North Carolina State University
Arts Studies Program and Music Department
Present the
Arts NOW Series
Susan Fancher, featured Guest Performer
Stuart Saunders Smith, featured Guest Composer
Husbands and Wives
A World Premiere
Preconcert Talk by Stuart Saunders Smith 6:30 pm, Ballroom, Student Center,
North Carolina State University 9 March 2010 Concert: 7pm
Susan Fancher, saxophone; Mark Engebretson, saxophone
6:30 PM Lecture: Husbands, Wives, and Music by Stuart Saunders Smith
Program
Ivan Elezovic (Serbia/USA) Mediterranean-Riots-Colors (2005) for video
Stuart Saunders Smith (USA) Husbands and Wives (2009) for two saxophonists
Jaroslaw Kapuscinski (Poland/USA) Mondrian Variations (1992) for video
Mara Helmuth (USA) Abandoned Lake in Maine (1997) recorded electronic computer music
Rodney Waschka II (USA) La Verdad (2005) recorded electronic computer music
Reginald Bain (USA) Jovian Images (2008) saxophonist and digital media
No recording devices permitted. Turn off or throw away all electronic devices: phones, pagers, intergalactic communicators, et cetera. Admission is charged for all Arts Now Series Events. Tickets available through Ticket Central.
NOTES
The Husbands and wives
.
Listen,
.
.
Move, together differently.
.
.
After a long time
(which feels short),
.
.
They are alone once more.
--SSS
Mondrian Variations: The art of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) is known for its ultimate simplicity and pure abstraction. His language became so close to music that the artist himself described it with such terms as counterpoint, rhythm, syncopation or harmony. The video is based on five of Mondrian's paintings which are transformed, deconstructed and reconstructed as in a musical variation form. Visual and musical events are synchronized to create an integrated audio-visual counterpoint. --JK
Abandoned Lake in Maine (1997) explores relationships between humanity, technology and nature. The composer's own software instruments and algorithmic programs were used to create much of the material.
La Verdad (The Truth) uses only the sound of the Spanish word “Digame” (“tell me”) as source material. It is dedicated to politicians throughout the world and to corrupt and incompetent journalists everywhere. --RWII
Jovian Images, improvisatory frameworks for soprano saxophone and electronic sound, was written for saxophonist Susan Fancher. It was inspired by "sounds of the Jovian planets," that is to say, sounds created from data that has been collected from space probes. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are known collectively as the Jovian planets. Unlike the terrestrial planets Earth, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, which are composed mostly of solid matter, these gas giants lack a well-defined solid surface and have atmospheres that are primarily composed of swirling bands of gasses and liquids. – RB
Susan Fancher is known for her deep and poetic musical interpretations. Her work to develop the repertoire for saxophone has produced dozens of commissioned works. A much sought-after performer of new music, she has worked with a multitude of composers and has appeared in many of the world's leading concert venues and contemporary music festivals. Susan Fancher is a regularly featured columnist for the nationally distributed Saxophone Journal and an artist for the Vandoren and Selmer companies. She teaches saxophone at Duke University. Her newest CD, In Two Worlds (innova 736) features music for saxophone and electronics.
Mark Engebretson is Associate Professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A 2007 recipient of a commission from Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation, his compositions have been presented at ICMC, Bowling Green Festival of New Music and Art, Third Practice Festival, Wien Modern, Gaida Festival, Sonoimagenes, Hörgänge Festival, Ny Musikk, Indiana State University New Music Festival, the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, ISCM Festivals, World Saxophone Congresses. He founded the UNCG New Music Festival in 2004, is director of the A.V. Williams Electronic Music Studio at UNCG.
Stuart Saunders Smith's compositions fall into four areas of creative research:
Inventing music of extreme rhythmic and melodic complexity
Making musical mobiles where there is no fixed musical score but rather instrumental parts that freely interact
Composing for spoken texts
Creating trans-media systems for groups of performance artists (dancers, mimes, actors, etc.).
Smith's music is regularly performed throughout North America, Western Europe, and has had notable performances in Asia. His music is recorded on O.O. Discs, Capstone Records, and on European labels in Austria, France, and Germany. He has received the East/West Artist Award, the Maryland State Artists Fellowship, the Pittsburgh Film Forum Grant, the National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts Master Artist Award. Smith's music is published by Sonic Art Editions. Articles on Stuart Saunders Smith's music have appeared in Percussive Notes Research Edition, Perspectives of New Music, Interface, and Ex Tempore. In 1997 The Music of Stuart of Saunders Smith, by John Welsh, was published by Excelsior Press, NYC, NY. For further information see The New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Reginald Bain teaches composition, theory, and computer music at the University of South Carolina. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame where he studied music, mathematics and computer science.
Ivan Elezovic (DMA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) studied composition, music theory, and electronic music at the University of Manitoba, McGill University, and the University of Illinois working with Michael Matthews, Randolph Peters, Zack Settel, Alcides Lanza, Guy Garnett, Erik Lund, and Scott Wyatt. Instead of following a single style, Dr. Elezovic allows a number of materials and ideas to influence the approach and method for each new work. His compositional style, honed and refined in North America, demonstrates both a dedication to craftsmanship and a ceaseless pursuit of innovative conceptual goals. He was teaching composition, music technology, and music theory courses at the University of Illinois, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Presently, Dr. Elezovic is teaching at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Mara Helmuth is a composer of music which often involves the computer in performance and composition. Sound Collaborations, v.36 of the Consortium to Distribute Computer Music Series on Centaur Records includes mostly interactive compositions. Collaborations with percussionist-composer Allen Otte are heard on the Electronic Music Foundation compact diskImplements of Actuation, and tape work on Open Space CD 16. She is on the faculty of the College-Conservatory for Music, University of Cincinnati and director of its Center for Computer Music. She holds a D.M.A. from Columbia University, and previous degrees were from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her fixed format music includesMellipse (1989,1995), Abandoned Lake in Maine (1997) and bugs and ice: A Question of Focus (2002). Her writings have appeared in the monographs Audible Traces and Analytical Methods of Electroacoustic Music, and in the Journal of New Music Research and Perspectives of New Music. Her software for composition and improvisation has involved granular synthesis, the RTcmix music programming language, user interfaces and Internet2. Recent work includes Where is my Voice, for fixed format audio, the Hidden Mountain (2007) and Staircase of Light (2003) interactive installations for the Sino-Nordic Performance Arts Space in Beijing, an Internet 2 application for improvisation: Soundmesh, and updates toStochGran, an RTcmix-based granular synthesis application. She is currently the ICMA president. She also plays the qin, a Chinese zither.
Jaroslaw Kapuscinski is an intermedia composer and pianist. Kapuscinski's primary interest is creation and performance of works, in which musical instruments are used to control multimedia content. He was first trained as a classical pianist and composer at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and expanded into multimedia at a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada (1988) and during doctoral studies at the University of California, San Diego (1992-1997). Kapuscinski is actively involved in intermedia education. As of 2008 he is Assistant Professor of Composition and Director of Intermedia Performance Lab at Stanford University. He has published among else "Composing with Sounds and Images", an article outlining his intermedia theory.