Department of Music

• Friday, November 14 2008
• Live Arts , Charlottesville, VA
• 8pm
• Free. Donations accepted.

In 2008 the Virginia Center for Computer Music (VCCM) at the University of Virginia, celebrates twenty years of groundbreaking computer music. To mark this special occasion, the first TechnoSonics tour will showcase the innovative research and music being created in the VCCM.

“Play,” the central theme of this year’s festival highlights engaging trends in music including robotics, audience interaction, computer-mediated performance, video and improvisation. The 2008 VCCM 20th anniversary tour, produced with the support from the UVA Department of Music, features improvised and composed works for humans, computers and robots performing music for squeaky toys, strings, sensor-based interactive dance, improvising ensemble, guitars, voice, computer-generated sound, video, and interactive audience-driven sound sculpture.

The program includes the music of emerging composers Scott Barton, Aurie Hsu, Steve Kemper, Lanier Sammons, Troy Rogers, Peter Traub and Jonathan Zorn, as well as VCCM faculty composers Matthew Burtner, Ted Coffey and Judith Shatin. Since 1998 the TechnoSonics festival has brought cutting edge performers and composers to Charlottesville, creating a lively mix with home-grown talent. Based in the Live Arts Theater in downtown Charlottesville, and in Old Cabell Hall on the campus of UVa, the festival has featured visiting artists such as Chris Burns, F. Gerard Errante, Brad Garton, John Gibson, Bruce Mahin, James Mobberly, Charles Nichols, Douglas Repetto, Madeleine Shapiro, Barry Truax, Kojiro Umezaki, and many others.

Tour dates:

October 29, University of Delaware, in Newark, DE 8pm

October 30, DCCA Arts Center of Wilmington, DE 6:30pm

October 31, Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space, New York, NY 7:30pm

November 6, Muse Workspace in Richmond, VA 8pm

November 14, Live Arts , Charlottesville, VA 8pm

About the VCCM:

The Virginia Center for Computer Music (VCCM), founded in 1988 by Director and William R. Kenan Jr Professor Judith Shatin, provides a rich development environment for computer music and new audio technologies. Director Shatin now works closely with Associate Director Matthew Burtner, Technical Director David Topper and CCT faculty member Ted Coffey to support and guide the VCCM . The Center houses a wide range of computer resources including Linux and Macintosh computers, and a variety of commercial and in-house-developed software and hardware. Current work involves multichannel digital audio, interactive multimedia performance, installation art, robotics, network music and alternate controllers. In 2008 the Center received major improvements including an upgraded and renovated teaching and studio facility.

Since 2002, the VCCM supports the UVa Music Department’s PhD program in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT). CCT PhD students now hold faculty positions at Yale University and Oberlin College, and their music and research is regularly commissioned, performed, and published world-wide.