News

New Master’s Program in The Netherlands

Beginning in September 2011, the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam is partnering with the department of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague to offer a new masters program called Instruments and Interfaces. The new program focuses on in-depth exploration of the issues at stake when building new instruments for electronic music. The program includes a combination of theoretical discussion, practical art-as-research, and formalized coursework between the labs at STEIM and the faculty at Sonology.

Web: www.koncon.nl/public site/220/Sononieuw/UK/frameset-uk.html

Musica Electronica Nova in Poland

The Musica Electronica Nova Festival took place 13–21 May 2011 in Wroclaw, Poland. The festival featured participation from the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Polish and international guests. French music was highlighted in this year’s festival, and French composer Pierre Jodlowski attended as a featured guest. The festival began with an exhibition of Jodlowski’s sound installation Passage, a “dynamic sound corridor devoted to the world of memory,” in which visitors’ passage through a tunnel affects sound and light diffusion. Music presented at the many concerts included sound art, compositions for acoustic instruments and electronics, electroacoustic music, electric jazz, and more. Instructional events included a course on electroacoustic music interpretation and a workshop on the Karlax musical controller.

Web: www.musicaelectronicanova.pl/en/program

Linux Audio Conference

The 2011 Linux Audio Conference was held 6–8 May 2011 in Maynooth, Ireland. The conference focused on open-source software for music, sound, and media, with Linux as the main platform. Participants were an international mixture of software designers, musicians, composers, and engineers. The conference included a variety of talks and posters on programming languages for audio, sound synthesis, and new digital musical instruments, as well as instructional workshops and developer meet-ups. The event also included two concerts featuring electronic music of various genres, as well as a “sound night.” Much of the conference material, including presentation slides and video as well as code examples, is available on the event Web site and can be downloaded free of charge.

Web: lac.linuxaudio.org/2011

CCMC Tokyo

The Contemporary Computer Music Concert (CCMC) series was held 25–27 February 2011 in Tokyo, Japan. Ten concerts featured electroacoustic works—many with live diffusion—by Japanese composers, and the final concert highlighted the work of French composer Bertrand Dubedout. The event was produced in partnership among L’Institut Franco-Japonais de Tokyo et Yokohama [the French-Japanese Institute of Tokyo and Yokohama], the Frenchmusic organization Motus, the French-Japanese contemporary music organization Atelier de Création Sonore et Musicale 116 [Sound Design and Music Workshop 116], and the Japanese organization Soken.

Three prizes were awarded to participating composers. Hiromi Watanabe received the Prix ACSM116 for the composition Réminiscences. Takuto Fukuda received the Prix Futura for the composition Satellite. The Prix Motus went to Kyohei Hayashi for Ihozin ga Mahler ni yotte fukkatsu si, kakeagaru (den-enfukei). Yuki Otsuka received an honorable mention for Antidote.

Web: www.institut.jp/fr/evenements/10536

FIMPaC 2011

The Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition took place 12–13 May 2011 at Leeds College of Music in Leeds, UK. This annual event was presented in association with the Journal for Music, Technology and Education, and it focused on both research and practice in music production and composition. Leigh Landy, director of the Music, Technology, and Innovation Research Centre at De Montfort University in the UK, gave the first keynote address, titled “The Grateful ‘Live.”’ The musician and writer Bill Drummond gave the second keynote address, titled “The History of Music (part 19) Revisited.” Each day of the conference included talks and poster presentations by researchers from around the UK and Europe. Presentation topics included interdisciplinary collaboration, the creative process, interactive performance technologies, ambisonics, and electronic music pedagogy.

Web: www.lcm.ac.uk/research-conference/FIMPaC.htm

Re-Sounding Science and NeuroArts

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research at the University of Plymouth hosted the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival 10–13 February 2011 in Plymouth, UK. According to the event’s Web...