Digitalis 2018

2018-05-15 (Creation date: 2018-05-01)

McIntire Department of Music

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.

Kelly Peral, oboe (Musician); Ayn Balija, viola (Musician); I-Jen Fang, percussion (Musician); David Joo (Composer); Luc Cianfarani (Composer); Heather Mease (Composer); Aaqil Abdullah (Composer); Peter Pairo (Composer); Connor Watkinson (Composer); Susan Grochmal (Composer); Ben Robertson (Composer); Kaiming Cheng (Composer); Eli Stine (Composer); Rebecca Brown (Composer); Caroline Kinsella (Composer); Alex Christie (Composer); McIntire Department of Music

University of Virginia Concert Recordings

Music Library

InC - http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Local Identifier: CR1222