Adam Jansch will be presenting papers on his latest works integrating live broadcast radio into automated live electronic works, at two conferences in the next three months: firstly on March 25th at the Sonic Artists in Wales Electroacoustic Symposium at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff; this is followed by the Sight, Sound, Space and Play Conference at De Montfort University, Leicester in June. The presentations will cover his pieces Synth Radio, The Chaos Engine and Travelling.
Student News
in tones: organ/radio/television/internet staged at Huddersfield University
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
PhD composition students Adam Jansch and Richard Glover successfully staged a highly ambitious suite of events and installations entitled in tones: organ/radio/television/internet, featuring four extended works, on Saturday 16 January.
Richard Glover’s four-hour concert installation in St. Paul’s Hall explored his ongoing research into the perception of extended sustained music performed live, and involved over fifty performers creating an environment of fluctuating acoustic phenomena against an organ drone.
Phipps Hall was the setting for three pieces each investigating a contemporary broadcast medium. Claire M Singer’s RADIOROBOT ran alongside Adam Jansch’s nullTV analog, before a live Internet link-up with artists in California concluded the event with Music for Online Performer by Richard Warp and Tim Mullen.
A documentary of the event can be found on the in tones channel on Vimeo.
Sebastian Berweck - concerts and broadcasts in Germany
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
Sebastian Berweck (photo by Anika Neese)
Pianist Sebastian Berweck will play at Berlin’s biggest festivals this season: on March 27th, Nicola Obuchow’s monumental Livre de vie at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, on November 5th a concert with stock11.de at the Klangwerkstatt 2010 and in January 2011 at the Ultraschall Festival.
His recent CD release, extended piano, will be featured in a portrait broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur in May. He has been invited to play two of contemporary music’s most important pieces: Pierre Boulez’ Incises (1994/2001) in September in Hannover in a radio production with the NDR and Farben der Frühe (2005) by Mathias Spahlinger at the Klangwerktage Hamburg.
Barbara Ellison - Trip to the Arctic to research Inuit throat singing
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Report from composer Barbara Ellison
As part of my Doctoral research, I travelled with two fellow artists/adventurers to Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Northern Canada from the end of December 2009 to mid-January 2010 to conduct research for a project centered around Inuit throat singing. This project is a collaboration with experimental singer/performer Stephanie Pan (USA/Netherlands) and composer Stelios Manousakis (Greece/Seattle) and has been generously funded by STROOM Den Haag, Centre for Art and Architecture in The Hague, The Netherlands. We plan to develop a performative multimedia installation (working title: Hecate) based on this research trip up North.
Inuit throat singing, not to be confused with Tuvan or Mongolian throat singing, which is the form commonly referred to when talking about throat singing, is not so much considered an ‘artform’ by the Inuit themselves but as a sort of game. The context is essential in understanding the technique and the form. While the technique of Inuit throat singing is extremely impressive, it is its embedding within the whole of Inuit culture that makes it truly remarkable. Aside from the personal and collective entertainment aspect of the game, it is also used for practical purposes, such as a breathing exercise to prepare for bad weather, or simply to keep babies quiet. It is not only a game, but a form of bonding and communication within the community.
The main contact in Iqaluit was Vinnie Karetak, Director of Communications at the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, an organization devoted to protecting and promoting Inuit rights and values. He assisted us in finding local throat singers willing to share their knowledge of these vocal games and to give an insight into the techniques/history of throat singing as well as hosting ‘The Internationals’ as we became known in his home during our stay. This personal housing situation enabled us to be fully immersed in the environment, which was crucial for our experience there.
In the realization of this project, we would like to develop a performative installation where all three elements – live performer, video and audio – constitute equal parts of the whole. The video portion will be developed from materials generated during the trip. The audio portion of the final product will incorporate both material recorded during the trip to Iqaluit, as well as music composed in response to it, for Stephanie’s voice and electronics. The performance element of the final piece will also be created purely from the techniques learnt and the materials drawn from the trip. (Barbara Ellison)
[Barbara Ellison is a PhD candidate in composition working with Prof Liza Lim (music) and Dr Deborah Middleton (drama)]
Timothy McCormack interviewed for ‘10 for 10′ on The Rambler
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Timothy McCormack’s work Disfix, for bass clarinet, piccolo trumpet and trombone was performed in concert by the ELISION Ensemble (Richard Haynes, Tristram Williams and Benjamin Marks) on February 8th, 2010 at Kings Place London. Timothy participated in a number of online discussions that were held in the lead-up to the concert (see post below) and was interviewed by Tim Rutherford-Johnson for ‘10 for 10′, a series of interviews with emerging composers. The interview includes a downloadable pdf of the score and video of ELISION performing Disfix at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music on Nov 26th, 2009.
Rambler Roundtable
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
The musicologist Tim Rutherford-Johnson (aka The Rambler) has recently chaired a fascinating online roundtable discussion in preparation for a concert of the ELISION Ensemble on Monday, 8 February, at Kings Place in London. The conversation includes four CeReNeM researchers — PhD student Timothy McCormack; CeReNeM Director Liza Lim; Daryl Buckley, Artistic Director of ELISION, who are Artists in Residence at CeReNeM during the 2009-10 academic year; and Benjamin Marks, trombonist for ELISION — alongside the composers Richard Barrett and Evan Johnson.
The conversation is in three parts (here, here, and here), and addresses issues of performance practice, notation, virtuosity, interpretation, collaboration, a range of performance techniques/approaches, ‘musical’ vs. ‘extra-musical’ material … and quite a lot more inbetween. The conversation demonstrates/illustrates an interesting corner of CeReNeM’s research activities and its role in the wider discussions about issues of contemporary musical thought and practice.
Tamara Friebel, upcoming premieres in Vienna and Illinois
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
nausea
from Tamara Friebel on Vimeo.
Tamara Friebel, PhD candidate in composition, presented her video-installation work Nausea, a reflection on Emmanuel Levinas’ De l’évasion (On Escape) in Vienna on October 17, 2009 at Echoraum as part of ‘das kleine Symposium’ with SNIM (Performers: Gloria Damijan (Toypiano), Gobi Drab, Katharina Klement (prepared piano), Talvi Nurgamaa (viola d’amore), Tamara Friebel (film & electronics).
Upcoming premieres of her work in 2010 include:
A fragmented hyacinth stain: Sappho’s lament for recorder and live electronics, performed by Jeremias Schwarzer in the CeReNeM lunchtime series on February 4. Trill of the Human Bird, for sopranos, piano, percussion & electronics, at ISE New Music Ensemble concert, Illinois on March 16. Stollen, a video piece with 2 flute players, toypiano and electronics, at Echoraum as part of the GRENZWERTig FREI series, Vienna on April 1. Frescoed, an exploration into intuitive-responsive art made in collaboration with painter Veronika Mayer, for ‘live painting’, prepared piano & live electronics, at the Alte Schmiede, Vienna, in June 2010.
Composition PhD student with Ensemble Intercontemporain and Klangforum Wien
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Einar Torfi Einarsson, PhD candidate in composition, was recently selected to participate in the Tremplin Commission Programme organised by Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM Reading Panel. In December, an international jury selected six composers who are invited to the “second step” of the commission programme, a reading session with the ensemble where a 5-minute sketch for a sinfonietta is presented by the composers on 8-9 April 2010 in Paris. After this session and a discussion with the jury about the sketch, a final decision will be made about the commission (for the 2011-12 season). The jury may also suggest programming existing works by the composers, including an un-confirmed commission.
Last year Einar was one of five winners in the Impuls Composition Competition 2009, through which he has been commissioned to write a piece for Klangforum Wien. That piece, for an ensemble of 11 players, is now in development and will be premiered as part of the Impuls International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music in Graz, February 5th 2011, with several working sessions with Klangforum Wien both in Vienna and Graz .
Additional information about Einar’s work can be found on his website.
New CeReNeM Postgraduate Students
Monday, September 14th, 2009
We are extremely excited about the impressive quality and quantity of this year’s entering class of postgraduate students at CeReNeM. For the 2009-10 academic year, we received applications from students from 11 countries representing 5 continents.
The students joining the MA by Research, MPhil, and PhD programmes of CeReNeM are a particularly successful and diverse group:
- Incoming students from the UK, South Korea, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, and the USA
- Works performed by the Arditti Quartet, ELISION, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Nieuw Ensemble, Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, Insomnio, Caput Ensemble, JACK Quartet, and numerous soloists
- Performances at Gaudeamus, STEIM, CCMIX, Australian National Academy of Music, Darmstadt
- Commissions from Klangforum Wien/impuls, ELISION, Fonds Voor Scheppende Toonkunst
- Winner, Gaudeamus Music Prize, Henriëtte Bosmansprijs, Buma Toonzetters Prize, Huygens Programme Scholarship
- Research in a wide variety of issues in composition, performance, technologies, aesthetics, and multimedia
These incoming students join an already impressive collection of postgraduate students in composition, performance, technology, improvisation, and musicology/analysis. The postgraduate students will participate in the various seminars, workshops, masterclasses, symposia/colloquia, and concerts of CeReNeM.
Applications for 2010-11 are now being accepted. A number of scholarships, bursaries, and fee waivers are available. Further information will be posted on the CeReNeM site during the autumn term. Applications for funding will be accepted until 1 February 2010. Contact us for further information.
More success for PhD student Richard Glover
Friday, September 11th, 2009
PhD composer Richard Glover recently presented a paper at the 2nd International Conference on Music and Minimalism at the University of Missouri Kansas City. The paper explored experiental aspects of the music of Phil Niblock; its positive reception has led to forthcoming publications on this composer and drone music. Richard is currently composing a new work for MusikFabrik which will be premiered on November 28th at this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and is also working towards a portrait concert of his music to be played by the Bozzini string quartet.
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