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Sao Paulo Biennial 2000

The Third International Biennial for Electroacoustic Music of Sao Paulo (BIMESP) was held from 3-29 October 2000 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The festival was promoted by the Studio PANaroma and held in association with the Goethe Institute of Sao Paulo. It featured works by Brazilian composers, a dance project with the Merce Cunningham School of Dance in Brazil, and included the first Brazilian performance of Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge and Hymnen in their original quadraphonic versions.

Associated with BIMESP is the Sao Paulo International Competition of Electroacoustic Music (CIMESP) and the festival opened with a session devoted to the prize-winners of the 1999 competition. The first prize was awarded to Francis Dhomont for Phonurgie (1998). The second prize was awarded equally to Peter Batchelor for Reel (1997) and Maurizio Martusciello for Unsettled Line (1999). The Public Prize went to Gilles Gobeil for Point de Passage (1997).

Concerts throughout the festival followed themes, featuring CIMESP, aspects of modernity, aspects of interaction, the composers of particular countries, and tribute concerts devoted to the work of electroacoustic pioneers.

The "Modernity" concerts presented music by Elizabeth Anderson, Michele Biasutti, Ludger Brümmer, Christopher Burns, Guto Caminhoto, José Miguel Candela, Sebastián Castagna, Luigi Ceccarelli, Rodolfo Coelho de Souza, Vladimir Djambazov, Michael Edwards, Frank Ekeberg, Rajmil Fischman, Antonio Gatti, Martin Gotfrit, Graham Hadfield, Fernando Iazzetta, Wilfried Jentzsch, Elsa Justel, Sérgio Kafejian, Ioannis Kalantzis, Damien Lock, Elio Martusciello, João Mendes, Adrian Moore, Paul Oehlers, Aquiles Pantaleão, Pete Stollery, Annette Vande Gorne, and John Young.

The concert dedicated to composers from Colombia and Argentina featured music by Catalina Peralta, Victor Camilo Hernandez, and German Toro (Colombia), and Fernando Polonuer, Daniel Schachter, Raúl Minsburg, and Enrique Belloc (Argentina).

The second CIMESP concert presented the pieces which had received honorable mentions in the 1999 competition: Gary Berger's Elastische Studie, Paul Fretwell's Asklepion, Elainie Lillios's Stumbling Dance, Shintaro Imai's Resonant Quarks II, and Kent Olofsson's Eos Weeping Dew--Iconophony For Tape.

The concerts focusing on interactive work featured music by Ignacio de Campos, Aylton Escobar, Rael Gimenes, Fábio Gorodski, Sérgio Kafejian, Flo Menezes, and Paulo von Zuben.

Historical concerts presented Karlheinz Stockhausen's Hymnen and Gesang der Jünglinge, Mauricio Kagel's Transición I, György Ligeti's Artikulation, and François Bayle's Grande Polyphonie.

The festival ended with a concert devoted to four large-scale pieces by Flo Menezes. A Dialética da Praia (1993) was followed by Parcours de l'Entité (1994) and Harmonia das Esferas (2000). The festival closed with the dance project Tempimersespaço with choreography by Gícia Amorim.

Two CDs in the series "Maximal Music" were launched at BIMESP 2000. Volume 6 features the CIMESP 1999 prize-winning composers and music by Agostino di Scipio and Elainie Lillios. Volume 5 is devoted to the music of Flo Menezes.

Hungary Introduces Electroacoustic Training into its General School Curriculum

The system and methodology of electroacoustic music training became part of the general education system of Hungary in September 1999, when national educational legislation introduced this type of musical training, on a voluntary basis, into the general school system. Three independent areas of training are offered: classical synthesizer, popular synthesizer, and computer music programs.

The syllabus was offered for the first time in the school session 1999/2000, following several years of college- and university-level post-graduate teacher training activities to create the well-educated faculty needed for these new areas of musical training.

Specialists are currently working on the curriculum for electroacoustic music training at conservatory level.

Hungary is one of the first countries in the world to have incorporated these areas as a part of the overall national general education system, and also to have utilized the synthesizer as an independent performing instrument, not simply as a means for extending composing activities.

Experts in the field of electroacoustic music are in continuing collaboration with officials of the Hungarian Ministry of Education. As both electroacoustic training and quality assurance of the education system were introduced...