Browse By

Start Over Date 2018 Unit Music Library

1. Digitalis 2018 (1:07:10)

Date:
2018-05-15
Main contributors:
McIntire Department of Music
Summary:
Program Notes (Ritual music), for viola, oboe, and percussion - David Joo This piece experiments with the trio’s ability to imitate the sounds of Korean folk music, in particular the incidental timbres from the improvisatory music of shaman rituals. The pitch content is derived from a spectral analysis of the large gong, while the rhythms are loosely based on traditional long-short motifs. David Joo is a 4th year arts & science student studying chemistry and music with a fascination for paper science and experimental music. Improvisations on a Painting by Jules Olitski (2018) - Luc Cianfarani Improvisations on a Painting by Jules Olitski (2018) is a work for piano and live electronics based off of studies in color perception. Each section is based on a color from the painting “Untitled” by Jules Olitski. Much of the work is improvised, and at times the pianist must improvise against an interactive audio-visual screen which changes colors based off of the sounds the piano makes. Luc Cianfarani is a composer and pianist from Saratoga Springs, NY. His work is informed by a wide-variety of sources including jazz, spectralism, postmodernism and visual art. He will continue his compositional studies next years while pursuing a master’s degree at Boston University. SALTSCRUB - Heather Mease tall and tan and tall and lovely the girl from Ipanema goes walking and while she’s walking she stops and passes, says “ah” hm ‘lil corncob’ mease is a composer, multimedia artist, schemer, community arts organizer, and aggressive consumer of internet media. mease has a Bachelor’s of Music from Temple University and currently studies Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia and manages operations at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative in Charlottesville. Zebra Crossings - Aaqil Abdullah A spectralist piece that explores the landscape of percussion. This piece utilizes many types of instruments in conjunction with electronics to help fill the atmosphere. Let the sound of this crossing envelop you, as it comes to a climax. Aaqil Abdullah has been composing since he was 16 years old starting off with chiptune music for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then he has moved into many different styles of music for many different instruments, such as saxophone quartets, choral arrangements, and even self-producing popular music. After UVA he plans to keep on composing and doing music theory at every opportunity, and hopes to compose new atmospheres for video game soundtracks. Deep in the Heart of Virginia - Peter Pairo The construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, fracked-gas pipeline, has recently started in Virginia going through over 300 miles of people’s property, national parks, & waterways! It also happens to pass through Buckingham, the geographical center [heart] of Virginia putting thousands of Virginians in danger. This piece aims to utilize electronic music, acoustic instruments, and various forms of visual aid to better depict this imminent environmental catastrophe. This Piece is composed of two main movements each intentionally different. The piece tells the story of the James River, one of the major waterways on the path of the pipeline. The first movement gives more emphasis on the initial peaceful state of James as the sound of clean water starts dripping from a bag into a glass. The ambience of synthesized sound, guiro, and marimba along with soft oboe emphasize are used to depict the sound of nature. Without rest, the second movement starts with the sound of slowly dripping dark colored water [visual pollution]. In the meantime, oboe and viola gradually increase tension by a long crescendo to depict the struggle and the discruption caused by construction. At the end, slapstick [trees falling] breaks this pattern followed by pizzicato in viola and grace notes in oboe leaving the sound of water to solely resonate in the space. Variance - Connor Watkinson In this piece I am exploring the relationship between digital music and nature, combining elements of both live instrumental recordings, immitation, and foley with unique textures meant to represent each space. The three soundscapes being explored here are a spring field, a snow- bound cabin, and a thunderstorm by the sea. Connor Watkinson is a graduating 4th year Music and Cognitive Science double major. EXTENSION OF MYSELF - Susan Grochmal submit too the chaos Susan Grochmal is an undergrad at UVA studying poetry. She explores a personal/human relationship to technology through sound and direct interaction. In addition to building physical entities, she is also a video artist and musician. She plans to release her upcoming album, DUALITY, this spring, under her latest project, AUTODIVA. Rosebud--Excerpt #1 - Ben Robertson This piece & the creation of the instrument itself, originate in a desire to develop a re-embodied mode of synthesis in which the composer/ performer physically engages with sound spectra. To this end, ‘Rosebud’ utilizes electro-magnetic actuators to bring six, metal strings into varying states of sympathetic resonance. This resonance is as much a property of the vibrating string, as it is a product of the software which drives the system. Here sound is not a facsimile of its source. Instead the materials are allowed to speak, translating an imagined world though the artifacts of a very real, physical object. Ben Luca Robertson is a composer, experimental luthier, and co-founder of the independent record label, Aphonia Recordings. His work addresses an interest in autonomous processes and biological systems—often by supplanting narrative structure with an emphasis on the physicality of sound, spectral tuning systems, and microtonality. Illustrating the complex interactions and materials of our surroundings is an essential component of Ben’s work and his compositions often reflect themes associated with his upbringing in the Inland Pacific Northwest. As such, recent projects have included collaboration with the University of Idaho Water Resources Department to sonify the migratory patterns of Chinook Salmon. Another important component of this practice includes the construction of new instruments that utilize re-purposed objects, electro-magnetism, and sympathetic resonance as a means for actualizing the complex tuning systems he envisions for his pieces. Ben holds a B.A. from the Evergreen State College and a M.A. in Music Composition from Eastern Washington University. His work has been featured throughout the region and abroad, including performances at the Sound and Music Computing Conference in Ireland and a guest research appointment with the Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction in Finland. Painting Music in Virtual Reality - Kaimeng Chang What if you can play any instrument just by waving around? Will the virtual surrounding inspire artists’ innovation? In this piece, Kaiming is going to explore the infinite possibility of virtual reality and its application in music. He will perform an ambient electronic music while totally immersed in a virtual outer space. Kaiming Cheng is a musician, programmer, and instrument designer. Cheng is currently a third-year student pursuing B.A. in Music and Computer Science as a J.Sanford Miller Arts Scholar at the University of Virginia. At a very young age, Cheng began to play drum and was actively involved in different music groups and bands in both China and America. After also developing a keen interest in technology, he tried to combine his two best interests - music and computer science together. No Where - Eli Stine This work explores the idea of non place, of a designed electroacoustic environment that is inexpressible, undefined, that ultimately has no sense of where. To accomplish this task both a multitude of ambience tropes (for example, filmic tropes of what archetypal spaces (restaurants, carnivals, offices) sound like) and impossible deformations of recorded and virtual spaces (pushing the ceiling beneath the floor, for example) are juxtaposed and interposed to dis- and un-place the listener. Eli Stine is a composer, programmer, and media designer. Stine is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies as a Jefferson Fellow at the University of Virginia. Stine is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory with degrees in Technology In Music And Related Arts and Computer Science. Stine’s work ranges from acoustic to electronic composition, and frequently incorporates multimedia technologies and collaboration, seeking to explore the intersections between performed and computer-generated art. Festivals and conferences that have programmed Stine’s work include the International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States conferences, International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, New York City Electroacoustic Music, Third Practice, Studio 300, and Threshold festivals, the Muestra Internacional de Música Electroacústica, the Spatial Music Workshop, and the International Sound Art Festival Berlin. Most recently Stine created sound design for a VR adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis that is touring the world. More information and work may be found at www. elistine.com. The Horizon, Mine - Rebecca Brown Program notes: Twenty seconds is two minutes is four hours is five days is three weeks. There is some new-old thing I’ve never seen before around every bend, over every hill, along every forest. I never know where I’m going, just that I’m going, just that I’m not where I was anymore or ever again. Performer: Becky Brown, found objects (or percussion, depends on what makes more sense) Becky Brown is a composer, harpist, artist, and web designer, interested in producing intensely personal works across the multimedia spectrum. Currently, she is pursuing a doctorate in composition at the University of Virginia, studying with Dr. Matthew Burtner. She is the Technical Director of the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, and recently worked as a Music Technology Specialist at the University of Richmond. Her music has been performed at SEAMUS, SCI National/Regional, Third Practice New Music Festival, Ball State New Music Festival, and in Beijing, China. Hold Still, her work for live art and electronics, was released on the SEAMUS label in 2017. Previously, she studied electroacoustic composition with Dr. Mark Snyder, and harp performance with Dr. Grace Bauson. Suburban Summers - Caroline Kinsella Growing up, summer in suburbia always left a certain taste in my mouth. It was, and still is, mostly undefinable: somewhere in between exigent and sublime. This composition aims to evoke these feelings—the slow, dreamy heat and inconsistent passage of time—how the weeks blend together and all too soon it’s as if you were living in a memory the whole time. To build this atmosphere, I collaged sounds I associate with warm weather at home—cars rolling by, birds chirping in the yard, the neighbor’s lawnmower starting up—with raw moments of my own summer journals. This soundscape attempts capture the very surreal and nostalgic feelings I have long associated with summers spent in suburbia. Caroline Kinsella is a multimedia artist with a penchant for dreamy soundscapes and collage-based artwork. Her all-around artistic influences include Petra Collins, Richard Siken, Sofia Coppola, Ta-Ku, and In Love With a Ghost. With Bells On - Alex Christie These are things that bubble to the surface during long periods of sleep deprivation. Alex Christie makes acoustic music, electronic music, and intermedia art in many forms. His work has been called “vibrant,” “interesting, I guess,” and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day.” He has collaborated with artists in a variety of fields and is particularly interested in the ways in which acoustic and electronic sound worlds intersect. Performer Bios I-Jen Fang, percussion Described as an “intrepid percussionist” by Fanfare Magazine, I-Jen Fang has a career as a solo performer, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She joined the faculty of the McIntire Department of Music at the University of Virginia in 2005 and as the Principal Timpanist and Percus- sionist of the Charlottesville Symphony. She received her B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University, M.M. from Northwestern University and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas. I-Jen has performed or recorded with artists such as Keiko Abe, William Cahn, Christopher Deane, Mark Ford, Mike Mainieri, Ed Smith, Michael Spiro, Nanik Wenton, Nyoman Wenton, Attacca Percussion Group, EcoSono Ensemble, and Da Capo Chamber Players. She has performed as marim- ba soloist in Taiwan, U.S., Austria, France, Hungary, Romania, and South Africa. She has also appeared as a featured performer at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, PAS Day of Percussion, Staunton Music Festival, and Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. I-Jen Fang is an Innovative Percussion Artist. Kelly Peral, oboe Kelly Peterson Peral is University of Virginia’s Lecturer in Oboe and Principal Oboe with the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia. Her current performance work also includes engagements with the Roanoke Symphony, Williamsburg Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and Virginia Symphony in Norfolk. Interested in supporting new music projects, Ms. Peral has worked with American Composers Orchestra, NYC Opera’s VOX Festival, Philadelphia’s Network for New Music, and Miami’s Subtropics Festival. Peral has served on the faculties of the Cleveland Music School Settle- ment, Miami’s New World School of the Arts and Florida International University as well as The Juilliard School Pre-College Division. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School (MM), Cleveland Institute of Music (BM), and Interlochen Arts Academy (HSD). Her major teachers include Elaine Douvas, John Mack, Daniel Stolper, and David Goza. Ayn Balija, viola Violist Ayn Balija leads a musically rich life performing and teach- ing throughout the country. She joined the faculty of the University of Virginia in 2007 and serves as the principal violist of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia and is the violist of the Rivanna String Quartet. Ms. Balija performs and teaches around the country including the Richmond Symphony, Tennessee Governors School for the Arts, Yachats Summer Music Festival, North Carolina Chamber Music Festival, Charlottesville Opera, West Virginia University, and the Uni- versity of Tennessee Knoxville. She performs and commissions a wide variety of music including new works from Libby Larsen, Kenji Bunch, Jorge Variejo, Matthew Burtner, and Judith Shatin. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Mu- sic and James Madison University. She has studied with Peter Slowik, James Dunham, Jeffrey Irvine, Karen Tuttle, Victoria Chiang, and Amadi Azikiwe. Her principal mentors have been Peter Slowik, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Tuttle.

2. TechnoSonics XIX: Voices Concert 1 (1:36:10)

Date:
2018-09-21
Summary:
Phonē (1981) John Chowning The Precession of Simulacra Juan Carlos Vasquez Blue Cycle: Noise (2008) Ted Coffey Assessment Postponement Nexus No. 1 Luke Dahl Rotunda Judith Shatin INTERMISSION You Sink Into the Singing Snow Matthew Burtner Lisa Edwards-Burrs, voice Kevin Davis, cello I-Jen Fang, percussion Sk(etch) Leah Reid Maybe Metaphors Are Easier A.D. Carson / Ryan Maguire Warp Study Michele Zaccagnini Voices (2011) John & Maureen Chowning for Soprano and Interactive Computer v.3 Maureen Chowning, soprano Program Notes Phonē (1981) - John Chowning The sounds in Phonē (from the Greek, meaning “sound” or “voice”) were produced using a special configuration of the frequency modulation (FM) synthesis technique that allows the composer to simulate a wide range of timbres including the singing voice and other strongly resonant sounds. The synthesis programs are designed to permit exploration of and control over the ambiguities that can arise in the perception and identification of sound sources. The interpolation between timbres and extension of “real” vocal timbres into registers that could not exist in the real world — such as a basso “profondissimo” — and the micro-structural control of sound that determines the perceptual fusion and segregation of spectral components are important points in this composition. The composer developed this technique of FM synthesis of the singing voice at IRCAM, Paris in 1979 using a DEC PDP-10 and realized the piece at CCRMA in 1980–81, using the “Samson Box,” a real-time digital synthesizer designed by Peter Samson. The work was premiered at IRCAM in Paris in February 1981. The Precession of Simulacra - Juan Carlos Vasquez The Precession of Simulacra, for piano and electronics, applies in music the concept of “hyperreality” coined by the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, where a simulated reality (in this case, computer sounds) is progressively indistinguishable from the actual reality (acoustic sounds). This piece was composed thanks to the support of Taiteen edistämiskeskus (Arts Promotion Center in Finland). Blue Cycle: Noise (2008) - Ted Coffey Blue Cycle: Noise (2008) belongs to a cycle of electroacoustic text-sound works dedicated to teachers and mentors. My texts address a related set of aesthetic and social topics including noise, production value, coherence, the open work, and transcendence. The project offers an excuse to soak in text-sound classics by Dodge, Lansky, Stockhausen, Westerkamp, and Wishart (to name a few). While FFT-based, wavelet and other “current” techniques of audio analysis and resynthesis are used to generate materials, I also explore the more venerable methods—vocoding, LPC, FOF, VOSIM, &c.—implementing idiosyncratic real-time instruments and improvising with them. The music plays with the wealth of meaning that spills out when [non-] sense, affect, and “quality-of-sound” are parameterized, and more generally develops syntaxes and structures appropriate to the texts. Often with wicked self-referentiality, Noise offers descriptions of randomness and pattern from human perspectives, and imagines how the matter might look differently from a divine one. Assessment Postponement Nexus No. 1 - Luke Dahl This piece utilizes a custom spatialized 8-channel feedback delay network (FDN) which is parameterized to afford morphing between discrete echos and more “washed out” reverberations. In this performance I use an SH-101 analog synthesizer as sound source, and explore various textural and gestural potentialities of this system. Rotunda - Judith Shatin While sitting in her office, facing the Rotunda and Lawn at the University of Virginia, composer Judith Shatin suddenly saw the scene spring to life as if in a movie that combined the majesty of the place with the daily hum of life. Filmmaker Robert Arnold, whose work often focuses on temporal elements, agreed to collaborate on the project. They re-purposed a computer/camera surveillance system, with the camera located for an entire year on the upper story of Old Cabell Hall, and collected over 300,000 images. During that period Shatin also collected a multitude of sounds, both in and around the Rotunda, and conducted unscripted interviews about its meaning to a wide variety of people. She created two sound tracks from these recordings, often using extensive processing. One includes interview extracts (heard this evening), and the other includes only sonic transformations and ambient sounds, such as rain, the stacking of chairs, the sound of lawn mowers and more. They structured the flow as one day unfolding over the course of a year, moving from dawn to dusk as the year moves through the seasons. The film is available on DVD, including both stereo and 5.1 audio of both ver- sions, available at judithshatin.com. You Sink Into the Singing Snow - Matthew Burtner “You Sink Into the Snow” (2012) is an electroacoustic song from the telemat- ic climate change opera, “Auksalaq,” co-created by Matthew Burtner (music/text) and Scott Deal (visual media) with imaging, video, animation and photography by Miho Aoki, Jordan Munson, Ryota Kadjita and Maya Salganek and data by Hajo Eicken. The song has been extracted from the opera as this independent vocal piece with video and electronics, and as an acapella choral work. The piece features snow as voiced sound and subject. Sk(etch) - Leah Reid Sk(etch) is an acousmatic work that explores sounds, gestures, textures, and timbres associated with the creative process of sketching, drawing, writing, and composing. Maybe Metaphors Are Easier - A.D. Carson / Ryan Maguire When violence is enacted against certain bodies, language breaks down. Perhaps language does not provide enough distance from such subjects to articulate them clearly. Maybe Metaphors Are Easier explores what it means to create distance, by way of metaphor and sound, to make some conversation, any articulation, possible. Voices (2011) - John & Maureen Chowning Voices is a play of imagination evoking the Pythia of Delphi and the mystifying effects of her oracular utterances. A soprano engages a computer- simulated illusory space with her voice, which allows us to project sounds at distances beyond the walls of the actual space in which we listen. Her utterances launch synthesized sounds within this space, sounds that conjure up bronze cauldrons, caverns, and their animate inhabitants, sounds of the world of the Pythia modulated by our fantasy and technology and but rooted in a past even more distant than her own - the Pythia’s voice becomes the voice of Apollo and Mother Earth, Gaea. Selected pitches of the soprano’s voice line are tracked by the computer running a program written by the composer in MaxMSP. The soprano’s voice is transmitted from a microphone to the computer where it is spatialized. At each captured “target pitch” the program synthesizes accompanying sounds using FM synthesis that is mixed with the voice and sent to the sound system in the auditorium. The spectra of the synthesized sounds are inharmonic derived from the Golden Ratio and ‘structured’ to function in the domains of pitch and harmony as well as timbre. The pitch scale is also based on divi- sion of powers of the Golden Ratio rather than powers of 2, as in the common tempered scale, an idea used in Stria (1977) and Phoné (1981).

3. TechnoSonics XIX: Voices Concert 2 (1:09:28)

Date:
2018-09-22
Summary:
Ouroboros Becky Brown mouthfeel Alex Christie weaving broken threads Heather Frasch Intermission Coluber sono Heather Mease & Ben Luca Robertson Códigos Obsesos v1.7 Omar Fraire Dulcimer Flight Dan Joseph Program Notes Ouroboros - Becky Brown walk circles round the morning and choke down again tomorrow, too I would like to introduce the days all crawling out of you yawn those teeth a little wide next year’s last week’s burnt anew yesterday’s stuck on your tongue you’ll try today, but then forget to mouthfeel - Alex Christie mouthfeel uses the performer’s human, fleshy mouth as a component in a greater circuit of noise. The mouth both actuates sound and acts as filter, moving the system through states of stability and chaos. weaving broken threads - Heather Frasch “How can secret rooms, rooms that have disappeared, become abodes for an unforgettable past?” Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, pg. xxxvi. weaving broken threads is the realization of an open text-score, Housed memories, that was inspired by the writings of Gaston Bachelard who uses the memory of “houses as a tool for analysis of the human soul” (The Poetics of Space, Bachelard pg. xxxvi). Both the score and the realization explore the memory of past spaces by using objects (sonic, text, physical) as source material. In the performance it weaves varied aspects of the distinctive places together (e.g. chronologically, most secretive, longest duration etc.). The digital instrument intentionally hides actions to emphasize the notion of interiority and how exterior physical places that no longer exist have become personalized inner notions of self. The digital boxes are a versatile digital instrument constructed from cigar boxes. With microphones, sensors and objects hidden inside, the instrument serves as a vessel for hiding/revealing material during the pieces that it interprets. Coluber sono - Heather Mease (video) & Ben Luca Robertson (sound) This collaboration between Heather and Ben has been realized through in- tense dedication to detailed processes and a love of snakes. Heather’s video combines the physical, time-intensive processes of scraping away at and applying India ink to a 16mm education film titled “Snake’s Alive.” Snakes make up both the content and the medium—as piles of colored film look quite serpentine! The aural component of the piece consists of sonorities generated through electro-magnetic actuation of six strings tuned in 7-limit just intonation. This instrument (‘Rosebud’)—designed and constructed by Ben—responds to electronic signals, whose frequencies correspond to the first seven harmonics of each string. Resultant resonances from the six strings comprise two overtone series’ (Otonalities) and a single undertone series (Utonality). A simple program analyses RGB data from the video, assigns a color value to each overtone/undertone series, and activates sym- pathetic string vibrations according to the average intensity of a given color. The resulting system combines movement, color, and physicality in sound. _Códigos Obsesos v1.7 - Omar Fraire Collaborative piece with the composer Jorge David, inspired by a Samuel Beckett poem. The material is generated by the composer and uploaded in score and audio fragments to be scrambled or manipulated by the collabora- tor: http://codigos-obsesos.hotglue.me Fin fond du néant au bout de quelle guette l’oeil crut entrevoir remuer faiblement la tête le calma disant ce ne fut que dans ta tête. Dulcimer Flight - Dan Joseph In his solo and collaborative works for electroacoustic hammer dulcimer, Dan constructs contemplative soundscapes that slowly unfold over the course of 30-minutes to one-hour. With roots in early minimalism, ambient music and acoustic ecology, these long-form “journeys” combine composed elements, often in the form of a fixed melodic pattern, with extensive improvisation and field recordings while exploring the dulcimer’s rich harmonic properties. Us- ing both traditional and experimental (extended) performance techniques in combination with his self-designed computer-based processing system, Dan gives this ancient instrument and entirely new and contemporary identity.

4. TechnoSonics XIX: Voices Concert 3 WAI and EcoSono Ensemble (1:05:44)

Date:
2018-09-23
Summary:
WAI from New Zealand with the EcoSono Ensemble: a collaboration across cultures, histories and ecosystems Toi tu te whenua, Ngaro atu te tangata People come and go but the land remains WAI features Mina Ripia, Maaka Phat, Uta Te Whanga and Tuari Dawson. EcoSono Ensemble features Matthew Burtner, Glen Whitehead, Kevin Davis, Christopher Luna-Mega, and I-Jen Fang Punga Shores WAI Hine Te Iwaiwa WAI Sands that Move Glen Whitehead Ki A Korua WAI Festival of Whispers Matthew Burtner Ko Te Rerenga WAI Windrose Matthew Burtner Kāore Hoki WAI Improvisation Tirama WAI The Speed of Sound in an Ice Rain Matthew Burtner Mike Gassman, electric guitar Hine Te Ihorangi WAI This concert and the WAI residency are generously sponsored by the Gassmann Fund for Innovation In Music and the Coastal Futures Conservatory. Concert III - Program Notes WAI and EcoSono explore intercultural histories through the exchange of musical invention in collaboration with the environment. Combining the ancient “Punga” (anchor) and the “Poi” technologies with contemporary computer music and ecoacoustic approaches, WAI and EcoSono engage in interactive improvisations through sound, song, movement and ecology. Punga Shores The concert opens with Punga Shores, a field recording of the place where Maaka discovered the Punga anchor which became the basis and metaphor for our collaboration. Hine Te Iwaiwa - WAI Hine Te Iwaiwa was written by a family member Nuki Tākao and local weavers, when they were preparing to begin their craft. Hine Te Iwaiwa is the principal goddess of Te Whare Pora – The House of Weaving. Hine Te Iwaiwa represents the arts pursued by women. Along with this, she is a guardian over childbirth. For us this song is our connection to the Poi. Hine Te Iwaiwa is also the head of the Aho Tapairu, an aristocratic female line of descent. Sometimes this goddess is referred to as Hina, the female personification of the moon. Sands That Move - Glen Whitehead Sands That Move is based on the Great Sand Dunes National Monument highlighting the long history of this site and the people who, from age-to- age, have stood in awe and wonder of this geographical phenomenon at the northern edge of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. These constant shifting sands have gone by many names from the earliest people to the Navajo who called it Saa waap maa nache,“sand that moves,” and the Apaches who settled in New Mexico who called it Sei-anyedi, “it goes up and down.” This fixed media piece was created out of many interacting, free- flowing evolving actions including rapidly moving college students from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs taking great effort to conjure the dunes as a sonic membrane. The trumpet-based computer accompaniment emulates these efforts and starts gathering its own momentum much like a dune fueling its own energy once it is engaged. Ki A Korua - WAI “Mina’s father wrote this song for his parents (Mina’s grandparents) when they passed on. It speaks of the tears that flow for them; we remember the love and joy that they shared with us.” Festival of Whispers - Matthew Burtner Whispers from people and instruments past and present interact as the sea erodes the foundation of the building. The piece was commissioned by the Athenaeum Library in La Jolla, CA. Ko Te Rerenga - WAI “Mina is of Ngā Puhi and Ngāti Whātua decent on her father’s side and Ngāti Kahungunu decent on her mother’s side. This song is a history lesson that talks of the time when Māori of Ngā Puhi decent were populating the northern part of Aotearoa/NZ. Traditionally we have many songs like this that talk of history, passed down through the ages, so that we never forget people, places and experiences of the past. Gifts for the future generations.” Windrose - Matthew Burtner A windrose is a measure of the winds’ directions in a specific location across a period of time. The piece uses original software that allows the performer to play the windrose of the concert location. Kāore Hoki - WAI Kāore Hoki speaks of a passionate expression of grief and sorrow for ancestors whom have passed. Never ending is the love and never ending is the heartache. Improvisation with the sounds of Australian birds, Tasmanian Devils and cedar trees. Tirama - WAI Tirama was written by Maaka’s first cousin Hēmi Te Peeti. Matariki is the Māori name given to the Pleiades star system. When it comes into view it is commonly agreed as the start of the Māori New Year, generally around May or June, and signals a time to prepare the land for the year ahead, to prepare and store food and to meet and discuss issues that affect the families and sub tribes. Tirama names some of the stars and also the actions taken at the time of the Māori New Year. The Speed of Sound in an Ice Rain - Matthew Burtner An ice rain crackles on the leaves of a magnolia tree. Musicians perform changing density, temperature and humidity, altering the speed of the sound. Hine Te Ihorangi - WAI Hine Te Ihorangi is the goddess and personification of rain. This was written by Keri Tākao and it talks of what happens when you are blessed with life. It speaks of the heavens, water and it’s life-giving properties. This connects us to what we as humans are mostly made up of, and what the world is mostly covered by, Water.