Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble (SEAMUS 2009)April 27th, 2009

Another fantastic group that performed at the SEAMUS conference were students from the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio.

The works performed included Bright Days of Little Sunlight by Peter Swendsen, and The Death of the Moth by Oberlin professor Tom Lopez, among several others.

Not only were these phenominal musicicians, but they performed incredibly unique and diverse pieces with elements of live and pre-recorded electronics, and some with video.  I personally believe that these types of pieces will become increasingly popular as technology continues to reach the hands of composers, and it will even go as far as to redefine live performance in the “classical” musical genre.

Lower photo courtesy of “Sweetwater Sounds’ Notes” on Facebook.

Annex Concert a Big Success!April 25th, 2009


We had a very nice turnout at our concert last night.  The show opened and closed with 8 channel surround pieces (my work, Opening/Unknowing was the closer), had several stereo works, and a visual interactive piece by Natee Prasanpanich.
Our professor, James Phelps, summed things up nicely in an e-mail to us:
“What a nice diversity of work, which is one thing we are known for, for those who know us.  A smooth, clean gig… everything sounded good and looked good.”

Above:  Evan Merz working hard to keep things running smoothly.
(Notice his Korg Nano controller with netbook)

Above:  Tim Moyers preparing to begin his opening piece.

I also had the opportunity to debut a short piano piece with electronics at our composition seminar earlier in the day.  The work is tentatively titled, “Piano Piece No. 2″.  You can listen to a recording of it HERE.

We are down to the final week!  I have a lot to finish, including my Debussy paper and more composition work, but it will all be done before I know it.

WOUWHI Dance Interface (SEAMUS 2009)April 24th, 2009

At the SEAMUS conference, we saw Professor Joseph Harchanko give a fascinating presentation on WOUWHI. (The Western Oregon Wireless Human Interface)

As described in the program: The Western Oregon Wireless Human Interface, or WOUWHI … is an expressive wireless interface system designed for real-time creation of computer music and manipulation of video data. It was designed and built in collaboration between Scott Morse, Joseph Harchanko, and Sharon Oberst. The WOUWHI allows for expanded freedom in the temporal decisions of the performer. It allows for more spatial freedom than previous systems by means of the wireless connection between the performer and the computer. It is an ideal system for concert performance, choreographed dance, and installations involving real-time computer audio and video.

Thanks to Evan Merz for some of the content of this post.
He provided some great A/V links on his blog site.

Annex Concert this Friday!April 22nd, 2009

Be sure to check out “Electrics”, our Annex Concert this Friday, April 24th at 8PM.
I will be premiering my 8.1 channel piece, “Opening/Unknowing”.
There will be a great selection of works, including other multichannel works and a human interactive device.  Don’t miss it!

(My beautiful poster design featured above)