ECMC 25th Anniversary Celebration

From October 2006 through May 2007, the Eastman Computer Music Center (ECMC) of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York will celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of its studios and programs with a special series of concerts, multimedia exhibitions, installations, talks by distinguished guest artists, and more. Download the concert series book in Adobe PDF format.

Wednesday, May 2 at noon
Concert 8
New Works For Bells


To identify innovative works by emerging and accomplished electroacoustic composers and by performing and video artists, the ECMC concluded an international electroacoustic music competition last year. Imaginative musical and multimedia works by the competition winners, including

• Juraj Kojs of Charlottesville, Virginia (first prize winner);
• Luis Antunes Pena of Essen, Germany (second prize winner); and
• Francis Dhomont and Inés Wickmann of Avignon, France (third prize winner),

are included in our anniversary season concerts. We will also perform honorable mention works.

For its 25th anniversary celebration, the ECMC is honored to host a distinguished group of internationally known composers, researchers, and performers. Each guest has made significant contributions to the development of creative, expressive, technical, and esthetic resources available today to composers, performers, and scholars of computer and electroacoustic music. By their contributions, each has also enriched the experiences of audiences for the growing and remarkably varied repertoire of electroacoustic music and multimedia production.

As we celebrate the history of the ECMC as well as the accomplishments of musicians and former students who have used ECMC resources over the years, it is our privilege to personally acknowledge the achievements of these internationally recognized artists and researchers who have given generously of their talents, insights, and energies to the field.

Guest composers

• Jean-Claude Risset (Concert 1, October 12, 2006)
• Dexter Morrill (Concert 1, October 12, 2006)
• Paul Koonce (Concert 3, Feburary 24, 2007)
• Curtis Roads (Concert 6, March 8, 2007)
• Mario Davidovsky (Concert 6, March 22, 2007)
• René Uijlenhoet (Concert 7, April 14, 2007)
• Steve Everett (Concert 7, April 14, 2007)
• Ron Nagorcka (Concert 7, April 14, 2007)

Guest researchers and software/hardware developers

• Perry Cook (Concert 2, November 16, 2006)
• Miller Puckette (Concert 3, Feburary 23 and Concert 3, Feburary 24, 2007)

Visiting performing artists

• David Demsey, tenor saxophone (Concert 1, October 12)
• Randall Hall, alto saxophone (Concert 2, November 16)
• Jennifer Blyth, piano (Concert 2, November 16)
• Jennifer Wiley, piano (Concert 2, November 16)
• Jason Price, trumpet (Concert 2, November 16)
• Patti Monson, flute (Concert 3, February 24)
• Nathaniel Bartlett, marimba (Concert 6, March 22)
• Jill Felber, flute (Concert 6, March 22)

Video and sound installation

• Brian O'Reilly (Concert 6, March 8)

ECMC Alumni

We are proud of the many former staff members and students pursuing active careers as composers, as performers (some listed above), teachers, studio directors, software developers, writers, and contributing in various other capacities to music.

If money grew on trees, we would invite all of our alumni friends, or at least several dozen, to return for our celebration. Lacking such resources, we have invited a representative group of accomplished composers and performers for performances of one of their works.

Our concert series will include works from ECMC alumni composers

• Patrick Long (Concert 2, November 16, 2006)
• Kevin Ernste (Concert 2, November 16, 2006)
• Nicholas Scherzinger (Concert 2, November 16, 2006)
• Craig Harris (Concert 6, March 8, 2007)
• JoAnn Kuchera-Morin (Concert 6, March 22, 2007)
• Greg Wilder (Concert 6, March 22, 2007)
• Stephen Rush (Concert 8, May 2, 2007)

• Concert 1 Thursday October 12, 8:00 pm in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School
  Music of Jean-Claude Risset, Dexter Morrill, and Juraj Kojs
• Concert 2 Thursday November 16, 8:00 pm in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School
  Presentation by Perry Cook; music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Patrick Long, Keven Ernste, and Nicholas Scherzinger
• Concert 3 (joint production with Ossia) Saturday February 24, 8:00 pm in Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School
  Two works by Paul Koonce, including the premiere of a new work for piano and electroacoustic sounds; Philippe Manoury: Jupiter, with visiting guest artist Patti Monson, flute.
• Double event: Thursday March 8, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School
Two audio/video multimedia concert/exhibitions : Concert 4/Exhibition 1 6:00 - 7:00 pm : The Best of IMS :
New works and works from recent years created for the annual ImageMovementSound festival (7:00 - 8:00 pm: break for dinner or coffee) Concert 5/Exhibition 2 : 8:00 - 9:30 pm
Multimedia and video works by Curtis Roads and Brian O'Reilly; Craig Harris; Francis Dhumont and Inés Wickmann; John Gibson and Liou
• Concert 6 Thursday March 22, 7:00 pm, Gallery auditorium, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, 500 University Avenue, Rochester
  Music of JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Mario Davidovsky, Greg Wilder, Allan Schindler, Scott Petersen, and Chris Winders; Nathaniel Bartlett, guest artist
• Concert 7 Saturday April 14, 5:00 - 6:15 pm - [reception] - 7:00 - 8:00 pm, Interfaith Chapel at the University of Rochester [note change of date from April 15]
  The ECMC and Eastman Organ Department present works for organ with tape and with live processing. Works by guest composers Ron Nagorcka (Australia), Steve Everett (Emory), and René Uijlenhoet (Netherlands), and by Robert Bates, Richard Felciano, Zsygmond Szathmáry, Wojciech Kalamarz (world premiere), Stephen Ingham, and Richard Stewart. Paul Coleman's Tiffany Sketches for carillon will be premiered outdoors at intermission.
• Concert 8 Wednesday May 2, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, Hopeman Memorial Carillon at the University of Rochester
  Tiffany Ng and Randall Harlow perform a carillon concert of electroacoustic works by Paul Coleman, Matthew Barber, Kevin Ernste, and guest composer Stephen Rush.

• Thursday, October 12 : 3:30 - 5:00 pm, Eastman School room 209, Composers' Symposium
  Jean-Claude Risset discusses his music and research.
• Thursday, November 16 : 3:30 - 5:00 pm, Eastman School room 209, Composers' Symposium
  Pat Long, Randall Hall, Nicholas Scherzinger, Kevin Ernste and Jason Price discuss their recent electroacoustic works and collaborative processes between composers and performers during the creation of a new work.
• Friday, November 17 : 10:00 - 11:00 am, Howard Hanson Hall, 4th floor, Eastman School
  Perry Cook presents a talk entitled "ChucK, TAPESTREA, and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra"
• Thursday, February 22 : 3:30 - 5:00 pm, Eastman School room 209, Composers' Symposium
  Paul Koonce discusses his recent music.
• Sunday, February 25 : 10:00 - 11:00 am, ECMC room 50
  Miller Puckette discusses his research and work with MAX, PD and interactive music software, and critiques several PD patches by ECMC composers and performers.
• Wednesday March 7 : 7:00 - 8:00 pm, ECMC room 53:
  Curtis Roads speaks on his recent compositional and research activities
• Thursday March 8 : 11:00 - 12:00 am, School of Film and Animation, Rochester Institute of Technology
  Brian O'Reilly discusses his recent video works.
• Friday, March 9 : 10:00 - 11:00 am, ECMC room 53 :
  Craig Harris discusses his recent activities as composer, new media artist, writer, and consultant to innovative arts organizations.
• Thursday, March 22 : 3:30 - 5:00 pm, Eastman School room 209, Composers' Symposium
  JoAnn Kuchera-Morin discusses her new projects at the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology (CREATE) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, including the establishment of a new research center in Digital Media and a doctoral program in Media Arts in Technology (MAT) that brings together music, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and visual arts.
• Friday, March 23 4:00 pm, ESM 305 :
  Greg Wilder describes his recent work as composer, pianist, software developer, and theatrical sound designer and president of Steeprock Media, Inc., an audio production company, and his new work in progress, a six movement concerto for marimba soloist and either electroacoustic sounds or chamber orchestra.
• Friday, March 23 8:00 pm, ESM 120 :
  Nathaniel Bartlett discusses and demonstrates his eight-channel "modern marimba 3" setup for spatializing the sounds from his marimba in three dimensions with ambisonic processing, using his instrument as the audio interface. He also will speak about his recent concert tours and his recording and commissioning projects.
• Wednesday, April 11 8:30 - 10:30 pm, ECMC room 53 :
  René Uijlenhoet, first director of the Netherlands Electro-Acoustic Repertoire Center, presents a talk entitled "As NEAR as possible: Contemporary music from the Netherlands between 'concrète' and 'concept'."
• Thursday, April 12 5:00 - 6:00 pm, ECMC room 53 :
  Steve Everett presents a talk entitled "Live Performance Techniques with Kyma."
• Friday, April 13 4:00 pm, ESM 305 :
  Steve Everett and René Uijlenhoet meet in a symposium, "The Dynamic Relationship Between Composer and Performer in Works with Live Electronics."

• Installation 1, October 12, 2006, before, during intermission and after Concert 1 features audio and video listening/viewing "stations" presenting experimental films with musical scores by Risset, Xenakis and Lucier, as well as historically important works of computer music. Audience members can take brochures on the history of electroacoustic music.
• Installation 2, March 22, 2007: Modern Forest, a sound sculpture by Scott Petersen.

Download a somewhat rambling retrospective on the history of the Eastman Computer Music Center or read the slightly abbreviated version in the ECMC25 program book.

[ Last updated Sunday, April 29, 2007. ]