Winter Concert
Tickets for this performance, $7 general admission and $4 students, are available at Tresidder Ticket Office, (415) 723-4317, or at the door. For information, call the Music Department at (415) 723-3811.
In the technical aspect, the piece is a mix of old-fashioned read-sample 'musique concrete' and Xavier Serra's powerfull SMS technic. I feel most indebted to his detached collaboration (mea culpa! I also stole one of his samples) and to some help from Bill Schottstaedt during the last DSP Summer Course at CCRMA when we came to recreate, from very scarce literature, Rodet's IFFT algorithm for additive synthesis. Based on that, instruments were written to synthesize, modify, or fade between real world sounds in (close to) real-time CLM conditions.
Celso Aguiar was born in Palo Alto, California and grew up in Brazil in the city of Salvador, Bahia. He studied composition under the Swiss-Brazilian composer Ernst Widmer, becoming interested in electroacoustic music. As a result of this, he built a real-time digital synthesizer controlled by computer, in a project funded by a research agency of Brazil. He is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at CCRMA, Stanford University as the result of a fellowship granted by the Brazilian government. His area of interest is the application of DSP technics to composition and, at the moment, the use of Spectrum Modelling Synthesis (SMS) in Electroacustic Music.
The physical model for the simulation combines an excitation section and a resonator, which correspond to the embouchure and the bore of a real flute, respectively. The two instruments interact with each other during the performance. In other words, the sound that the computer generates is dependent of the guitar sound that it receives by means of a microphone: the amplitude of the guitar sound modifies the input noise that simulates the breath blowing into a flute. At the same time the captured guitar sound goes through the resonator to produce the impression of a "plucked flute". This way, there may be resonances which emphasize the guitar sound depending on the pitches played by the guitar as well as the pitch that the flutar is tuned to. Cycles explores these resonances by using two chords as its main building block. These chords are composed such that they excite only some of the overtones of the simulated flute. Therefore some notes in the chord can become louder after being processed. The piece has a form similar to that of a classical sonata. In the exposition the main harmonic material, consisting of the two chords, is presented. Later the basic ideas are developed and exchanged between the "flutar" and the guitar. The piece ends with the final statement of the main theme reminiscent of a circle which winds back upon itself.
Cem Duruðz won the first prize in the Turkish National Guitar Competition in Istanbul in 1984, and the Stanford Soloist Award in 1991. On scholarships from the Italian and English governments, he participated in the master classes of John Duarte, Oscar Ghiglia and Eliot Fisk, and later Norbert Kraft and David Russell. He has received his master's degree in guitar performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied with David Tanenbaum. Besides his recitals in Turkey, Japan, Miami, Buffalo and San Francisco, he performed as a soloist with the Stanford Chamber Orchestra in 1992 and 1993.
In Turkey, he studied composition and theory with Bujor Hoinic for three years. At Stanford, he has been studying composition with Jody Rockmaker as a master's student. Cem Duruðz is also a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering.
Will Grant began his career in performance art, as a chorus member with Antoine Perriche, during the Paris festivitie's of May 1968. Since then he has worked in numerous small theater companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. He is currently a Master's candidate in electronic music at Mills College.
Songo Be'nd is a band founded by Marco Trevisani, who is the only permanent player and author in the band. Different musicians follow on in this band. The goal of Songo Be'nd is to produce rhythms and leave them without control, and also to mask noise with other poly-un-rhythmical noise.
The name of the band comes from a Nicolas Guinllen (a Cuban poet) stanza.
"Songoro, cosongo,
songo be:
songoro, cosongo
de mamey;
songoro, la negra
baila bien;
songoro de uno
songoro de tre."
Born in Verona, Italy, Marco Trevisani studied music composition and piano in Milan with Luigi Bonafede, then electronic music and composition at the Musik Hochschule in Vienna with Dieter Kaufmann and Tamas Ungvary. Mr Trevisani's music has been performed in Italy, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovenia as well as in the U.S. In addition, he holds a degree in architecture from the Politecnico of Milano (University of Milano). He has been a visiting composer at Stanford' CCRMA since 1992, and a Ph.D student in the italian Dept. since 1994. His current interest is in theatre-computer-music plays, two of which are now in progress. Mr. Rocchesso works at the CSC (Centro Sonologia Computazionale, University of Padua, Italy). He collaborates with Alvise Vidolin, Maurizio Pisati, Giorgio Battistelli and Marco Trevisani, as a live electronics designer and performer. He plays in a computer music band called the P.I.T. group.
RAIN was premiered at the Dark Music Days festival in Reykjavik, 1993, and has since been featured on CD, in the audio journal, Unknown Public.
Nicky Hind began his career with the 1987 release on Move Records of the recording HINDSIGHT -- a collection of six compositions performed by his own ensemble, which combined atmospheric textures with (jazz) improvisation. Since then he has been commissioned to write music for acoustic and electro-acoustic media, and in conjunction with Dance, Theatre, and Video. Works have received numerous international performances, as well as in his native Scotland. Nicky Hind studied composition at the University of Glasgow (with Graham Hair), and at City University, London. His interest in computer music has led to further studies at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University, California, where he is presently based.
Bill Schottstaedt was born in New York City in 1951, grew up in Oklahoma, got various degrees in music from Stanford University, worked awhile in the computer industry, and is currently on the CCRMA staff.
Scott Levine was born in New Jersey and grew up in Dallas, Texas. His research interests include audio data compression, multirate filter banks, and audio effects processing. At Columbia University, he studied electrical engineering under Professor Martin Vetterli and computer music under Professor Brad Garton. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University, working under Professor Julius Smith at CCRMA.
Lukas Ligeti was born in Vienna in 1965; studied composition and drums at the Vienna Music Academy, now a Visiting Scholar at CCRMA. His music has been performed by the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Amadinda Percussion Ensemble, "die reihe", and Vienna Saxophone Quartet, etc., at festivals in Europe, Japan, and Australia. As a drummer, he has performed and/or recorded with Things of NowNow, Kombinat M, Siamese Stepbrothers, Henry Kaiser, Anthony Coleman, Roy Nathanson, a.o. In 1994, together with Kurt Dahlke, he led a cultural exchange project in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, in the course of which the group Be-Ta-Foli was formed.
Nick Porcaro was born 1961 in New York City. He received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1984. In 1987 he moved to San Francisco and started the Haight Ashbury Free Band in which he played keyboards. Since 1990, Nick has been a visiting scholar at CCRMA, where he has developed SynthBuilder, a graphical software application for synthesizer patch development and effects processing. SynthBuilder has been used extensively over last year at CCRMA for several research, composition and performance projects. Nick demonstrated SynthBuilder at the 1994 International Computer Music Conference in Aarhus, Denmark.
David G Rhodes: Born in California in 1948. Studied music and education at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Played and studied bebop in New York in the 70's and in 1987 helped start the Haight Ashbury Free Band which eventually became an Avant Garde jazz band.