April 9, 1997



April 9, 1997

Music Department

Suffolk County Community College

Ammerman Campus

Open Ears I: Electro-Acoustic Music

presented by William Ryan, composer

featuring guest performer Taimur Sullivan, saxophone

I. Introduction.

- The Open Ears concert series. Purpose, goals, future.

- What is electro-acoustic music?

II. Concert Program.

1. Black Notes (1990) Zack Browning (b. 1958)

composition for alto saxophone and two-channel tape

Taimur Sullivan, alto saxophone

2. do you love me? (1994) Bobby Lombardi (b. 1970)

composition for two-channel tape

3. Collateral Damage (1993) Bill Alves (b. 1960)

composition for video

4. Point Common (1993) William Ryan (b. 1968)

composition for two-channel tape

5. Voilements (1987) Jean-Claude Risset (b. 1950)

composition for tenor saxophone and two-channel tape

Taimur Sullivan, tenor saxophone

III. Discussion with guest artist.

- How to prepare a tape and instrumental composition.

- Advantages/disadvantages of working in this medium.

- Working with the composer.

Each composition will be introduced by explaining its history, how it was created, and the musical concepts being explored.

Guest Performer Biography

Taimur Sullivan is a highly acclaimed classical saxophonist specializing in new music performance. After his recent Merkin Hall debut recital, the New York Times hailed him as "commanding and delivering a wide-ranging program with a seductive breadth of tone and considerable technical agility". He has performed with orchestras throughout the U.S., and has been a featured artist at music festivals. He is winner of four national competitions including first prize at the 1994 North American Saxophone Alliance Performance Competition. In the past six years he has premiered 36 works by contemporary composers and has given lecture/performances at Manhattan School of Music, Curtis Institute, NYU, Columbia University, and Stony Brook. Mode Records will release his performance of Luciano Berio's "Sequenza VIIb". His recent chamber music performance at Lincoln Center was featured on CNN cable channel. He has recorded on the Mastersound and Zuma lables. He resides in New York City where he is a member of the PRISM Quartet, Saxophone and MIDI Ensemble, and is on the faculty of the University of Bridgeport. Mr. Sullivan studied at the University of Illinois and Michigan State University with James Forger, Joseph Luloff, and Debra Richtmeyer.

Composer Biographies

Bill Alves has written extensively for acoustic and electronic instruments as well as mixed media, including the integration of music and computer video and robot choreography. In the academic year 1993-94 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellow in Indonesia, a culture whose music has especially influenced his writing. His works have been presented at New Music America, Musique Experimental de Bourges, Southern California Resource for Electro-Acoustic Music (SCREAM), and the Independent Composers Association, as well as venues in France, Portugal, Singapore, and Indonesia. He is currently Assistant Professor at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, where he teaches computer music and world music, among other things.

Zack Browning is a Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the

University of Illinois. Active as a composer, conductor, and performer, Browning has played trumpet with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and served as co-director of the Atlanta New Music Ensemble. He was Visiting Artist for the North Carolina Arts Council. He has received grants from Meet The Composer, National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP, and the Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina Arts Councils. His composition "In Time" received first prize in the Arts '96 Midwest Composers Competition and Honorable Mention in the International New Music Composers Competition. In addition, "Quintet for Winds" was a finalist for the Politis Competition Prize and the Composers Inc. Competition Contest. Recently Mr. Browning was awarded an Arnold O. Beckman Research Award from the University of Illinois for his work in computer music composition. His music has been performed at such festivals as the Asian Contemporary Music Festival (Korea), Atlanta New Music Festival, Bang On A Can (New York), Imagine'94 (Memphis), Society of Composers, Inc. Conference (Miami), and the PAIN New Music Festival (Illinois). Browning's music is published by Manduca Music Publications and Brixton Publications, and is recorded on Veriatza Records, Coronet Records, and a soon-to-be released CD on Calcante Recordings.

Bobby Lombardi is a doctoral student in composition currently studying with

Jonathan Harvey at Stanford University. His previous instructors include Orlando Garcia, Jon Nelson, Frederic Rzewski, and Dan Weymouth. He holds

degrees from Florida International University, SUNY Stony Brook and the

Royal Conservatory of Liege, Belgium. Lombardi's music has been heard at

numerous festivals, conferences, and public broadcasts throughout the United States and Europe.

Jean-Claude Risset, who studied science, piano, and composition in France, is a leading international figure in the area of computer music composition. In the mid-60's he lived in the U.S. where he met Edgar Varese and workedwith Max Matthews at the Bell Telephone Labs developing the resources of sound synthesis on computers. His early works were played at the 1968-69 NY-Avant-Garde Festivals. Risset established the computer sound synthesis systems in Orsay and Marseilles in the 1970's. He taught at the University of Luminy and at M.I.T. and was a chair of IRCAM's (Paris) computer department. Since 1963 he has won a number of distinctions including the 1987 Prix d'honneur Ars Electronica.

William Ryan is active as a composer, conductor, and educator. In addition to his own compositions, he has conducted several performances by ensembles including the University of Illinois Contemporary Ensemble, the Crane School of Music Contemporary Group, the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, and the North Shore Pro Musica. He has received several awards for his compositions including an ASCAP Foundation to Young Composers Grant, a Meet the Composer Education Program Grant, second prize in the Tampa Bay Composers' Forum chamber music competition, and finalist in the First International Electroacoustic Music Competition of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His compositions have been broadcast on radio and television, and performed at numerous venues including the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference, the Society of Composers conferences, the International Symposium on Electronic Art, the Florida Electro-acoustic Festival, the College Music Society northeast chapter meeting, the C. Buell Lipa Festival of Contemporary Music, and the Brooklyn College Art Gallery. During 1995-96 he was the Composer-in-Residence with the Lawrence High School, where he lead faculty and student workshops on composition and was commissioned to compose a piece for orchestra, wind ensemble, and chorus. He has taught at the University of Illinois, the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and is currently teaching at Suffolk County Community College.

"do you love me?" for solo tape is directly influenced by a text excerpt

from William S. Burroughs' novel _The Ticket that Exploded_. Source

material for the tape portion of this work originates from several electric

guitar samples, each shorter than two seconds in length. The samples are

then computer manipulated into over two thousand different sound files,

leaving the sonic identity of the guitar intact. After processing, the

sounds are organized into chunks that attempt to emulate words of

Burroughs' text. These words are arranged into rhythmic sentences which

follow Burroughs' cut-up paragraphs. In places where consonants would fall

in the rhythmic sentences, further manipulation is made so that the words

being mimicked may or may not be interpreted. It is not the composers

intention to make the dialogue audible in the work. The tape portion of

this work was created in the composer's private studio in Belgium from

August 1993 to July 1994. Recently, the work has been rescored for

narrator, percussion, tape, and live electronics and was premiered in a

joint concert with Frederic Rzewski.

Program Notes for Black Notes by Zack Browning

Black Notes (1987) was written for Joe Lulloff and inspired by jazz

saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk's composition, Blacknuss. In the

introduction to Blacknuss, Kirk states "there are 52 white notes and 36

black notes on the piano. We're going to play the black notes only, if you

don't mind." The opposition suggested here between black and white notes,

is expanded to include static and dynamic elements, consonant and dissonant

harmonies, and patterned and non-patterned events. These are combined to

create a formal structure consisting of continuous and interruptive

materials within golden section proportions. The title also refers to the

middle section's exclusive use of the black notes of the piano. The tape

version of Black Notes (1995) was written for saxophonist Taimur Sullivan

and produced using GACSS (Genetic Algorithms in Composition and SoundSynthesis) which is an original software package developed by Benjamin

Grosser at the University of Illinois.

Bio for Zack Browning

Zack Browning is a Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the

University of Illinois. He received his Bachelors Degree from Florida State

University and his Masters and Doctorate from the University of Illinois.

Active as a composer, conductor, and performer, Browning has played trumpet

with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and served as co-director of the Atlanta

New Music Ensemble. He was Visiting Artist for the North Carolina Arts

Council. He has received grants from Meet The Composer, National Endowment

for the Arts, ASCAP, and the Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina Arts

Councils. His composition In Time received first prize in the Arts '96

Midwest Composers Competition and Honorable Mention in the International New

Music Composers Competition. In addition, Quintet for Winds was a finalist

for the Politis Competition Prize and the Composers Inc. CompetitionContest. Recently Mr. Browning was awarded an Arnold O. Beckman Research

Award from the University of Illinois for his work in computer music

composition. His music has been performed at such festivals as the Asian

Contemporary Music Festival (Korea), Atlanta New Music Festival, Bang On A

Can (New York), Imagine'94 (Memphis), Society of Composers, Inc. Conference

(Miami), and the PAIN New Music Festival (Illinois). Browning's music is

published by Manduca Music Publications and Brixton Publications, and is

recorded on Veriatza Records, Coronet Records, and a soon-to-be released CD

on Calcante Recordings.

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