News

Gaudeamus Prize 2001

The International Gaudeamus Music Week 2001 was held in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 3–9 September. The competition is open to composers aged under 31 and the Gaudeamus Foundation received approximately 400 scores from 16 countries. The jury, comprising Roderik de Man (The Netherlands), Frederic Rzewski (USA), and Vladimir Tarnopolski (Russia), selected 20 works to compete for the Gaudeamus Prize 2001, and at the end of the festival the Gaudeamus Prize was awarded jointly to Palle Dahlstedt of Sweden and Takuya Imahori of Japan. The prize money is intended as a commission for a new work to be performed in the Music Week the following year, and will be divided between the two composers. Palle Dahlstedt received the prize for Anakolut, a video and electronic music production.

Prize Winners of the 23rd Russolo Competition

The prize winners of the 23rd International Luigi Russolo competition were announced in September 2001.

The international jury, led by president Gian Franco Maffina of the Russolo-Pratella Foundation, considered 98 pieces by composers from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Turkey, UK, and USA. In Category A, music for tape alone, the first prize was awarded to Hideko Kawamoto (Japan) for Summer Rain—Dusk, the second prize to Paul Noel (USA) for Corridor, and the third prize to Guillermo Fabian Senn (Argentina) for Sensaciones. Three composers received honorable mentions: Mathew Adkins (UK) for Deepfield, Michael Edwards (Austria) for Anonymous obvious, and Alessandro Petrolati (Italy) for Turn Around. In Category B, music for tape and instrument or voice, the first prize was awarded to Jean François Laporte (Canada) for Prana, the second prize to Maja S. K. Ratkje (Norway) for Sinus Seduction, and the third prize to Pablo Garcia (Mexico) for Piano T. Honorable mentions were made to Mei-Fang Lin (China) for Interaction, and Rodrigo Sigal (Mexico) for Twilight. A CD is to be produced, featuring the music of the six prize-winning composers.

WAVEFORM 2001, Australasian Computer Music Association Conference

The 2001 Australasian Computer Music Association Conference, Waveform 2001, ran from 12–14 July at the School of Contemporary Arts, University of Western Sydney, Australia. Waveform 2001 explored recent research, development, composition, and performance in the field of digital music by means of concerts, paper sessions, artist talks, discussion panels, and reports. Its aim was to strengthen the links between practice (composition, performance, technical research) and theory and criticism (listening, evaluation, contextualization), balancing the minutiae of creative and studio processes with examinations of the complex and diverse macro structure of current digital music practice.The paper session on "Machine Histories and Futures" heard papers from Paul Doornbusch (The Music of CSIRAC), Angelo Fraietta (Smart Budgeting for a Smart Controller), Greg Schiemer (Transposed Hexanies), and Rene Wooller, Nicolas Coleman, and Andrew Brown (LEMu: Live Electronic Music Software). The session "Audio Art" heard papers from Don Richards (Wake for Tom), and Ros Bandt and Garth Paine (A Nationwide Database and Website on Designing Public Acoustic Space). The general paper session heard papers by Garth Paine (Interactive Sound Works in Public Exhibition Spaces, an Artist's Perspective), Martín Fumarola (A Survey of Recent Latin American Computer Music), and Nigel Helyer (Singing Me Softly. . .). The largest session, "Media Process and Criticism" included papers by Peter McIlwain (Spatialized Sound: The Listener's Perspective), Andrew Brown (How the Computer Assists Composers: A Survey of Contemporary Practice), Nick Gebhardt (Studio Time = Money), Mitchell Whitelaw (Inframedia Audio), caleb.k (Yasunao Tones, Stuttering CDs, and Extreme Digital Audio), and Densil Cabrera (Acoustical, Psychoacoustical and Subjective Assessment of Alvin Lucier's I am Sitting in a Room). Two discussion forums addressed Music technology in tertiary education, chaired by Julian Knowles, and the relationship between academic and underground computer music, chaired by Kim Cascone.

Artist's talks were given by Chris Cree Brown (A Composer in Antarctica), Russell Goodwin (Standing Wave Sound Sculpture: A Compositional Example), Ian Stevenson (Cathedral Impulse—Toward a Sonic Art), Terumi Narushima (Tritriadic Chimes: Bells in Just Intonation), Rod Berry (Art Imitates Life's Imitation of Art), and Jeremy Yuille and Troy Innocent (The Transmutational Meta Processor). Five concerts were presented during the three-day conference. "Organic...