NIME 2005 Concert Program - School of Music, Recital Hall

THURSDAY, 19:30-21:30: OPENING Concert

1. AB_TIME

All spaces are interconnected in "near" s'real time over the Internet with large-scale video projections in the performance areas. Dancers interact with the distortion of time and space created by aiming the video camera at the video projection of the other spaces. Screen inversion, network delay and dropout artifacts all add to the unique texture and dimension of the projection. The sounds of each space are mapped into the other spaces in a flawed and delayed manner. Creating unexpected discontinuities and delays that inform the interaction between the players and the dancers.

Tomie Hahn will be a featured artist in this performance dancing to Scot Gresham-Lancaster's custom midi guitar with extended controllers. This guitar was built with Jorgen Brinkman at STEIM in the Netherlands. The concept of this design is to maintain the context and familiarity of the guitar but augment the control parameters with proximity detection and various foot pedals used in conjunction with STEIM JunXion HID to MIDI conversion software.

In Marseilles: Jean-Marc Montera will be playing guitar as well as a Corsican stringed instrument known as the Cittern. He will be playing with a variety of extended and prepared techniques in conjunction with the use of live electronics. Jean-Marc Montera was co-founder of GRIM (Groupe of Search and Musical Improvisation) in 1978.

In Troy, NY: Pauline Oliveros will be playing accordion and various other small instruments using her Expanded Instrument System (EIS). The EIS is an evolving electronic sound processing environment dedicated to providing improvising musicians control over various interesting parameters of electronic transformation of their acoustic instruments. The setup includes delay and ambience processors, microphones, signal routing and mixing, and a computer which translates and displays control information from foot pedals and switches using MAX/MSP as interface. Olivia Robinson and Nik Kanter will be dancing. Kathy High and Zulma Aguiar will be the video artists.

2. Ligature, 2003

For circuit-bent speech synthesizer educational toys

Ligature relates to my previous work and interest in sound projects using digital media, custom circuit-bent educational toys and free creative improvisation using live electronics and video. Circuit bending refers to the anarchic process of creatively short circuiting basic, sound/noise producing electronics and creatively connecting various points of the electronic circuits in ways that were not meant to be, so as to modify the existing sounds and create unexpected sound events, glitches, loops, distortions etc. The modification of the electronic circuits becomes the artistic transformation of the electronic toys into a new musical interface. The performance is realized in an immersive sound environment including a multichannel spatialization system controlled via the AudioBox (a 16 channel digital matrix mixer).

The meaning of this work consists in the redistribution of sound, in rendering the sound to a re-creation also on a perceptive level. In this project the musical event cannot be reduced to a formula or to a score. Simultaneity, policentricity and overlapping points of view are the characteristic elements of this work. The sound texture is not merely the addition or subtraction of a number of isolated events, but is a more complex combination of sound events that works in a strategy of an imaginary scenography.

The technology (*) used in ligature is focused on the organic mechanism of the circuit-bent toys and the new breed of sounds produced by the various modifications. A sort of glitch aesthetic (glitch here is intended as a "failure" in the "normal" behaviour of the machine forced by the circuit bending process) also refers and feeds the recent development of certain semiology and hermeneutics that observe the failure of aesthetic theories and that consider pluralism and multiplicity as the basis of today musical experience.

(*) circuit-bent technology

The term circuit bending - first used by the pioneer Reed Ghazala - refers to the art of taking an ordinary electronic instrument, such as the Texas Instrument Speak&Spell, Speak&Math, Speak&Read or Touch&Tell, and redistributing its circuits to produce a device that can create all kinds of unusual, unpredictable sounds. A resistor is usually used in series to prevent excessive current flow and act as a resistive mixer. Results are frequently chaotic because of non-linear response caused by feedback.

3. Untitled Audio+Video Sketches, 2005

For Powerbook, Tactex controller

I perform using a Powerbook computer and Tactex MTC Express control surface. The MTC Express has a rare combination of features: multi-touch capability, pressure sensitivity and high resolution. I have written a Max object to communicate with the MTC, using a new algorithm of my design which offers improved sensitivity over the original software.

The Max/MSP/Jitter patch I perform with has been evolving since I began doing audio+visual performances in 2000. It allows me to capture live multi-touch performance, to loop the performance data, to apply mathematical transformations to the data, to recall saved segments of performances and to control many parameters affecting the audio and visuals. The audio is synthesized live from Max/MSP. All of the visuals are created by wrapping the fluctuating audio waveforms around moving shapes in three dimensions. The close interrelationship between sight and sound evokes the phenomenon of synaesthesia. By coordinating the sounds, colors, textures and shapes used, I create audio+visual "entities" which convey their own changing moods-- participants in a wordless conversation which reveals a subjective yet consistent logic.

4. Posthorn

Posthorn is a live performance piece for my self-designed mutantrumpet/electronics system. The work is titled after and based on the "Posthorn solo", a section of the third movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3, originally composed in 1898.

In Posthorn three computer programs respond to my playing in real time. The pitches and dynamics of my acoustic performance are translated into MIDI information, then sent to all three programs simultaneously. The first program enables me to trigger and modify the playback of MIDI sequences from the mutantrumpet. The output of the program triggers a sample of the orchestral chord which immediately precedes the entrance of the Posthorn solo in the original symphony. As the piece progresses the sample is modified in pitch, duration and density by the dynamic and pitch content of my acoustic playing as well as the mutantrumpet1s on-board MIDI controllers. The second software is a live sampling program which enables me to grab samples and modify them in real time with the same set of controllers. In Posthorn I live sample my own playing as well as the samples of the symphony that are being triggered. I also recall samples of other performances of the piece and combine them with the material that is evolving in real time. The third program runs on a second computer and translates the MIDI data from the mutantrumpet into real time video control. The MIDI input manipulates live digital video samples of 19th century landscape paintings and live action footage of pastoral landscapes.

While the basic shape of Posthorn is fixed according to the melodic structure of the Mahler piece, its details are improvised, depending on how I unfold the melodic material and the dynamics with which I play. My decisions are influenced by feedback from the system, which guides the work into unforeseen areas each time it is performed.

5. The Appearance of Silence (The Invention of Perspective)

The Appearance of Silence (The Invention of Perspective) is a live, interactive work performed by Sonami using her unique instrument "the lady's glove" controlling sounds in real-time thru gestures. "The Appearance of Silence" is inspired by the early Italian Renaissance paintings that drew on Alberti's treatise on perspective. Attempts at accurately representing the world we see and hear have since driven technologies, each attempt introducing its own fallacies. Perspective is here sonically represented thru the use of concrete, iconic sounds, juxtaposed with electronically abstracted sounds. The performer's body is the viewpoint, ever shifting perspectives and juggling spaces. The lady's glove, in its firth incarnation, is fitted with an array of sensors and allows up to 30 simultaneous controls.

6. Durán/Schloss/Mitri Trio

This highly unusual, dynamic ensemble was formed in 2001. Their debut performance was broadcast live on CBC Two from Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, during the Winnipeg New Music Festival. Following that resounding success, the trio was invited to New York, as featured performers at the Interactive Arts Performance Series at New York University. Most recently, the trio performed at the University of Victoria, where Hilario Durán was invited as part of the University of Victoria's Orion Series in Fine Arts. This musical experiment is a journey that puts together contemporary Afrocuban jazz and traditional Cuban music with the newest computer music hijinks. While Durán is a world-class jazz pianist and composer from Cuba, Schloss is known as an experimenter in high-tech interactive computer music, and Mitri is a classical violinist who has "crossed over" into Latin Jazz.

Using the Moog/Buchla piano bar, Schloss can capture everything played live by Hilario on the concert grand piano, and using various "digestive" algorithms, plays them back in recognizable and unrecognizable forms via his percussive apparatus. When played back in this form, it becomes a seed for further improvisations from the piano. Schloss is playing a modified version of the Mathews/Boie Radio Drum that is optimized for dealing with subtle and fast percussive techniques and performance gestures.

FRIDAY, 19:30-21:30: CONCERT 1

0. Fêtes (Variations on Happy Birthday), 1975

The variations on Happy Birthday, completed in Bellagio in 1975, were most likely written for the composer's teacher, Leon Kirchner. These playful variations range stylistically from Bach-like chorales and fugues to jazz, and pitch-wise from the lowest note on the keyboard to the very highest. The familiar birthday theme is fragmented, stacked, alternated, inverted and stretched, and various combinations of these transformed themes are overlaid one on top of the other. The piece presents a feast for the analytical mind, and finding every incarnation of the theme can only be likened to a "Where's Waldo" experience.

1. VirtualAERI II, 1998

For SuperPolm and Interactive Video

One of Virtual Musical Instrument that I created is Virtual Violin "SuperPolm". There is neither string nor hair of bow. A gesture of performance with a violin is merely modeled.The SuperPolm is played in a similar manner to the violin, except that the fingers touch sensors on a finger board instead of pressing strings. Sounds may also be modified by movements of the bow, which records variations in resistance. An eight-button keyboard situated on the body of the instrument can change both the programme and the sounds as well as triggering different pitches, like a normal keyboard.

The SuperPolm, MIDI Violin was built in 1996 . It was originally intended for use in a piece I composed for IRCAM in 1995 - 1996, entitled "VirtualAERI". The first performance of this piece was given in 1997 at IRCAM's Espace de Projection, in Paris, France. The second version "VirtualAERI II". was written in 1998. The SuperPolm was designed as an interface for small-scale gestures, and one particular section of the composition focused specifically on the possibilities opened up by the controller.

The sound is generated in order to convey the senses of mechanical and dense texture in a succession of block form, however, is obvious and somehow organic at the same time, in order to correlate a performance with Virtual Violin in real time. The Interactive Video part is intended not to express any particular meaning. It may exist in parallel with sound. This can bring another domain of interactive perception between the visual and the auditory experiences.

2. McBlare, 2005

For robotic bagpipes

McBlare is a robotic bagpipe player. This performance begins with a traditional bagpipe tune, which morphs into a more-and-more frantic line, showing off the extreme playing speed of the robot. McBlare is MIDI controlled and uses a database of bagpipe ornaments to create authentic-sounding grace notes.

3. Mocap Performance Instrument, 2004

The sound is created from an auralization of motion capture sessions done with a Vicon motion capture unit, as well as sounds triggered by a dancer in real time as she performs with a video projection of the mocap sessions.

The piece is based on research into a real-time motion capture-based hyperinstrument developed at NYU during the past year. The system allows for real-time interconnection between a professional-level motion capture system and a real-time synthesis and signal-processing language (e.g. Max/MSP/Jitter). This allows for a performer to control, through unencumbered body movement, a variety of music parameters based on data ranging from raw mocap coordinates (x,y,z,velocity, etc) to gesture recognition (including inverse kinematics) to statistical reductions of motion (e.g. moments of inertia). The system is also designed to work, as in this piece, with pre-recorded motion capture data taken from previous sessions in the lab, which can then be accessed in a non-linear fashion through standard camera-based interactive choreography

4. Return of the Habaneros, 2003

For bass clarinet, electric cello, laptop, vocals

Return of the Habaneros is mainly a bass clarinet solo piece with accompanying cello and electronics. By means of live sampling and live grabbing phrases of the solo instrument are played back into the interactive setup, triggering video and audio responses.

5. Wriggle Screamer II, 2005

"Wriggle Screamer II" is a live computer music work with live graphics and sensor systems for human performer. The concept of this work clearly appears to the title. I want to use the sensor as the interface for the musical expression, and to express the sound that the body grates and the spirit to struggle. The mindscape by the sound and graphics will be presented synchronizing with the body expression. "Light Strings" is a sensor that I developed several years ago. It individually detects the interception speed of 13 vertical optical beams and the horizontal 3 optical beams by resolution in 128 steps. "MiniBioMuse-III" is a sensor that I developed three years ago. The EMG signal of eight right arm channels and eight left arm channels is in real time detected and converted into MIDI information. "Wriggle Screamer II" is slightly revised version from "Wriggle Screamer" performed at MAF2004 concert in June 2004 (SUAC).

6. "Duet for Violin + Violinist", 2004

For Overtone Violin (solo)

"Duet for Violin + Violinist" premiered at the Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF'04) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The piece is written for the Overtone Violin, a 6-string electronic violin with embedded sensors built by the composer. While the strings are played traditionally, their sounds are processed in the SuperCollider3 language, and many manipulations and extra sounds controlled by the various sensors on the instrument.

7. HOPPER CONFESSIONS: Room in Brooklyn, 2003

For cello, interactive computer music and interactive video.

This multimedia work draws its inspiration from "Room in Brooklyn," a poem by Anne Carson (New York: Knopf, 2000). Carson's poem is polyphonic, exposing two different voices that speak to the condition of passing time: a painting by Edward Hopper (the 1932 "Room in Brooklyn") and a passage from St. Augustine's Confessions.

Carson's minimalist verse suggests a unique nostalgia-the voice of the poem is vaguely jazzy, although, like a Hopper painting, it never swings; the form is too empty to sustain that kind of movement. It is this very reticence that serves, paradoxically, to animate the painting, as if Carson were giving voice to the solitary figure who sits with her back turned from the viewer, re-enacting the time present that for her "is long," and, for the spectator, "is no more," to use Augustine's terms.

The present work adds another voice to Carson's polyphonic poem, through an acoustic and visual landscape that not only animates her animation, but explores, in its own way, the nostalgia Hopper embraced and Augustine bracketed. Mixing new and old images, photograph and canvas, still life and movement, the visuals offer a double-take on Hopper's interiors. The musical score represents a similar fusion of perspectives, through a series of discrete phrases that shift between skittish walking bass and mournful cantabile melody, mediated by the electronic interaction. Two temporal orders are bridged through the sound and the function of this electronic voice, which both binds and separates what is now and what is no more.

SATURDAY, 18:00-20:00: CONCERT 2

1. Beginner's Mind, 2004

For Instruments / sound objects and computer

Beginner's Mind is an improvisational sound environment / instrument. This system uses the performed audio stream as the primary gestural control source. In addition to providing the audio content for the piece, the audio stream is analyzed, and important perceptual features are extracted. These features are analyzed, and inferences are made that influence the behavior of the dsp synthesis and processing algorithms. This creates a kind of hybridized, computer-mediated performance system that combines the capabilities of computation with the tactile and expressive intimacy of acoustic sound sources.

2. Cybersong, 2004

For voice, interactive and live electronics.

Cybersong is a collaborative piece of theatrical music created by Paulo Maria Rodrigues Luís Girão and Rolf Gehlhaar. It is a structured improvisation that develops from a personal journey of discovery on the potential of the interaction between a performer and a computer. At the root of the performance lies the traditional "classical" singer's clothing, the tails, that has been transformed to host a set of electronic controllers that communicate with a computer. Cybersong explores the challenges of meeting "classical' music (the sound utterance, the theatrical context) with new technologies (which causes the redefinition of the role of the performer/interpreter/composer). Cybersong involves a singer/actor that processes his own musical discourse in real time. There is a set of "sound objects" and "theatrical actions' (including the musical/theatrical treatment of scientific/artistic relevant texts) that serve as departing points for a dialogue between the performer with his memories (instant or long-term) and the gesture that results from the electronic manipulation of the sounds.

3. Ye Ying Di (Nightingale Floor), 2004

For dance with interactive video and sound

Ye Ying Di (nightingale floor) is a work for improvised dance with interactive music and video. In some Japanese temples, monks created floors that sing with every step. The singing sound is produced as the clamps used to affix the wood rub against holes in the floorboards as a person walks. In our version of a nightingale floor both sound and video are produced when a dancer moves within a space monitored by a camera. A computer tracks the dancer with SoftVNS, recognizing not only her position on the floor, but also the shape of her body and the direction of her movement. This data is sent to a second computer which controls over thirty parameters of the sound, from which sound file is most prominent, to the speed of playback, and size of grains in granular synthesis. In addition to the sound, the dancer controls video output; her position determines which video is projected, as well as transition type and speed. A colorized and manipulated image from the camera is mixed into the grayscale prerecorded videos of insects and dancers.

This work was created during a month-long residency at the SiNordic Arts Space in Beijing during August of 2004. It was inspired by the natural world of insects particularly symmetry and life cycles. The dancer is both on stage and on screen, and the video uses symmetrical wipes to transition from one clip to the next. In the artists_ home town of Cincinnati, OH cicadas came to the end of their seventeen-year life span in the summer of 2004 and broke through the surface of the earth, covering the city with their overlapping mating cries and chrysalises. The dance, video, and music all use loop based structures of various lengths which combine and overlap producing ever changing relationships between the art forms.

Each of the mediums exist in two modes: driving and responding. The dancer controls the video with her movement, but she also responds to the motion in the video. The music drives the dancer, but is also dependent on her movement. Ye Ying Di is an activated space exploring a new relationship between dance and media. The dancer performs the music and video, reversing the traditional paradigm of the relationship between sound and movement.

4. boomBox, 2004-2005

I created the boomBox as a unpredictably involved controller for the manipulation of sampled sound. that is, it is a sort of music concrete instrument. we are now well adjusted to the metaphor of digital sound being arranged in "containment" units of audible material. most popular software systems represent the actuality of a sample buffer as a "box" or rectangle in the graphical user interface. the boomBox interprets this metaphor most directly, allowing the performer to manipulate sample buffers in a visceral, physical way. the orientation, velocity, forces and position of the instrument, allow for squeezing, pushing, pulling - even kicking or punching - of sound bytes. many of the control signals are also available as sound output directly.

5. Improvisations, 2005

For drum/percussion setup extended with sensors and Digital sound and SBass, vertical bass extended with sensors and digital sound.

Bahn and Birchfield perform on composed musical instruments that extend the sonic and functional capabilities of bass and percussion. Through the use of embedded sensors and software for interaction, we have sought to enrich not only the capabilities of the conventional instruments themselves, but to also extend and reveal new performative capabilities that suit our individual idiosyncrasies as performers and composers.

In our improvisations together, we are exploring the use of related gestural and sonic tools in our composed instruments. As such, our performances are guided in part by the sonic outcomes of our interactions. In addition, our consideration of relationships that are rooted in gesture, computation, interface design, and dsp often reveal new paths for shared exploration.

6. BoSSA Studies, 2000-2004

For bowed-Sensor-Speaker-Array and Shakuhachi

BoSSA Studies comprises three short pieces for Bowed-Sensor-Speaker-Array (BoSSA); the first two are for solo BoSSA, the third is a duo for BoSSA and Shakuhachi. For an introduction to BoSSA, please visit: silvertone.princeton.edu/~dan/BoSSA/ These three studies each explore different composed-instrument designs for BoSSA. The first study in the set -"Vocalise"- entangles the performer's voice (via a headset microphone) with the violinistic performance technique required to play BoSSA. The second study, and the first piece ever composed for BoSSA -"The Lobster Quadrille"- is a mischievous setting of a poem of the same name from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. In the final study, a duo titled "Tetha," BoSSA processes the sound of the shakuhachi, requiring the performers to cooperate (or not) as they explore each other's sound worlds.

Short biographies in order of appearance

OPENING CONCERT

Scot Gresham-Lancaster (Oakland, CA) a composer, performer, and instrument designer, has been active in electronic and acoustic music for over twenty years. Founding member of the HUB see http://o-art.org/Scot for details.

Tomie Hahn began studying nihon buyo (Japanese traditional dance) in Tokyo at the age of four and in 1989 received her stage name Samie Tachibana. She is also a performer of the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). Japanese performance techniques and aesthetics are incorporated into her current creative work - specifically in the use of technology to "extend" traditions into contemporary expression. In 1999 Tomie began performing with the group interface (Dan Trueman and Curtis Bahn). Tomie is currently an Associate Professor of performance ethnology in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her research spans a wide range of topics including: Japanese traditional performing arts, Monster Truck rallies, issues of identity and creative expression of multiracial individuals, and relationships of technology and culture; interactive dance/movement performance; and gestural control and extended human/computer interface in the performing arts. A current passion is performance weaving, an activity she will perform as the character Tara, in the evening-length collaboration "Five-and-a-half Gardens."

Kathy High is a media artist, curator, and teacher living and working in Brooklyn and Troy, New York. Her video work touches on topics including body politics, telepathic communication, animal nature/nature of animals, bioscience and science fiction, and the paranormal. Her works have been shown in festivals, galleries and museums both nationally and abroad, including the Guggenheim Museum (NYC), and the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), as well as aired on PBS. She has received numerous awards for her video works including grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is currently working on a musical series about human genomic and transgenic technologies, called Soft Science/The 23 Songs of the Chromosomes. High is an Associate Professor teaching video and media arts. She chairs the iEAR/Department of Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, NY and has recently taught at Princeton University, NJ, and Cooper Union, NYC. She is the founder and editor of the critical journal, FELIX: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication, which encourages dialogue among alternative media makers (http://www.e-felix.org). FELIX's most recent issue is a collaboration with Mexican and U.S. artists entitled RISK/RIESGO.

Pauline Oliveros' life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities it the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros' work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills. see http://www.deeplistening.org/pauline/ "Through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening I finally know what harmony is. It's about the pleasure of making music." John Cage 1989.

Michele Ricozzi Dancer, Choreographer. Self-educated - her choreographic work changes through different artistic meetings Short time meeting : Peter Goss, Odile Duboc, Susan Buirge, Carolyn Carlson She Works with the group Urban Sax. She studies teaching and kinesiologic in the IFEDEM of Paris - Graduated in 1991. 1995 Won the First Price of the Choreographic Challenge with ZONART, at the T.N.D.I Châteauvallon. 1996 Begins her personal choreographic research. 1999 She creates Skalen, a collective company: meeting place for different types of expression, Skalen errases the limits between the notions of author / performer in the process of creation. 2002 Dancer in the Co of Pascal Montrouge.

Jean Marc Montera Musician: guitars, objects, electronic. Creates the G.R.I.M (Group of Research and Musical Improvisation) in 1978 He works mainly on the scenes of improvised musics, playing with Fred Frith, David Moss, Gianni Gebbia, Floros Floridis, Paul Lovens, Jean François Pauvros... Various collaborations with theater, dance, cinema and other visual arts: Peter Palitzsch/Berliner Together; Hubert Colas/Diphtong Co; Angela Conrad; Jean Claude Berutti/Odile Duboc/Théâtre du Peuple; Minoru Ideshima/danse Buto; Richard Baquier; Piotr Klemensciewicz...1999 Co-direct with Hubert Colas, Montevideo - place of contemporary creations 2002 Creates l' Ensemble d'Improvisateurs Européens. Opened to all types of meetings supporting the interference of the modes of expression, his approach of the music is at the borders of the culture of the sound.

Patrick Laffont Video artist. He made many experiments as an actor and artistic coordinator so he collaborated with theatre and fashion designers (Exposition "La BEAUTÉ en Avignon" - "Décors à corps", Musée de la Mode in Marseilles...) From 2002 works on a project of creation, based on his experiences as a video artist. 1998 State Diploma of Visual arts, DNAP ESBAM / Marseille. 2000 State Diploma of Visual arts, DNSEP ESBAM / Marseille. XENIT /I NEXT: new confrontation of his work to live performance: Music/Danse 2002 Video Installation "UNDERALL" - Random Cabaret - the Friche Belle de Mai/Dansem Festival.

Giorgio Magnanensi (b. August 5, 1960, Bologna). Italian composer, now resident in Canada, of mostly orchestral, chamber and multimedia works that have been performed throughout Europe and elsewhere; he is also active as a conductor. Mr. Magnanensi studied composition and conducting at the Conservatorio G.B. Martini in Bologna, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and the Salzburg Mozarteum from 1976-88. He earned diplomas in choral music and conducting (Bologna, 1982) and composition (Bologna, 1986 and Rome, 1989), as well as the Diploma di Merito (Siena, 1987). He has received numerous awards, including First Prize in the competition of the Zagreb Biennale (1987), two special mentions in the A. Casella competition in Siena (1987, 1989) and First Prize in the competition of the European Biennale in Italy (1988). More recently, he received First Prize in the Gino Contilli string quartet competition in Italy (1991), the Government of Canada Award (1997) and the Japan Foundation Fellowship (1998). His works have been performed throughout Europe, as well as in Canada, Japan and the USA.

Chris Rolfe of Third Monk Software Inc. who is the designer and developer of the ABControl software, an innovative Max-based user interface which is used to facilitate dynamic sound trajectories in a multi-speaker environment will provide technical support for the use of and performance with the AudioBox (the 16 channel digital matrix mixer with integrated disk drive audio playback).

Randy Jones is a musician and software designer whose current work focuses on making instruments for playing interrelated sounds and images. He has spent the past eight years working in industry, designing and programming innovative applications for real-time expression. Jones has performed his own audio+visual work at Chicago's Transmissions Festival, the Technicolor audiovisual performance series in Berlin, the Northwest Film Forum's Visual Music Festival in Seattle, and most recently at the New Forms Festival in Vancouver. He has given talks on his work at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Media-Space festival in Stuttgart, and in Seattle at the Center on Contemporary Art's "Dorkbot" series and the Decibel Electronic Music Festival.

Ben Neill is a performer, composer and inventor of the mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. Through his use of interactive computer technologies, Neill creates a unique musical and visual universe, melding the worlds of electronic music, jazz, pop culture and visual media. Neill has recorded seven CDs of his music on the Six Degrees, Universal/Verve, Astralwerks, New Tone and Ear-Rational labels. He has performed his music extensively in a wide variety of international settings including the Cite de la Musique France, Berlin Love Parade Germany, Spoleto Festival Italy, Bang On A Can Festivals 1993 and 1997 New York, ICA London, Istanbul Jazz Festival Turkey and the Edinburgh Flux Festival UK to name a few. He has received grants from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Harvestworks, Meet the Composer, and the Steim Foundation Amsterdam. The Sci-Fi Lounge, his collaboration with DJ Spooky and video sampling pioneer Gardner Post of Emergency Broadcast Network, toured America and Europe in 1997.

Andrew Schloss is a pioneer in new musical instruments. At IRCAM in the mid-80's, he began to explore interactive computer music and improvisation with the Radio Drum, a new instrument that he still pioneers. He has performed in concert halls and major festivals around the world. As a percussionist and computer musician, he has performed with such legendary figures as Tito Puente, Chucho Valdés, Laurie Anderson, and with Rickie Lee Jones and Joe Jackson at the EMP (Experience Music Project) opening concert in Seattle. He was invited to perform at the Centennial celebrations at Stanford University along with Leon Theremin. In the 1970's he toured Europe and North America with acclaimed British director Peter Brook. Schloss was recently featured in concert with virtuoso Cuban pianist/composer Hilario Durán, in a live national broadcast on CBC radio. He also frequently collaborates with San Francisco composer David Jaffe. Schloss studied at Bennington College, the University of Washington, and Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1985 working at CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics). Schloss has taught at Brown University, the University of California at San Diego, The Banff Centre for the Arts, and currently at the University of Victoria. . In 2001, he was co-organizer of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Havana, Cuba, and in 2005 chair of music for NIME.

Hilario Durán is one of the top virtuoso jazz pianists from Cuba. In jazz critic Robert Palmer's words, Hilario "is simply one hell of a modern jazz pianist" who is gifted "with what old-time barrelhouse and boogie players used to call 'a left hand like God,' and a fertile harmonic and melodic imagination." After studying music at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory in 1981, Hilario joined Arturo Sandoval's group where he stayed until 1990. During this time he performed as a jazz pianist at major jazz festivals around the world, sharing the stage with such outstanding musicians as Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Michel Legrand, Wynton Marsalis and many others. Hilario has worked as musical arranger, producer and pianist on many recordings with a variety of artists in Cuba and abroad. When Arturo Sandoval left Cuba, Hilario began his own group and truly came into his own. In 1990 he joined Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Frank Emilio on Jane Bunnett's Juno Award winning CD "Spirits of Havana". Along with Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Hilario is ranked among the finest jazz pianists of Cuba. In 2005, Hilario won a Juno award for his release entitled New Danzón.

Irene Mitri began studying the violin at the age of five in her home state of Michigan, and at twelve gave her first solo recital in Detroit as a pupil of Mischa Mischakoff. She received her B.M. and A.D. degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with David Cerone, Bernhard Goldschmidt, and members of the Cleveland Quartet. In 1986 she received her M.M. from Yale University, studying with Paul Kantor and members of the Tokyo Quartet. Supplementing her performance education with studies in educational psychology and organizational behavior at Harvard University, she completed an Ed.M. in 1991. Ms Mitri has attended several music festivals in the United States and Canada, performing chamber music at Aspen, Tanglewood, Interlochen, Meadowmount, Blue Lake, Blossom, and Scotia Festivals. Ms Mitri performs Cuban, Tango, and classical chamber music regularly in Seattle as well as with her Cuban dance band Yerba Buena, and Tango group Tango Divino. She also has performed recently with jazz greats Chucho Valdés and Hilario Durán at the Seattle Earshot Jazz Festival, in concert in Vancouver, Canada, and at the Winnipeg New Music Festival. In the summer and fall of 2000 she toured with Rickie Lee Jones in Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver, Montreal, and Los Angeles.

CONCERT 1

Ivan Tcherepnin (1943-1998) was perhaps best known as a highly creative teacher as well as for his innovations in live electronic music and multimedia. His works often featuring contrasting elements such as traditional and experimental techniques, and acoustic and electronic instruments. Tcherepnin was born in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France to a very musical family; he received early training from his parents, composer-pianist Alexander Tcherepnin and pianist Ming Tcherepnin. He studied at Harvard University where his principal teacher was Leon Kirchner. After holding teaching positions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Stanford University in California, Tcherepnin joined the music faculty of Harvard University in 1972, where he taught and served as director of the Harvard Electronic Music Studio until his death in 1998.

Elaine Chew has performed widely as soloist and chamber musician at venues and festivals in North America, Asia and Europe. She is a versatile performer with a penchant for contemporary music, and has organized and performed in several multimedia concerts. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California where she is affiliated with the Integrated Media Systems Center and conducts research at the cusp of music and engineering. She developed her dual careers in music and engineering at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she completed her PhD studies with Jeanne Bamberger. Her performance of Ivan Tcherepnin's 'Twelve Variations on Happy Birthday' is available as streaming audio on WGBH's Art of the States collection, and inspired its program on Parody Pieces.

Suguru Goto was born in 1966 in Japan. After he studied composition, piano and violin in Japan, he moved to the United States to continue his studies at New England Conservatory in Boston. He preceded his post-graduate studies at Technical University Berlin and HDK in Berlin, Germany. He studied composition with Lukas Foss and Earl Brown in U.S.A, and with Robert Cogan at New England Conservatory and Dieter Schnebel in Berlin, Tristan Murail at IRCAM, Paris. He has been internationally active and has received numerous prizes and fellowships. He has received Boston Symphony Orchestra Fellowship, Koussevitzky Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, the first prize at the Marzena International Composition Competition in Seattle, U.S.A, was awarded the "Berliner Kompositionaufträge 1993" by the senate administration for cultural affair, and a prize by the IMC International Rostrum of Composers in UNESCO, Paris. Goto's compositions have been played in Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Japan, and U.S.A. His compositions are published by "Edition Wandelweiser GmbH". His "Giseion to Gousei" is recorded on CD which is available from Akademie der Künste label.

Roger Dannenberg is well-known for his research in computer music, including computer accompaniment, the piano tutor, real-time interactive systems, music representation and languages, and new synthesis techniques. Dannenberg's compositions have been performed at conferences and festivals around the world, and often feature interactive computer systems. As a trumpet player, Dannenberg performs his own interactive pieces, and he also plays with several jazz bands in the Pittsburgh area.

R. Luke DuBois is a composer, programmer, and video artist living in New York City. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University, and teaches interactive sound and video performance at Columbia's Computer Music Center, New York University, and the School of Visual Arts. He has done interactive programming and music production work for many artists, most recently Toni Dove, Chris Mann, Elliott Sharp, and Michael Gordon, and was a staff programming consultant for Engine27 for the 2003 season. He is a co-author of Jitter, a software suite developed by Cycling'74 for real-time manipulation of matrix data. His music with his band, the Freight Elevator Quartet, is available on Caipirinha/Sire and Cycling'74 music.

Liubo Borissov received a doctorate in physics from Columbia University, where he was also actively involved with the Computer Music Center. His main interests lie in creating alloys between art, science and technology and building bridges between diverse fields and media. He is currently a Vilar Fellow in the performing arts at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.

Beliz Demircioglu has danced for choreographers including Nacho Duato, Nicolo Fonte, Linda Tarnay, James Sutton, Candas Bas, Berrak Yedek, and Djamel Fellouche, among many others. She has also showcased her own choreography in New York and overseas. Currently Beliz choreographs and works in the area of video tracking, motion capturing and their applications in performance art. Beliz is pursuing a Master's degree fromthe Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch School of the Arts.

Ulrich Maiss is a cellist and electronic musician from Berlin, Germany. His work in the field of experimental music led him to Japan, the US and Canada. Well known as a performer of contemporary European chamber music, he also performed with various rock and folk acts throughout Europe. Musicians and ensembles he performed with include Lou Reed, Canadian Juno-Award winner Lynn Miles, the Potsdam Chamber Academy, Ensemble Oriol, Element Of Crime, German goth-star Alexander Veljanov, zeitkratzer, vocalist/percussionist Vinx (Sting, Lou Reed) and Maria Farantouri (Mikis Theodorakis). In 2002 Ulrich started working on a solo program for cello and electronics, Cellectric. The original program with pieces by composers Mario Bertoncini, John Cage, Giulio Castagnoli, Ulrich Krieger and Joseph Rovan will be available on DVD in the near future. Ulrich is currently working with Lou Reed to finalize a Cello-Solo version of Lou's Metal Machine Music entitled CelloMachine. Further projects include his improvisational duo envyloop with composer/performer Joseph Rovan and his new solo project ZenMan Improvisations.

Yoichi Nagashima, composer/researcher/PE, was born in 1958 in Japan. He learned and played some instruments: violin, recorder, guitar, keyboards, electric bass, drums, and vocal/choral music for 35 years. He was the conductor of Kyoto University Choir and composed over 100 choral music, and studied nuclear physics there. As the engineer of Kawai Musical Instruments, he developed some sound generator LSIs, and designed some electronic musical instruments, and produced musical softwares. From 1991, He has been the director of "Art & Science Laboratory" in Japan Hamamatsu, produces many interactive tools of real-time music performance with sensor/MIDI, cooperates some researchers and composers, and composes experimentally pieces. He is also the key-member of Japanese computer music community. From 2000, he has been also the associate profrssor of SUAC(Shizouka University of Art and Culture), Faculty of Design, Dapartment of Art and Science, and teaches multi-media, computer music and media-art. As a composer of computer music, he collaborates many musicians in his composition: Piano, Organ, Percussion, Vocal, Flute, Sho, Koto, Shakuhachi, Dance, etc. He organized and was the General Chair of NIME04 in Hamamatsu, Japan.

Dan Overholt is a composer, performer, and instrument builder based at University of California, Santa Barbara's Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE). He designs electronic musical instruments and custom signal processing software for the real-time performance of his musical works. Dan has a Masters degree from the Media Lab at MIT, and is currently pursuing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Music Technology as well as teaching at UCSB. From 2003-2004 he was at the Studio voor Elektro-Instrumentale Muziek (STEIM) in Amsterdam on a Fulbright scholarship.

Butch Rovan is a composer/performer on the faculty of the Department of Music at Brown University, where he co-directs meme@brown (Multimedia & Electronic Music Experiments @ Brown) and the Ph.D. program in Computer Music and Multimedia. Prior to joining Brown he directed CEMI at the University of North Texas, and was a "compositeur en recherche" with the Real-Time Systems Team at IRCAM in Paris. Rovan previously worked at Opcode Systems, serving as Product Manager for MAX, OMS and MIDI hardware. Rovan is the recipient of several awards, including a jury selection and second prize in the 1998 and 2001 Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competitions, and first prize in the 2002 Berlin Transmediale International Media Arts Festival. Recent performances include the performance of his "Vis-à-vis" for voice, electronics and video at the 2004 ICMC in Miami, and the premiere of his "Hopper Confessions" at the 2003 Festival Synthèse in Bourges, France. Rovan frequently performs his own work, including performances at the 2000 ICMC in Berlin and the 2002 NIME conference in Dublin. His interactive scores for dance have been programmed in Munich, Paris, Reims, Monaco, the 2001 SEAMUS conference in Baton Rouge and the 2001 ICMC in Havana.

CONCERT 2

Thomas Ciufo is a composer, improviser, and sound/media artist working at Brown University, where he serves as Lecturer / Technical Manager / Researcher for the meme@brown studios. He is active in the areas of composition, performance, audio and video installations, as well as music/technology education.

Paulo Maria Rodrigues is a Professor at the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro. He founded the "Companhia de Música Teatral" and directed works such as "O Gigante Adamastor", "As Cidades e a Serra", "Spidaranha", "O Gato das Notas", "Uma Prenda para Eugénio de Andrade", "BébéBábá", "Andakibébé","Bach2Cage" or "MNF". He studied singing in Portugal and U.K. (at the post-graduation opera course of the Royal Academy of Music) and composition with C. Bochman, A. Salazar e Rolf Gehlhaar (London). As a composer he focuses on multidisciplinary creation.

Luís Miguel Girão studied music, architecture, visual arts and musical production. He is interested on digital art and develops interactive audiovisual systems. He collaborated with several artists in works such as "Cyborg" (CellSpace, S. Francisco), "Around One" (Acarte, Lisboa), "A Máquina do Tempo" (Sentidos Grátis, Porto), "Renaissance 2001" (web project). He was the coordinator of the electronic lab at the XI Bienal Internacional de Cerveira. He founded Artshare, an artech research company.

Rolf Gehlhaar, musician, composer, digital artist, was Stockhausen's personal assistant and was part of the Stockhausen Ensemble. His works have been performed at several Contemporary Music Festivals. He taught at the Darmstad Summer Courses and did research on interactive systems and electronic music at IRCAM. He created "Sound=Space", a musical interactive environment that have been used in performance, installations, dance and education. He is currently a Professor at the University of Conventry (Design and Digital Media Post-Grad Course).

Composer Margaret Schedel and video artist Charles Woodman have been collaborating on projects for over two years. The duo explores symbiotic relationships between sound, video and technology. Their work has been shown at diverse venues including Choreographers without Companies in Cincinnati, OH, the Faulconer Gallery in Grinnell IA, the New Music Marathon in Chicago, IL, the SiNordic Arts Space in Beijing, China, and most recently at the International Computer Music Conference in Miami, FL where choreographer Alison Rootberg joined the partnership. Rootberg, Schedel, and Woodman, and are especially interested in the integration of media into live performance through the use of technology, creating hybrid forms which interact with each other in real-time.

Jamie Allen makes noise and noise making things with his head and hands. his computer music and traditional instrument composition studies were done with Graham Hair and Nick Fells at the University of Glasgow. he plays live improvised electronics, primarily with self-built instruments. jamie infuses public art, exhibition, museum and gallery work with his passions for both art and engineering. he has prepared public art and interactive sound pieces, designed digital musical instruments and installation sound art for the past 2 years in New York City. jamie is presently pursuing a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. his research interests center around the generalization of product design and interactivity principles to novel fields and areas, including architecture, industrial design and education.

David Birchfield is a composer, theorist, and computer musician. In much of his work, he utilizes the computer as a compositional, theoretical, and performing tool with a particular interest in musical applications of artificial intelligence and artificial life. He has written instrumental and vocal music for soloists, various chamber ensembles, full orchestra, and a number of collaborative works with modern dance choreographers. In addition to interactive works for live performers and computer, he has created multimedia, network-based, and robotic installations. His works have been presented in concerts and at festivals and conferences across the United States, Europe, Mexico, China, and Australia. He received a BM in Percussion Performance and Composition from the University of Cincinnati CCM. He received masters and doctoral degrees in Composition from Columbia University. His principal composition teachers include Fred Lerdahl, Tristan Murail, and Brad Garton. David has taught at Columbia University and Adelphi University, and he is currently assistant professor of Music Computation and Digital Media at the Arts, Media and Engineering Program at Arizona State University.

Curtis Bahn is a composer and improviser who specializes in live interactive electronic performance. Currently he is on sabbatical from his position as Associate Professor of Computer Music Composition/ Performance and Director of the Integrated Electronic Arts (iEAR) Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his Ph.D. in music composition from Princeton University where his primary teachers were Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey and Paul Koonce. From 1986-1993 he was the Technical Director of the Center for Computer Music of the City University of New York where he worked and studied with composer Charles Dodge. Curtis is a frequent lecturer on electronically extended instruments, dance and performance technologies, and human/computer interaction in the arts. He has taught at Columbia University, Brown, NYU, Princeton and CUNY. His music has been presented at the International Society of Bassists World Conference, International Computer Music Conference(ICMC), Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts (ISEA), the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), Performance Studies International (PSI), the World Acoustic Ecology Conference, the Styrian Autumn Festival, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Musik Aktuell, the Saalfeldon Jazz Festival, Mobius, Zeitgeist, and the Boston CyberArts Festival in Boston, Engine 27, Galapagos, Tonic, Context, and the Kitchen in N.Y.C. He recently released a solo CD, "r!g," available from the Electronic Music Foundation, and a duo CD of his duo "interface" with violinist Dan Trueman entitled "./swank," through cycling74, and a DVD of live electronic improvisation and interactive dance performance with "interface," and Pauline Oliveros.

Dan Trueman plays and composes for a variety of violins, including the 6-string electric violin, the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, and the Bowed-Sensor-Speaker-Array. His electronic improvisation ensemble "interface" has performed widely and recently released a DVD of improvisations and dance pieces with guest Pauline Oliveros. His duo "Trollstilt" released its first CD of original tunes in 2000 and has performed internationally at both contemporary music festivals and folk music festivals. As a composer of concert music, Dan has completed commissions from the American Composers Forum (Hardanger fiddle and orchestra), the Society for New Music (electronic chamber ensemble), the Tarab Cello Ensemble (8 cellos), and most recently from the American Composers Orchestra, which premiered his piece Traps Relaxed, for strings, percussion, and electric violin/laptop/8 hemispherical speakers, at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in January 2005. He teaches composition and electronic music at Princeton University, and is currently working on an evening-length multimedia piece -"Five (and-a-half) Gardens"- with visual artist Judy Trueman, So Percussion, Trollstilt, and Tomie Hahn as "performance weaver."