. We will discuss the limitations of indeterminate network latency and how this can be embraced as a musical aesthetic for spatialized performances.

Program notes for Blackwater: The Little Prince
Blackwater is about the infamous private mercenary army founded by Erik Prince, its war crimes, and how "endless wars" is a murderous business model in the 21st century. In this piece, the solo instruments are the two snare drums while the electronic part lives in the audience's phones and is an extension of the snare drums' sound using only filtered or downsampled noise. Audience members are encouraged to participate in the piece by using their mobile device as part of the musical texture. Turn your volume up, turn off vibrate and autolock, and please visit the website below on your mobile device to join:
https://blackwater.jeremymuller.com

Christopher Cresswell
Revisiting Plunderphonics 40 Years Later

It has been 40 years since John Oswald gave his (in)famous lecture, "Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative" at the Wired Society Electro-Acoustic Conference in Toronto in 1985. The questions raised in this lecture seem even more prescient in our current internet age where the contemporary reincarnations of plunderphonics, notably memes, sampling, and animated gifs, among many others, are not the domain of subversive artists like Oswald, but rather the lingua franca of our culture both on and off the internet.

Bios

Jeremy Muller (jeremymuller.com) is active as a percussionist, composer, and multimedia artist. He’s been described as “highly creative” by Take Effect and has performed as a featured soloist at many venues throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia including International Computer Music Conference, The Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), Transplanted Roots (Australia), MoxSonic, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, ZeroSpace, Southwest Electroacoustic Festival, Jacksonville Electroacoustic Music Festival, IEEE VIS conference, the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, and PASIC. He has given world premieres of works by many composers including Matthew Burtner, Alexandre Lunsqui, Cristyn Magnus, & an evening-length tour de force solo work by Stuart Saunders Smith. Jeremy released his debut solo percussion album on Albany records which includes several recording premieres, and his music can also be heard on Arcomusical’s third album “Emigre & Exile.” He is currently a Professor of Music at Georgia Institute of Technology.
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A composer/sound artist, singer/songwriter, educator, and radio host, Chris Cresswell is a curious musician whose work betrays his affection for sonic wanderlust. His music has been praised for its “textural variety” (Gramophone) that “… blur the boundaries between industrial and organic, soothing and suspenseful, and introspective and anxious” (International Clarinet Association), creating “a truly immersive, dreamlike atmosphere” (PopMatters).

After learning how to play a few basic chords in his 8th grade music class, Cresswell bought his first guitar in the summer of 2001. He almost immediately began writing songs and shortly thereafter started recording them. Two decades later, this interdependence of exploring the idiomatic possibilities of an instrument, and using the recording studio as a creative sandbox, is a hallmark of his work. Whether pushing into the extremes of harsh noise, ambient stillness, or somewhere in between, Cresswell’s music retains an emotional core rooted in his experience as a singer/songwriter.

Cresswell currently works as a teaching artist and as an adjunct lecturer at Onondaga Community College. He is the host of A Curious Ear on WCNY-FM, which explores the unlikely connections between disparate musical worlds. When not doing musical things, he can be found running the streets and trails of Central New York, watching St. Louis Cardinals baseball or Syracuse basketball, and spending time with his wife Amber and their adorable kitty, Eloise.
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SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Concert 4 Program

Saturday January 25, 2025
10:30am EDT
Multimedia Room, Western Michigan University

All times are Eastern Time and various events will be streamed live.
Check the WMU School of Music Youtube channel for links.

Pamela Z. (arr. Mayrose/Whiting) : Four Movements for Cello and Delays
  Drew Whiting, baritone saxophone
    I. Three Loops
    II. Gradual Quartet
    III. Quickly
    IV. Grains

Marcin Pączkowski : Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed
  Marcin Pączkowski, electronics

Anthony Marasco : Migration Script
  Anthony Marasco, electronics

Stephanie Vasko : Michigan: Flow State
  Stephanie Vasko, live interactive electronics, software synthesis, field recordings, video synthesis

Zeynep Özcan : Customs and Borders
  Zeynep Özcan, electronics

Interested in donating to SPLICE? Now you can!
All donations go directly toward scholarships for our summer Institute - and no amount is too small.

Notes

Pamela Z. (arr. Mayrose/Whiting) : Four Movements for Cello and Delays
This work was commissioned by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for their “Second Helpings” series at the DIA Center Chelsea in New York. It was composed for cello and electronics (three long delay lines and granular synthesis executed in MAX MSP Software on a Mac). In its premiere it was performed by principal cellist, Myron Lutzke with Pamela Z on electronics. It has subsequently been played by cellist Mimi Yu at the Juilliard School’s annual “Focus!” Festival, and a violin transcription of it has been recorded and performed at Center for New Music and Technology (CNMAT) in Berkeley by violinist Lina Bahn. —PZ.

With permission of the composer, Drew Whiting adapted the cello part for baritone saxophone, and John Mayrose provided MAX programming to execute the electronics. This saxophone and electronics version was premiered in 2023 at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference at the University of Southern Mississippi.
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Marcin Pączkowski : Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed
The title of the piece comes from a nursery rhyme referenced in George Orwell’s book “1984”. Throughout the book the main character struggles to remember the poem’s ending, which is revealed to him at the key moment, right before he is captured: “Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head”.

This thread in the whole story resonated with me, as it touches on the volatility of one’s memory, with the backdrop of large-scale manipulation of recorded knowledge performed by the totalitarian regime in the book. While Orwell mostly deals with the memory that exists within humans and memory that’s written down, today we deal with omnipresence of recorded media of multiple sorts, particularly sounds, images, and videos. As we produce larger and larger amount of such records, not only through traditional books, audio records and movies, but also in social media, blogs, podcasts etc., I find it fascinating how we navigate this oversaturated space and how it is being transformed by both large-scale phenomena as well as targeted actions. In my piece I am seeking to explore these transformations by employing a machine learning model that embeds the memory of the piece. While being performed, the piece re-composes itself, as the model is being re-trained to embed new “memories” of the performance gestures.

This work is supported by the Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media at the University of Washington, as well as eScience Institute with support from the Washington Research Foundation.

The piece is realized in 3rd order Ambisonics spatial sound format and employs custom motion sensors developed by the composer.
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Anthony Marasco : Migration Script
Migration Script centers on the unrelenting forces of nature that push creatures to live their lives as molded through centuries-old patterns without question. Using Mark Wheeler's 'Overwintering' script and Zach Scholl’s 'granchild' script for the Monome Norns, the performer reacts to and shapes the slowly evolving harmonic content generated in real-time from bird migration patterns captured across Europe. Building new polyphonic and rhythmic overlays from bird song field recordings and the aforementioned sonified data, the performer uses granular engines and digital sample reduction processing to impart their fleeting influence on an unrelenting force. This piece also uses the 'CH-Norns' package developed by the composer, allowing wireless collaborative data sharing between multiple Monome Norns instruments, mobile devices, and computers. During the performance, one Norns transmits audio-reactive control data to the other two computers, allowing the sonic properties of the music it synthesizes to adjust properties such as the grain density, bit reduction amount, and modulation depth of the signal processing machines in real time. In this manner, the musician gains an improvisation partner out of one of their own instruments, another source of stochastic drive they must attempt to sculpt and decide how to react to in each performance.
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Stephanie Vasko : Michigan: Flow State
Michigan: Flow State is a 10-minute audiovisual love letter to the lakes, rivers, and waterfalls of Michigan. This performance will combine 1. field recorded and manipulated audio performed with software and Midi controllers with 2. projected live coding video synthesis and 3. live sound creation. Field recordings and video/photography from on, in, and Michigan locations will be supplemented with sounds created by modular virtual synthesis, hydropowered instruments, and by live manipulation of water sources and hydrophones. Sounds and images will flow from one to another, with triggers between the two, highlighting the interconnected of our senses and of our lives with our water sources. back to program

Zeynep Özcan : Customs and Borders
Customs and Borders is a transducer-based interactive live performance that challenges the audience’s perception on social identities through playful engagement and critical reflection. Utilizing objects symbolic of immigration, such as passports, stamps, and single-hole punches, the performance highlights the tangible artifacts of border crossing. As the performer takes on the role of a customs and border protection officer, the performance intentionally blurs the lines between authority and absurdity, inviting the audience to question the power structures at play in such contexts.

Become part of the performance!

This performance is interactive, and I invite volunteers to participate. Please pick up a passport near the stage and approach the performer with it. The performer will then decide whether to grant you entry with a stamp or deny it.
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Bios

Anthony T. Marasco is a composer, sound artist, and instrument designer who takes influence from the aesthetics of today’s Digimodernist culture. His music and installations showcase emerging technologies to highlight their creative flexibility, combining interactive sensor systems and cyber-hacked circuit-bent hardware with modular synthesizers and tabletop sound computers. An internationally recognized artist, Marasco’s works have been featured at the SEAMUS conference, the Networked Music Festival, MoxSonic, NIME, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, Mise-En Festival, Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, and more. Anthony’s research centers on developing collaborative and networked performance tools for electroacoustic music performance. He is a co-developer of Collab-Hub, a framework that lets remote, physically distanced performers share control of virtual and tangible instruments across the internet. Marasco is an Assistant Professor of Composition and Technology at Michigan State University’s College of Music.
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Dr. Zeynep Özcan is an experimental and electronic music composer, sound artist and performer. She explores biologically inspired musical creativity, interactive and immersive environments, and generative systems. Her works have been performed and presented throughout the world in concerts, exhibitions, and conferences, such as AES, ICAD, ICMC, ISEA, NIME, NYCEMF, WAC and ZKM. She is an Assistant Professor and a faculty director of Girls in Music and Technology (GiMaT), Summer Institute at the Department of Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre & Dance. She specializes in the implementation of software systems for music-making, audio programming, sonification, sensors and microcontrollers, novel interfaces for musical expression, and large-scale interactive installations. Her research interests are exploring bio-inspired creativity, artistic sonification, playfulness and failure in performance, and sonic cyberfeminisms. She is passionate about community building and creating multicultural and collaborative learning experiences for students through technology-driven creativity.
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Marcin Pączkowski [`marr-cheen pawnch-`koavz-kee] is a composer, conductor, digital artist, and performer, working with both traditional and electronic media. As a composer, he is focused on developing new ways of creating and performing computer music, and his pieces involving real-time gestural control using accelerometers have been performed in the United States, Poland, Canada, and South Korea.

As the Music Director of Evergreen Community Orchestra, he presents concerts of diverse repertoire to local communities. He is also involved in performing new music and has led premieres of numerous works in Poland and in the United States. He received grants and commissions from the Seattle Symphony, eScience Institute, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and from Polish Institute of Music and Dance. He received his Ph.D. in Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He also holds Masters' degrees from the Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland, and from the University of Washington.
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Dr. Stephanie E. Vasko (b. 1984) is an interdisciplinary artist who works with sound, electronics, sculpture, software, video, performance, coding, and photography. A tinkerer and experimentalist at heart, her work uses combinations of vintage and current technologies, instruments, and techniques to warp perceptions, play with the distinction between natural and built spaces, and explore embodied experiences. She performs online and in-person, most recently, as part of Sound Scene 2024 at the Hirshhorn Museum, and has participated in solo and collaborative residencies. Dr. Vasko is the co-founder of the bimonthly Ambient Annotations experimental music series in Lansing, MI. You can find out more about her at http://www.stephanievasko.com or on Instagram at @stephanievaskostudio.
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Saxophonist Drew Whiting has established himself as a champion of new and experimental music, specializing in performing works of the 20th and 21st centuries in solo, chamber, and electroacoustic settings. Drew is described as having “superb musicianship” (The Saxophonist), “remarkable versatility” (Computer Music Journal), and is a “superb advocate of the music he champions” (Fanfare Magazine).

Drew received his Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from the Michigan State University College of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Drew is a proud Yamaha Performing Artist and Vandoren Artist-Clinician, performing exclusively on Yamaha saxophones and Vandoren woodwind products.
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Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist making works for voice, electronics, samples, gesture activated MIDI controllers, and video. She has toured throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. Her work has been presented at venues and exhibitions including Bang on a Can (NY), the Japan Interlink Festival, Other Minds (SF), MoMA (NY), the Venice Biennale, and Dakar Biennale. She has composed scores for dance, film, and chamber ensembles (including Kronos Quartet and Eighth Blackbird). Her awards include the Rome Prize, Berlin Prize, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, MIT McDermott Award, the Guggenheim, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
www.pamelaz.com

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SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Concert 3 Program

Friday January 24, 2025
7:00pm EDT
Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University

All times are Eastern Time and various events will be streamed live.
Check the WMU School of Music Youtube channel for links.

Pedram Diba : For it is Our First Universe
  Zaira Castillo, piano + lights

Carolyn Borcherding : Life is
  Henning Schroeder, saxophones

Chris Biggs : Artifacts of Leisure
  Henning Schroeder, saxophones
  Yu-Lien Thé, piano

Arya Nair : Vara Da: Missed Stop
  Olivia Cirisan, vibraphone

Duo Cataclysma : Improvisation
  Jeff Kaiser, trumpet + laptop/electronics
  Seth Andrew Davis, electric guitar + laptop/electronics

Per Bloland : Los murmullos
  Keith Kirchoff, piano

Interested in donating to SPLICE? Now you can!
All donations go directly toward scholarships for our summer Institute - and no amount is too small.

Notes

Pedram Diba : For it is Our First Universe
The conceptual framework of For it is Our First Universe is taken from Gaston Bachelard's book, Poetics of Space. In this book, Bachelard talks about the intimacy one develops toward the space of their childhood home, and how that intimate relationship becomes a fundamental part of that person. The title of the work was constructed by putting two quotes from Bachelard’s book together. In general, the concept of home could be applied to things beyond the house itself. For example, it could be applied to home town, home country, the language one grows up with, the cuisine of one's culture, etc.

In this work, I use phonographies of the bazaar in Kerman, Iran to make the electronics and form the instrumental part. I chose to record the sounds of this bazaar because of its national significance as well as personal meaning. As one of the largest and oldest bazaars in Iran, it has cultural significance and has become a destination. Additionally, its sounds have a strong sense of intimacy for me since the distinctive accent of the Farsi spoken in Kerman resonates with me personally. In this piece I tried to capture the essence of this intimacy through the bazaar’s sounds and spaces.
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Carolyn Borcherding : Life is
2018 was a particularly tumultuous time in my life. As I struggled to make sense of the challenges I was facing, I frequently found myself meditating on the meaning of life. I decided that meaning was built from small, day-to-day occurrences –greeting a friend, hearing the rattle of leaves in the trees, going on a short walk– rather than large events, such as traveling or having a piece premiered. Grand events were, I decided, assembled by a series of smaller events that were by no means any less important.

Life is represents this concept. The piece is built on an ascending major seventh motive, representing a small moment in life. This motive transforms and grows as it attempts to find resolution, winding its way through growing tension and conflict built from distortions of the motive itself. Thus, reiterations and developments of this single motive knit together an experience far larger than itself. Only in the final moments of its iteration does this motive find its perfect resolution.
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Arya Nair : Vara Da: Missed Stop
Paragon of vortex,
I swirl into abyss
For the sake of composure,
I'm smiling
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Duo Cataclysma : Improvisation
For SPLICE Fest, Duo Cataclysma will be showcasing both Kaiser and Davis’ and their respective robot improvisers, KaiGen and Cybersyn. Both systems reflect the creative outlook and values of their creators. This hybrid quartet is intended to reflect the post-humanist possibilities of what it can mean for human and robot agents to interact in creative practice, specifically improvised music.
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Per Bloland : Los murmullos
Los murmullos, for piano and electronics, is based on a highly influential novel from the 1950s: Pedro Páramo, by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo. The electronics for this piece were generated using a physical model of the Electro-Magnetically Prepared Piano – a device consisting of a rack of twelve electromagnets that can be installed on the frame of any grand piano. The EMPP is somewhat like an EBow in that the electromagnets cause the strings to vibrate. However, because the electromagnets receive audio signals from a computer, there is a much higher degree sonic variability. The physical model of this device, called the Induction Connection, was developed during an Artistic Research Residency at IRCAM in Paris. The Induction Connection is currently built into IRCAM’s software Modalys.

The novel Pedro Páramo is the surreal tale of a man’s return to the town in which his parents lived, long after that town has fallen into decay. Comala is now populated more heavily by the dead than the living, and exists in a blurred twilight realm in which such distinctions are meaningless. The descriptions of the environment are exceptionally vivid, often invoking the four elements to transition between the past and the present, and between the living and the dead. The original title of the novel was Los murmullos, a reflection of the murmuring and whispering of the dead heard at various points throughout. Contrary to the gentle implications of the word, it is the intensity of these murmurs that overwhelms and suffocates the protagonist just over half way through the narrative.

Los murmullos is dedicated to Keith Kirchoff.
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Bios

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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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 solo pieces to works for large orchestra, and incorporate video, dance, and custom-built electronics. His opera, Pedr Solis, was premiered by Guerilla Opera in 2015. He has also received commissions from Unheard-of//Ensemble, loadbang, Keith Kirchoff, Wild Rumpus, the Ecce Ensemble, the Callithumpian Consort, Stanford’s CCRMA, SEAMUS/ASCAP, 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. In 2013 he completed a five-month Musical Research Residency at IRCAM in Paris, and is currently in a second multi-segment residency there. He is an Associate Professor of Composition and Technology, and coordinator of the Composition area at Miami University, Ohio. He is also a founding board member of the SPLICE Institute. He received his D.M.A. in composition from Stanford University and his M.M. from the University of Texas.

Scores may be purchased at www.babelscores.com/perbloland
For more information visit: www.perbloland.com
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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 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. Her art has increasingly explored topics on the human experience, data in the natural sciences, and literary narratives.

Carolyn received her master’s degree in music composition at Western Michigan University and her doctorate at the University of Illinois. She is currently Assistant Professor in Composition at Baldwin Wallace University.
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Zaira Castillo is a passionate pianist with a profound commitment to contemporary music and collaboration with living composers. Over recent years, she has commissioned and premiered numerous solo and chamber piano works, showcasing her passion for pushing musical boundaries. As an active performer, she has premiered and performed works at several venues in the Chicago area including, Constellation Chicago, the Epiphany Center for the Arts, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, Experimental Sound Studios, and Clara Chicago.

Her programming style reflects thoughtful curation, seamlessly blending traditional repertoire with contemporary works. This approach has earned her recognition through multiple grants, affirming her impact on the musical landscape.

Based in Chicago, Zaira balances her career as a freelance pianist and private instructor with her role as a founding member and pianist for Duo Riso.
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Olivia Cirisan is a percussionist, singer/songwriter, composer and producer based in Southeast Michigan. Olivia’s range of work is diverse, as she involves herself in many creative projects and musical interests. Her work is often collaborative, cross-genre and experimental, and frequently makes use of technology and multimedia. Olivia is a percussionist and founding member of mixed sextet FLYDLPHN, percussion / multimedia duo VIRID, and percussion trio Brain Pocket. A collaborator at heart, she has premiered many works by living composers, and she has also worked on notable projects such as John Luther Adams’ GRAMMY-nominated recording of “Sila: The Breath of the World,” the premiere of Michael Gordon’s “Field of Vision,” and “A New Age for New Age, Vol. 5.” As a composer, songwriter and producer, Olivia combines her percussion training, her love of electronic production and her songwriting experience to make music that swims amongst both popular and unconventional idioms, most recently exemplified by her 35-minute record, MIDDLES.

Currently, Olivia is pursuing her M.M. in percussion performance at the University of Michigan, where she is also the Assistant Director of the University of Michigan Gamelan. She is a 2024 Graduate Fellow in the Center for World Performance Studies as well. back to program

Duo Cataclysma is the electro-acoustic duo of Jeff Kaiser (trumpet, flugelhorn, and laptop/electronics) and Seth Andrew Davis (electric guitar, laptop/electronics). The group focuses on improvisation and interactive electronics with live signal processing and virtual/artificial/robot agents. The group is heavily influenced by American free jazz, European free Improvisation, and Electro-Acoustic free improvisation traditions.
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Pedram Diba (b. 1993) is an Iranian-American composer of acoustic, acousmatic, and mixed music currently residing in Paris. Diba's music features intricate, ever-evolving soundscapes that consistently reveal interconnected relationships among various sound elements and components, offering a distinctive and intellectually engaging listening experience.

His compositions have been showcased in festivals and conferences such as SEAMUS, IRCAM Forum, CIRMMT-ACTOR Symposium, Festival Temporel, NOVA Contemporary Music Meeting, and New Music Gathering, among others.

Since 2019, Diba has been a member of the Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project. Through ACTOR, he has participated in and initiated various research-creation projects such as the CORE Ensemble Project, Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP), and Space As Timbre (SAT), which have led to peer-reviewed publications as a direct outcome of these projects.

Diba completed his B.M. in composition at the University of Oregon where he received the prize of Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar in Composition. Later, he received the MAX Stern Fellowship in Music to attend McGill University, where he completed his M.M. in composition under the supervision of Philippe Leroux. Currently, Diba is pursuing his Ph.D. in composition and music technology at Northwestern University with Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim. He is also one of the selected composers participating in the Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale at IRCAM for 2023-2024.
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Described as a “virtuosic tour de force” whose playing is “energetic, precise, (and) sensitive,” pianist and composer Keith Kirchoff has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Southwest. A strong advocate for living composers, Kirchoff is committed to fostering new audiences for contemporary music and giving a voice to emerging composers, and to that end has commissioned several dozen compositions and premiered hundreds of new works. He is the co-founder and President of SPLICE Music: one of the United States’ largest programs dedicated to the performance, creation, and development of music for performers and electronics. Kirchoff is active as both a soloist and chamber musician, and is a member of both Hinge Quartet and SPLICE Ensemble. Kirchoff has won awards from the Steinway Society, MetLife Meet the Composer, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Chamber Music America, 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 Instagram @8e8keys and learn more at his website: keithkirchoff.com
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Arya Nair
Sophomore in Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Composer/Singer/Pianist.

Emerging from Dubai, U.A.E, she has traveled the world; growing her expertise and striving to bridge sociocultural barriers with music. Her compositions have earned her a scholarship at the Conservatory, where she continues to grow under the guidance of composers including Bahar Royaee, Victoria Cheah, Marti Epstein, and Mischa Salkind-Pearl.
Additionally, she is enriched by her experience as a certified Trinity College London grade 8 Piano performer, and is acclaimed as the 2022 London Young Musicians Silver Award winner.

Arya works as a Stage Manager in Boston Conservatory. She is currently Boston-based, where she enjoys exploring bakeries and taking walks by the stream.
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German saxophonist Henning Schröder has concertized at major venues throughout Europe, Asia and North America, both as a soloist and in groups as diverse as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Max Raabe & Das Palast Orchester. Dr. Schröder holds the baritone saxophone chair in the Capitol Quartet. Together with his longtime duo partner, pianist Yu-Lien The, Dr. Schröder explores both the standard and contemporary repertoire of his instrument. He frequently collaborates with composers and has performed world premieres of solo or chamber compositions by Frederic Rzewski, Anna Clyne, Carter Pann, and Branford Marsalis, to name just a few.

A Yamaha Performing Artist, he has been featured in performances, lectures, clinics and as a composer at international conferences and festivals in Europe and North America, including the Midwest Clinic, SEAMUS, World Saxophone Congresses, Biennial Conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance as well as the Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival. Dr. Schröder holds degrees in saxophone performance and saxophone pedagogy from the University of Arts Berlin, Western Michigan University and the University of Illinois. He studied with Debra Richtmeyer, Johannes Ernst, Trent Kynaston and Chip McNeill. Dr. Schröder teaches at Western Michigan University and he spends his summers in North Carolina as a member of the Brevard Summer Music Festival Artist Faculty.
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Yu-Lien Thé has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Southeast-Asia, including appearances as a soloist with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Kammerorchester Hannover, and the Baroque Orchestra L'Arco. Other notable performances include a two-piano recital with Lori Sims of Messiaen’s “Visions de l’Amen” in 2008 and a lecture-recital of “The Other Diabelli-Variations” in 2012, both at the Gilmore International Keyboard Piano in Kalamazoo. A prizewinner of the 12th International Piano Competition Viotti-Valsesia (Italy) and the Deutsche Musikwettbewerb, she was admitted to the National Concert Podium for Young Artists (Germany), which led to several concert tours with violinist Tomo Keller. Dr. The is a champion of contemporary composers and has been involved in a number of commissions and world premieres. She frequently collaborates with saxophonists Joe Lulloff and Henning Schröder as well as composers Dorothy Chang, Keith Murphy, and Carter Pann. During her tenure with the new music ensemble Opus21, she worked with composers Anna Clyne, David Lang, and Frederic Rzewski, which culminated in premiere performances at Symphony Space (New York) as well as Zankel Hall at Carnegie in 2007 and 2008, respectively.

Born in the Netherlands, Yu-Lien Thé received most of her musical training in Germany, where she obtained degrees in both piano and recorder performance and pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. She has earned an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, a Master of Music from Western Michigan University, as well as a D.M.A. in piano performance from Michigan State University. Her principal piano teachers were Arie Vardi, Anatol Ugorski, Deborah Moriarty, and Lori Sims.

Yu-Lien Thé is Associate Professor of Keyboard Studies at Western Michigan University and has previously served on the faculties at Bowling Green State University, Valparaiso University, and Kalamazoo College.
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SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Workshop 1

Friday January 24, 2025
4:30-5:30pm EDT
Dalton Lecture Hall D1110, Western Michigan University

Please note new start time: 4:30.

Per Bloland

Computer Assisted Orchestration with Orchidea/MaxOrch

Orchidea is collection of Max objects designed for computer-assisted orchestration. Users select a set of instruments and a target audio file, and Orchidea attempts to match the spectral chacteristics of the target file with the designated instruments. The result is a sample-based audio file and a notated score.

These objects are incredibly powerful and feature-rich, but the learning curve is a bit steep. MaxOrch provides an interface to make the features easier to access and offer detailed explanations about their implementation.

This workshop includes an overview of the Orchidea ecosystem and a tutorial on the use of MaxOrch.

To install MaxOrch, please visit the MaxOrch page. It is recommended that you install the standalone - it's just easier to do!

Bio

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 Unheard-of//Ensemble, 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, and is currently in the midst of a second multi-segment residency there. He is an Associate Professor of Composition and Technology, and coordinator of the Composition and Music Technology areas 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

SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Lectures 1

Friday January 24, 2025
2:00-3:00pm EDT
Dalton Lecture Hall D1110, Western Michigan University

Stephanie Vasko
Putting the Wave in Waveform: Incorporating the Power and Sound of Water in Electronic Music

While field recordings of water are often incorporated into electronic music compositions, there are a multitude of ways to use water to create movement, sound, and visual interest in performances. This talk will cover techniques including field recording (above/on/underwater), hydropowering equipment, and incorporating water in various states into live performances. This talk will also feature a live demonstration of combining tape loops and ice.

Duo Cataclysma
Enter Agency: Interagency and Intra-action

In this presentation Duo Cataclysma (Jeff Kaiser and Seth Andrew Davis) introduce the technological, theoretical and historical underpinnings of their creative practice. Moving through ideas of technological and human relationships, the agency of technology and the environment, and they will also discuss and demo the various softwares they have authored and will be performing with that grew out of these ideas. For more information: https://jeffkaiser.com/duocat

Bios

Dr. Stephanie E. Vasko (b. 1984) is an interdisciplinary artist who works with sound, electronics, sculpture, software, video, performance, coding, and photography. A tinkerer and experimentalist at heart, her work uses combinations of vintage and current technologies, instruments, and techniques to warp perceptions, play with the distinction between natural and built spaces, and explore embodied experiences. She performs online and in-person, most recently, as part of Sound Scene 2024 at the Hirshhorn Museum, and has participated in solo and collaborative residencies. Dr. Vasko is the co-founder of the bimonthly Ambient Annotations experimental music series in Lansing, MI. You can find out more about her at http://www.stephanievasko.com or on Instagram at @stephanievaskostudio.
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Duo Cataclysma is the electro-acoustic duo of Jeff Kaiser (trumpet, flugelhorn, and laptop/electronics) and Seth Andrew Davis (electric guitar, laptop/electronics). The group focuses on improvisation and interactive electronics with live signal processing and virtual/artificial/robot agents. The group is heavily influenced by American free jazz, European free Improvisation, and Electro-Acoustic free improvisation traditions. back to program

SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Concert 2 Program

Friday January 24, 2025
10:30am EDT
Multimedia Room, Western Michigan University

All times are Eastern Time and various events will be streamed live.
Check the WMU School of Music Youtube channel for links.

Liann J. Kang : Images
  Jack Thorpe, sax

Isaac Smith : Extension
  Robin Meiksins, flute

Sivan Cohen Elias : RESET
  Will Yager, bass

Christopher Cresswell : Sometimes I Get a Feeling
  RE:Duo, viola + sax

Caroline Flynn : Fish Song
  Caroline Flynn, voice

Lisa Coons : Chimera’s Garden
  Robin Meiksins, flute

Interested in donating to SPLICE? Now you can!
All donations go directly toward scholarships for our summer Institute - and no amount is too small.

Notes

Liann J. Kang : Images
Images was conceived as a “sonic cycle,” a cycle of pieces for varied instrumentation and media which seek to musically convey intangible, abstract ideas such as philosophies, concepts, or thoughts, as a series of sonic images. Images is an ongoing project. The first two pieces of the cycle, Blue Air and Traces, were written for Jack Thorpe who commissioned the pieces under the auspices of the 2022 Presser Graduate Music Award. The live electronics for both were developed in SuperCollider by Victor Zheng.

I. Blue Air. The flickering image of bursting air
Intertwined with sounds around us
Sounds that bring out memories
Voices that call out to us
Nostalgia about a place that we have never been to

II. Traces
Drifting in unmeasured time
Grasping for direction amid remnants and wisps
Textures across a static continuum
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Isaac Smith : Extension
This piece is an exploration of the relationship of live performers to generative AI. A neural network was trained on a large dataset of recordings made by Robin from her YouTube channel. That trained model is then loaded into the nn~ object in Max/MSP, which analyzes incoming audio and resynthesizes that audio using samples from the dataset. When it is working optimally, Robin and AI are almost exact copies of one other, but as the piece progresses the algorithm's capabilities reach their limit, failing and distorting. In the end, however, the dichotomy of artist and machine becomes blurred, and the performer finds themselves imitating the AI in a cyclic conversation with no clear start or end.
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Sivan Cohen Elias : RESET
RESET for prepared double bass and live electronics is designed as a pattern that keeps restarting itself in a way that preserves its core elements while ever morphing into new shapes, through its presence in space and time. It works akin to a body that is reflected through a looking glass, which then warps and shreds, so the reflection keeps changing while the original content remains intact. The core sound imagery combines representations of nostalgic harmonic sound with a seemingly “paper tearing” sound, and a quasi-bird sound.

The electronics part consists of a sequential automated presets, mainly utilizing real time signal processing, recording and processing the double bass performance in real-time, and fixed media containing pre-made processed pre-recorded materials of the double bass, while also living some room for electronics improvisation.

RESET was written for and is dedicated to Will Yager.
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Christopher Cresswell : Sometimes I Get a Feeling
"Sometimes I get the feeling that I won’t be on this planet for very long I really like it here, I’m quite attached to it, I hope I’m wrong”

Pop songs that I hated as a kid. Concert banter from my favorite band. An episode of TRL. Television commercials. Ephemera. Refuse. Individually these moments are a way of passing the time. Collectively they reflect back the life we lived.
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Caroline Flynn : Fish Song
Originally written for The Cube, a 134.2-channel immersive concert space at Virginia Tech, Fish Song blends techniques of electroacoustic music with stylistic practices associated with pop. Its text deals with themes of toxic codependency and the loss of one’s sense of self that results from uneven power dynamics. The presentation of this text is obfuscated and fleeting as a reflection of its speaker’s identity.
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Lisa Coons : Chimera’s Garden
Chimera’s Garden was born of a desire to tell a story within an aural-visual world: a world shared by performer and audience. The multimedia serves as both the “score” the performer reads/responds to, and the context in which the performance exists (a temporally evolving “scene”). The narrative is of a woman deeply connected to the natural world, a protagonist never at home with others. As she is always at odds with the outside world, the woman loses herself in the cultivation of her garden. She is eventually subsumed by her remote sanctuary, undergoing an irreversible metamorphosis and finding her own peculiar peace.

This is a recent work in a series I call “Narrative Environment Works;” works that are story-based for multimedia and performers. The original physical score combined watercolor, ink, and found objects to convey the connections between the protagonist and the natural world. That document, including my original text and vocal performance, was then translated to video and fixed media. Chimera’s Garden is a structured improvisation work, using the aforementioned multimedia as a score/framework for the performance; and it is always a collaboration with the performer, relying deeply on how that individual tells the story.
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Bios

Lisa Renée Coons makes creative sound projects with others. Her preferred labels oscillate from sound artist to composer, from mentor and teacher to dreamer and maker. Although her artistic work spans disciplines, media, and vocabularies, almost all are collaborative, integrating aural and visual elements in some capacity, and are grounded in themes of environmentalism, identity, and the performing body. Lisa’s rich experiences collaborating include those with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Spectral Quartet, Mark DeChiazza, The American Composers Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, the NODES Project, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Shanna Pranaitis, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Illinois Modern Ensemble, the New England Guitar Quartet, Hannah Addario-Berry, Collect/Project, and the California E.A.R. Unit. She has been fortunate to develop her work in fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, Yaddo, the Hartt School, and the Other Minds Festival. Lisa is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Western Michigan University. lisarcoons.com
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A composer/sound artist, singer/songwriter, educator, and radio host, Chris Cresswell is a curious musician whose work betrays his affection for sonic wanderlust. His music has been praised for its “textural variety” (Gramophone) that “… blur the boundaries between industrial and organic, soothing and suspenseful, and introspective and anxious” (International Clarinet Association), creating “a truly immersive, dreamlike atmosphere” (PopMatters).

After learning how to play a few basic chords in his 8th grade music class, Cresswell bought his first guitar in the summer of 2001. He almost immediately began writing songs and shortly thereafter started recording them. Two decades later, this interdependence of exploring the idiomatic possibilities of an instrument, and using the recording studio as a creative sandbox, is a hallmark of his work. Whether pushing into the extremes of harsh noise, ambient stillness, or somewhere in between, Cresswell’s music retains an emotional core rooted in his experience as a singer/songwriter.

Cresswell currently works as a teaching artist and as an adjunct lecturer at Onondaga Community College. He is the host of A Curious Ear on WCNY-FM, which explores the unlikely connections between disparate musical worlds. When not doing musical things, he can be found running the streets and trails of Central New York, watching St. Louis Cardinals baseball or Syracuse basketball, and spending time with his wife Amber and their adorable kitty, Eloise.
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Sivan Cohen Elias, a 2024 ACF McKnight Composer Fellow, is an electroacoustic composer and improviser. Her work spans the United States, Europe, and Asia, where she has received various prestigious international awards, including Fromm Foundation, and Akademie Schloss Solitude. Her pieces have been performed by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Jack Quartet, Talea, Distractfold, soundinitiative, among many others in festivals including Wien Modern, Impuls, Bang on a Can, TimeSpan, Klangspuren, to name a few. She received PhD from Harvard University. Main former composition instructors include Chaya Czernowin, and Steven K. Takasugi. She was a visiting professor at the University of Iowa between 2018-2021, taught electronic music performance at NYU in 2021-2022, and since Fall 2022 she has been the Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology at the University of Minnesota, School of Music.
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Caroline Flynn is a composer, songwriter, and performer currently living in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her work, while covering a variety of genres and styles, typically has an emphasis on voice and text, glitch, and feelings of uncanny valley that result from the combination of natural and artificial aural elements. Having earned both a B.A. in creative technologies in music and a B.S. in psychology from Virginia Tech, Caroline integrates this academic background to create music that is concerned with human perception, assumptions, reactions, and emotions. Caroline is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition, as well as teaching in the Composition and Multimedia Arts Technology departments, at Western Michigan University.
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Born in Seoul, South Korea, Liann J. Kang (formerly Jung Hyun Lee) is a composer residing in the US. In her work, she seeks to direct the audience’s perception of sound and space altered by crafted sonic illusions. Inspired by her own synesthesia, her compositions stimulate not only hearing, but all the senses collectively to each awaken uniquely in response to the temporal art of music.

Kang was recently named as first prize winner of the 2024 Sweetwater/SEAMUS Commission Competition and winner of the twenty-third annual 21st Century Piano Commission Competition at the University of Illinois. Her works have featured internationally at events and conferences including SEAMUS, EMM, NYCEMF, ICMC 2024, Napoleon Electronic Media Festival, CHIMEFest at University of Chicago, Chosun Daily National Debut Concert in Seoul, South Korea, Sound Spaces in Malmö, Sweden, and the highSCORE Festival in Pavia, Italy.

She is the recipient of 2024 Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship and previously had masterclasses led by Kaija Saariaho and John Harbison. Currently, Kang is a doctoral candidate in composition-theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also earned her Master of Music. She earned a Bachelor of Music in composition with honors from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.
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Robin Meiksins is a freelance contemporary flutist focused on collaboration with living composers. Chicago-based, she uses the Internet and online media to support and create collaboration. In 2017, Robin completed her first year-long collaborative project, 365 Days of Flute. Each day featured a different work; each video was recorded and posted the same day. In 2018, Robin completed the 52 Weeks of Flute Project. Each week features different living composer to workshop a submitted work, culminating in a performance on YouTube. Robin has premiered over 100 works and has performed at SPLICE Institute and Festival, the SEAMUS national conference, Oh My Ears New Music Festival. In 2018, she was a guest artist at University of Illinois for their first annual ’24-Hour Compose-a-thon.’ Robin holds a masters degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Kate Lukas and Thomas Robertello. She also holds a Bachelors of Music with Honors from University of Toronto where she studied with Leslie Newman.
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RE:duo (“Reply Duo”) engages audiences with innovative programming that blurs the lines between artistic disciplines. Consisting of saxophonist, Wilson Poffenberger, and violist, Elsie Bae Han, the duo formed following an interdisciplinary collaboration exploring the intersection between sound and movement. RE:duo has since expanded its repertory to include works that feature performative elements such as theater, improvisation, movement, and speech. With a principal objective of elevating and connecting with other artists, both duo members founded and hold executive positions with New Music Mosaic, a new music collective dedicated to promoting a more equitable musical community through the performance, creation, and dissemination of new music by artists of diverse backgrounds and identities. Through New Music Mosaic, RE:duo curates a series of concerts across the U.S. as a part of their open call for scores initiative.

Recognized nationally and internationally, RE:duo has performed at conferences and institutions such as the Composers Conference, the International Saxophone Symposium, the Cortona Sessions for New Music, North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, Avaloch Farms Music Institute, Valdosta State University, Georgia State University, the University of North Texas, and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
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Isaac Smith was born in 1991. He earned his Bachelors in Music Theory and Composition at CSU, Sacramento in 2013. In 2011, he studied electronic music at the Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany. In 2019, he earned a Masters of Music in Composition from the University of Oregon, where he headed the Oregon Composers Forum. Isaac is currently studying for his Doctorate of Music in Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he is the Special Projects Manager for the Office of Entrepreneurship and Career Development. He is a member of the Center for Electronic and Computer Music at IU and has completed a doctoral minor in Electronic Music. He is the winner of the Morris and Sheila Hass Award in Computer Music for his piece for flute and live electronics, “Extension,” and was a finalist for the Fermilab Composer-in-Residence position for his orbital panning work “Formation,” which was performed at the SEAMUS National Conference in 2023. His research interests include data sonification of the gravitational waves produced by merging black holes, and using neural networks to augment live electronic performance. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife Pafoua and several well-loved house plants.
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Atlanta-based saxophonist Jack Thorpe currently serves as Artist Affiliate of saxophone at Georgia State University. As a soloist and chamber musician, Thorpe has performed throughout the United States, Japan, and Spain and is a frequent masterclass clinician at colleges and universities. He has performed with ensembles including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Bent Frequency, and New Music Mosaic. As an educator who is passionate about community engagement, Thorpe coordinates Atlanta Saxophone Day, an annual event that attracts middle school through collegiate students from across the southeastern US. With funding from the Theodore Presser Foundation, Thorpe recently commissioned six solo and electroacoustic works for saxophone, which were recorded and released as his debut album, Illusory Dreams in 2023. He has performed as a concerto soloist at institutions including Berry College, the University of Illinois, Stephen F. Austin State University, and Georgia State University.
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Dr. Will Yager is a double bassist committed to experimental music, improvisation, and collaborating with other artists in the creation of new solo and chamber repertoire for the double bass. He is a founding member of both LIGAMENT, a chamber duo with soprano Anika Kildegaard, and the improvising trio Wombat with Justin Comer and Carlos Cotallo Solares. Performance highlights include appearances at Bang on a Can’s Long Play 2024, Big Ears Festival, High Zero Festival, Omaha Under the Radar, University of Iowa Center for New Music, Experimental Sound Studios’ Quarantine Concerts, 2021 International Society of Bassists Convention, Nief-Norf Summer Festival, New Music on the Point, Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Bang on a Can Loud Weekend. In addition to his varied performing activities, Yager currently teaches double bass at the University of Northern Iowa and spends his summers on faculty at the North Carolina Governor’s School West.
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SPLICE Festival VI 2025 Concert 1 Program

Thursday January 23, 2025
7:00pm EDT
Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University

All times are Eastern Time and various events will be streamed live.
Check the WMU School of Music Youtube channel for links.

Sarai Juarez Osorio : Techno Cumbia
  Sarai Juarez Osorio, voice

Zouning Liao : His Dreams, i. Iron Horses
  Alexey Logunov, piano

Yao Hsiao : Consort Yu
  Yao Hsiao, voice and live electronics

Philippe Macnab-Séguin : GENERIC MUSIC 1: Trad
  Avital Mazor, violin

Mickie Wadsworth : Mirror, Mirror,
  Mickie Wadsworth, voice

Ed Martin : Aria
  Drew Whiting, baritone saxophone

Michael Beil : Key Jack
  Ancel Neeley, percussion

Interested in donating to SPLICE? Now you can!
All donations go directly toward scholarships for our summer Institute - and no amount is too small.

Notes

Sarai Juarez Osorio : Techno Cumbia
This collection of songs builds on the foundation of techno cumbia while incorporating innovative sounds through technology. The lyrics delve into themes of courage, hope, and the exploration of the unknown, all in Spanish, my native language. As the daughter of hardworking Mexican immigrants, I have always felt a sense of foreignness. Writing these songs allowed me to confront unresolved personal dilemmas and reflect on my experiences.
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Zouning Liao : His Dreams, i. Iron Horses
Composed for solo piano and fixed media, His Dreams, i. Iron Horses draws inspiration from Alexey Logunov's surreal dream. The piece depicts the dreamscape he documented in his journal. In short, it recounts a journey aboard a train traversing from a desert landscape to a beach. Along the way, surreal events unfold, such as the transformation of the train into a horse and a snake escaping from its enclosure at a beachside serpent museum, preparing to attack humans.

The solo piano passages in this composition embody the escalating momentum and mechanical characteristics of the locomotive, using repetitive clusters spanning both the highest and lowest registers, along with persistent rhythms reminiscent of train wheels running across the tracks. The electronic elements use field recordings, including samples of trains captured in Bloomington, Indiana, and Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as synthesized sounds processed in Ableton Live.
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Yao Hsiao : Consort Yu
In the piece Consort Yu, I was inspired by the traditional Chinese Peking Opera “The Hegemon-King Bids His Lady Farewell,” which is about the fight between two kings, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. In the opera, Xiang Yu is surrounded by Liu Bang's forces and on the verge of total defeat. Realizing the dire situation that has befallen them, Xiang Yu’s wife, Consort Yu, begs to die alongside her husband, but he strongly refuses her wish. Afterwards, as he is distracted, Yu commits suicide with Xiang Yu's own sword.     I tried to create connections between traditional Peking opera and contemporary electronic music. First, I used timbres and rhythms similar to those used by“The Hegemon-King Bids His Lady Farewell.” Also, the musical use of unstable pulses, such as tempo rubato and voice glissando in Peking opera, can relate to the color of contemporary music. Second, I used traditional Peking opera singing style throughout the vocal part. I also used some similar lines from the Peking opera but changed some notes to add different harmonic colors. In the electronics, I sometimes imitated the rhythms the Peking opera, and at other times made different granulated layers of various singing styles in Peking opera. Moreover, I used Leap Motion to better control the gestures of Peking opera in a live performance setting.     Text:   My lord is now sleeping quietly. I can go out of the tent for a walk to let go of my sorrow.   看⼤王和衣睡穩，我出帳外且散愁情。     Oh, hold on! Why is there the singing of the state of Chu in the enemy's village? What is the reason for this? Oh, my lord, my lord! I'm afraid that my lord is on the verge of total defeat!   哎呀且住！  怎麼敵⼈寨內竟有楚國歌聲，這是甚麼緣故？ 哎呀⼤王啊⼤王！ 只恐⼤勢去矣！    Oh, my lord, my lord! So be it! I would like to use the sword of my lord to kill myself, so as not to become your burden!   ⼤王啊！⼤王啊！也罷！願以⼤王腰間寶劍，⾃刎君前，免得掛念妾⾝哪！ 

Han soldiers have captured my territory, Besieged on all sides singing. The king's spirit is exhausted, How can I survive!   漢兵已略地，四⾯楚歌聲。    君王意⽓盡，妾妃何聊⽣
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Philippe Macnab-Séguin : GENERIC MUSIC 1: Trad
Trad is first of a series of pieces called GENERIC MUSIC. The term ‘generic’ here refers to two things: firstly, that each piece in the series takes as its point of departure the examination of genre and their re-contextualization; and secondly, the use of generated materials, often using various AI tools.

In this case, the genre taken as a point of departure is Traditional/folk Québecois music (usually referred to as ‘Trad’), and the set of associations it has for me personally. The basic material taken as a point of departure was transcriptions of the incredible Trad fiddle player “Ti” Jean Carignan playing “Bagpipes on Violin” and “Reel Kébec.”
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Mickie Wadsworth : Mirror, Mirror,
When you look in the mirror, what stares back at you?
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Ed Martin : Aria
Aria (2021) presents a lyrical melody that gradually unfolds over the course of the piece, beginning in quiet solitude and building to an impassioned plea. The melody is played exclusively with multiphonics, which both provide its unique tonality and form a physical barrier that the saxophonist must sing through and transcend. Aria was commissioned by saxophonist Drew Whiting, who provided many of the sounds heard in the electronics and offered invaluable feedback throughout the composition process.
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Michael Beil : Key Jack
It has become a trademark of Michael Beil (°1963) to thoroughly dismantle the traditional image of the musician and his instrument. In Key Jack, the grand piano has even disappeared from the stage altogether. Deprived of his beloved instrument, the pianist has exchanged his black suit for a more casual outfit. Once a solist, he is now assisted by 2 questionable Doppelgänger. Yet, Key Jack is still a highly virtuosic solo piano piece. In front of the camera the pianist faces a mind-bending playback-challenge. Beil thereby skillfully recombines movement, image and sound, thus confusing even the most alert spectators. The result is a fascinating performance, that almost makes you forget the piano isn’t actually there.
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Bios

Michael Beil studied piano and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik Stuttgart and afterwards composition with Manuel Hidalgo. In 1996 he taught music theory and composition at the music conservatories in Kreuzberg and Neukölln in Berlin as director of the precollege department and the department of contemporary music. At this time Michael Beil also directed the Klangwerkstatt – a contemporary music festival in Berlin and founded in 2000 together with Stephan Winkler the team Skart to present concerts based on interdisciplinary concepts. In 2007 he became the professor for electronic music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and director of the studio for electronic music.

As composer Michael Beil has colaborated with numerous ensembles and soloists. His music has been commissioned by festivals for contemporary music including Ultraschall in Berlin, ECLAT in Stuttgart or Wien Modern and has been featured in portrait or concert broadcasts on radio stations such as Deutschlandradio, RBB, SDR and many others. Furthermore he has received scholarships for Künstlerhaus Wiepersdorf, cité des arts in Paris and the Heinrich-Gartentor-Scholarship for video art in Thun, Switzerland. In addition he participated in the Nachwuchsforum für junge Komponisten of the Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (GNM) in collaboration with the Ensemble Modern.
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Performer, composer, and producer Scott Deal explores new pathways of musical computer interactivity, networked systems, and media. Hailed as “a riveting performer” who “exhibits phenomenal virtuosity”, Deal has performed and recorded throughout the world, and can be heard on the Albany, Centaur, Cold Blue, SCI, and Neuma record labels. His recordings have been described as “soaring, shimmering explorations of resplendent mood and incredible scale”….”sublimely performed”. Deal has built his work at the nexus of music performance and emerging artistic technologies. His work has received funding from organizations that include Meet the Composer, New Frontiers, Indiana Arts Council, Clowes Foundation, Indiana University Arts and Humanities Institute, and the University of Alaska. Deal is a Professor and Director of the Donald Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at Indiana University Indianapolis, and is an Indiana University Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellow.
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Yao Hsiao is a performer-composer, singer, voice artist, pianist, violinist, poet, and actor from Taiwan. They received their Master of Music degree in Composition from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where they studied with David Dzubay, Aaron Travers, Chi Wang, and John Gibson. Hsiao is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Data-driven Music Performance and Composition at the University of Oregon, where they study with Jeffrey Stolet.

They have been inspired by literature ranging from Western poems to ancient Chinese poetry and Japanese haikus. Additionally, they were drawn to traditional Chinese culture. Chant of Languor and Dreamy Chant are inspired by Chinese poems, and Consort Yu for voice and live electronics is another piece of theirs combining Peking opera gestures and singing techniques, which they performed themselves. They were invited to perform this piece at conferences such as NIME 2024, SEAMUS 2024, EMM 2024, MOXsonic 2024, NYCEMF 2024, ICMC 2024, and SPLICE Festival VI. The piece was also selected as one of the finalists in the 2024 Sweetwater/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition. They also participated in Click Fest 2024, performing their piece Daiyu for voice, iPad, and live electronics.
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Described as a “virtuosic tour de force” whose playing is “energetic, precise, (and) sensitive,” pianist and composer Keith Kirchoff has performed throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Southwest. A strong advocate for living composers, Kirchoff is committed to fostering new audiences for contemporary music and giving a voice to emerging composers, and to that end has commissioned several dozen compositions and premiered hundreds of new works. He is the co-founder and President of SPLICE Music: one of the United States’ largest programs dedicated to the performance, creation, and development of music for performers and electronics. Kirchoff is active as both a soloist and chamber musician, and is a member of both Hinge Quartet and SPLICE Ensemble. Kirchoff has won awards from the Steinway Society, MetLife Meet the Composer, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Chamber Music America, 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 Instagram @8e8keys and learn more at his website: keithkirchoff.com
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Born in Guangdong, China, Zouning is a composer, electronic music improviser, and sound artist whose work draws inspiration from nature and noise. She is passionate about DIY electronics and enjoys field recording in the woods.

Her music has been showcased across North America, Europe, and Asia. In 2024, her work has been featured in festivals such as The Espacios Sonoros in Argentina, NoiseFloor in Portugal, Klexoslab Workshop in Spain, MISE-EN Festival, Splice Festival & Institute, Cube Fest, IRCAM Forum Workshop, SEAMUS/Sweetwater at Charlottesville, Performing Media Festival as well as Electronic Music Midwest. In previous years, she was honored to be featured in festivals such as Musicacoustica Hangzhou Electronic Music Festival, CampGround, Turn Up, and New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. Zouning was named a finalist in the ASCAP/ SEAMUS Student Composer Commission Competition in 2021.

Zouning is a first year PhD student at Northwestern University. She recently completed her master’s degree with double majors in electronic music composition and music theory at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She also served as an Associate Instructor of Music Theory and taught written and aural theory at undergraduate level.
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Alexey Logunov was born in Leningrad, Russia. He graduated in 2014 from Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory of Rymsky-Korsakov, where he studied composition with Vladimir Tsitovich and Gennady Banshchikov and was later assistant to Sergei Slonimsky. Logunov studied piano performance at Saint Petersburg Conservatory, mentored by Ekaterina Murina from 2016 to 2018. In 2020, he earned a Master of Music degree in Composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with P. Q. Phan, Eugene O’Brien, and Tansy Davies. Logunov is now a doctoral student and associate instructor of composition at the Jacobs School.
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Philippe Macnab-Séguin is a composer of instrumental, electroacoustic and mixed music whose work aims to create a new musical language at the crossroads of popular musics (especially electronic music, jazz and metal) and contemporary classical music. His music is rhythmically driven, complex, and reflects his eclectic musical background as an electric guitarist in metal and jazz, his study Nancarrow’s music, his lessons in konnakol (south Indian vocal percussion) with Ghatam Karthick, his experience in Barbershop singing and arranging, and his study of Hyperglitch music and production with the producer Woulg. He and producer Nicolas Gaumond form the prog-pop duo Greetings From The Hole. His in-depth study of Aural Sonology, the frequent presentations and workshops he gives on the subject, and his contact with Lasse Thoresen helps ground his artistic research in clear perceptual principles. He has received over 20 scholarships and awards for his work, including the Prix d’Europe, a BMI award, four SOCAN young composer awards, a JTTP award, and funding from the SSHRC and FRQSC. He received his D.Mus in composition from McGill University under the supervision of Jean Lesage, and has received mentorship from Denys Bouliane, Lasse Thoresen, Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Matthew Shlomowitz, Philippe Leroux, Du Yun and Steve Takasugi, among others.
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Ed Martin (b. 1976) is an award-winning composer whose music has been performed world-wide by ensembles such as the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, the Hinge Quartet, Ear Play, the Empyrean Ensemble, the Symchromy Ensemble, Musical Amoeba, and duoARtia. His album “Journeys,” featuring pianist Jeri-Mae G. Astolfi, is available from Ravello Records, and other works are recorded on the Mark, innova, Centaur, Emeritus, New Focus, and SEAMUS labels. His music has received awards from the Percussive Arts Society, the Craig and Janet Swan Prize for orchestra music, the Electro-Acoustic Miniatures International Contest, ASCAP, and SEAMUS. He is Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where teaches composition and music theory. Visit www.edmartincomposer.com.
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Avital Mazor, originally from Israel, has been an active violinist in NYC since 2016. He has performed worldwide as both a soloist and chamber musician. Avital has participated in music festivals including Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Green Mountain and many others. He has been the recipient of the America-Israel Foundation scholarships as well as a laureate of the Rosen Schaffel and Gritz competitions. Avital is an alumnus of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, University of North Carolina School of the Arts as well as Mannes School of Music. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate at Stony Brook University. He resides in Brooklyn where he devotes much of his time to recording solo and chamber music as well as maintaining a private studio. Apart from playing the violin, Avital enjoys woodworking and studying languages.
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Ancel ‘Fitz’ Neeley (b. 2000) is a composer, percussionist, educator, and videographer from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti MI area who writes a variety of solo, chamber, electronic, and multimedia works. His music often takes inspiration from cinematography, screenwriting, and the dialogue between technology and natural elements. Fitz is a frequent collaborator as both composer and performer as has been apart of numerous projects such as Clara Warnaar's "A New Age for New Age Vol. 5", Shodekeh Talifeiro’s “Vodalitites”, John Luther Adams’ Grammy Nominated recording of "Sila", and the premiere of Michael Gordon’s work for percussion ensemble “Field of Vision”. As a percussionist, Fitz performs with his percussion and multimedia duo VIRID, percussion trio Brain Pocket, and mixed sextet FLYDLPHN, all of which are geared towards the creation of new works by composers looking to explore new techniques in writing for percussion, chamber winds, and electronics. As a part of VIRID, Fitz is also a co-producer of the concert series VIRID and Friends through Oz’s Music Store in Ann Arbor. VIRID and Friends hosts 5-7 guests bi-annually for intimate showcases of contemporary classical and electronic music.
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Sarai Juarez Osorio
Sarai is a Mexican-American singer born in CA, United States. Sarai has performed since age 5 and spent most of her childhood recording and producing music in service of her local church. She earned a degree in music ministry at Canzion Institute in 2021 graduating as the youngest student of her class. She has directed several shows and concerts in high school at Sonoma Academy and became the founder of the first-ever Spanish show in the school’s history. She has received countless recognition and numerous awards, some include becoming a recent first prize winner of American Protege’s International Vocal Competition as well as first prize winner of the We Sing Pop! competition. This led her to perform at Carnegie Hall. She became a Questbridge Scholar after matching with Oberlin College and Conservatory with a full scholarship where she is currently pursuing both a BM/BA. She currently majors in Technology in Music and Related Arts at Oberlin Conservatory and Economics (with a business concentration) at Oberlin college.
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Mickie Wadsworth is a composer and conductor based in Upstate New York. Much of their work focuses on the human experience, and the complexity of our emotions. Their discography primarily consists of vocal, electro-acoustic, fixed media, and large ensemble pieces. As a musician, they are dedicated to creating a welcoming community that celebrates new music from diverse voices. Outside of being a musician, they spend much of their time hiking in the adirondacks, working at Bitchin’ Donuts, or hanging out with their cat Norma. Mickie is happy to answer both compositional or coffee/donut related questions. They received their M.M. in Composition and their M.M. in Conducting (Wind Track) from Ohio University, and their B.M. in Music Composition from SUNY Fredonia.
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Saxophonist Drew Whiting has established himself as a champion of new and experimental music, specializing in performing works of the 20th and 21st centuries in solo, chamber, and electroacoustic settings. Drew is described as having “superb musicianship” (The Saxophonist), “remarkable versatility” (Computer Music Journal), and is a “superb advocate of the music he champions” (Fanfare Magazine).

Drew received his Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from the Michigan State University College of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Drew is a proud Yamaha Performing Artist and Vandoren Artist-Clinician, performing exclusively on Yamaha saxophones and Vandoren woodwind products.
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