Virtuoso Chances
The Austria-based artist duo Se-Lien Chuang & Andreas Weixler
has specialized in audiovisual realtime processing with a special
emphasis in contemporary instrumental composition and
electroacoustic composition. The concert will include a variety
of compositional work: electroacoustic multichannel music,
art-video, minimal music, contemporary composition for acoustic
instruments with electronics and improvisation within audiovisual
live processing. The theme of the concert encompasses applications
of algorithms and random operations within live performances of
audiovisual interactivity as well as time-based music and media
works of Andreas Weixler and Se-Lien Chuang. In an interplay of
realtime processes and improvisation the computer acts as a musical
instrument in the sense of machine musicianship. The performance of
virtuoso chances addresses improvisation and composition, musical
inspiration and digital concepts.
Marianne Gythfeldt -
bass clarinet
Andrew Borkowski -
violoncello
Mike Frengel -
electric guitar
Se-Lien Chuang -
composition, electronics, visuals, piano
Andreas Weixler
- composition, electronics
Program
video/audio documentation
Virtuoso Chances, Andreas Weixler & Se-Lien Chuang
Electro Acoustic Portrait
Tues Feb 17 2015, Austrian Cultural Forum New York more
please enlarge to fullscreen and set to full 1080p HD
resolution.
1
Wetterleuchten - Virtuoso Chances - return
home (2013)
video & multichannel interactive sound file
player for instrumental gestures
Andreas
Weixler - composition
Se-Lien Chuang -
video
2
Nowhereland (2014, premiere)
for extended piano, bass clarinet, multichannel
electroacoustics and live electronics
Se-Lien Chuang -
composition, extended piano, electronics
Marianne
Gythfeldt - bass clarinet
Andreas
Weixler - live electronic
3
of which your soul was
constituted (2011/15) in 6 movements/moods
for violoncello, multichannel playback and
live-electronics
Andrew Borkowski
- violoncello
Se-Lien
Chuang - composition, live electronics
4
Impromptu for Yang-chin_Ocean
Indian (2013)
video
& multichannel electroacoustic composition
Se-Lien Chuang -
composition, video
5
Idem eadem pro quattuor (2014,
premiere)
minimal music
Marianne
Gythfeldt - bass clarinet
Andrew
Borkowski - violoncello
Mike Frengel -
electric guitar
Se-Lien Chuang -
piano
Andreas
Weixler - composition
6
incidere (2014/15, premiere)
e-guitar, multichannel electroacoustics &
live electronics
Mike
Frengel - electric guitar
Se-Lien
Chuang - composition, electronics
Andreas
Weixler - live electronics
7
Ashley Ave (2008)
algorithmic composition for piano and
SpectraSonic
Se-Lien
Chuang - piano
Andreas
Weixler - composition, electronics
for Pi (2005)
multichannel electroacoustic composition
Andreas Weixler
- composition
9
Momentum nyc (2015, premiere)
all performer improvisation & interactive
audiovisual
Marianne
Gythfeldt - bass clarinet
Andrew
Borkowski - violoncello
Mike
Frengel - electric guitar
Se-Lien
Chuang - concept, interactive visuals, piano
Andreas
Weixler - concept, live electronics
please enlarge to fullscreen and set to full 1080p HD resolution.
program notes
1 Wetterleuchten - Virtuoso Chances - return
home (2013)
video & multichannel interactive sound file
player for instrumental gestures
Andreas Weixler - composition
Se-Lien Chuang - video
On the Basis of a recording of an Austrian thunderstorm, recorded in
Styria, Austria, an interactive sound file player for instrumental
gestures creates sounds which reply to it by recordings of
contemporary playing techniques of double bass, violoncello, cembalo
and arco piano. The sounds are selected and composed and then
spatialized on a multichannel system by virtuoso chances into a
multichannel ambience music „Virtuoso Chances - return home“. The
interactive sound file player and the music was created an NOVARS
Manchester, UK. The video was recorded at Tressenstein in Styria,
Austria and edited at Atelier Avant Austria.
2 Nowhereland (2014, premiere)
for extended piano, bass clarinet, multichannel
electroacoustics and live electronics
The recording sounds of the arco-piano are used as compositional
material for the multichannel electroacoustics which serves as one
of the layers appear in the electroacoustic sounding landscape.At
the same time the acoustic instrumental sounds and the
electroacoustic sounds will be feeded into the realtime audio
processing for creating the another layer of the spatialised
soundspace which at this concert will be quadrophonic positioned.
Arco-piano is a special contemporary technique of performing the
piano with hairs of bows which gives a very sophisticated sound of
the piano. Se-Lien Chuang developed arco-piano technique to the
artistic point, where she can control polyphonic sound of the bowed
piano strings and their upcoming overtones.
3 of which your soul was constituted
(2011/15) in 6 movements/moods
for violoncello, multichannel playback and
live-electronics
Andrew Borkowski - violoncello
Se-Lien Chuang - composition, live electronics
The rencounter with people and the arts vivify much lingering
indentations which impair the strength of the attitute and enframe
the images, of which the soul was constituted. The individual
privileged playing techniques are inherent in each performer. At the
staging with the spatial infill of the natural acoustic feeds and
the artificial electronic/electroacoustic surrounds the appearances
of the subjective impression of the composer and the objective
expression of the player squire the audience to a voyage of the
longed for poetic and quaint scenery. The electronic/electroacoustic
sounds are transformed from the recording of the cello sounds. The
Transformation is treated by using PitchShift to granulate the audio
input. The same way and the FFT SpectralDelay are also applied to
the live-electronics.
4 Impromptu for
Yang-chin_Ocean Indian (2013)
video
& multichannel electroacoustic composition
Se-Lien Chuang - composition,
video
The composition makes use of the digital transformation of the
instrumental sounds originating from a recorded Yang-chin
improvisation, complemented by the sounds of the clarinets and a
prepared piano. With respect to the multichannel spatialization and
the compositional aesthetics within an electroacoustic and
acousmatic connotation I use the stereo grouping positioned in a
circular arranged loudspeaker for the static impact on the one hand,
and the migration of the sounds taking place between the
loudspeakers dynamically assembles the circle on the other hand. The
piece was realized during a composer in residence in NOVARS Research
Centre for Electroacoustic Composition, Performance and Sound-Art,
The University of Manchester, UK in July, 2013. The imagery scenes
were captured during the stays in Australien and the video was
realized at Atelier Avant Austria. Yang-chin (also Yangqin) is a
traditional Chinese instrument, which looks like a trapezoidal
hammered dulcimer. The playing technique of the Yang-chin is alike
the hammered dulcimer, although Yang-chin sounds softer and much
caressing.
5 Idem eadem pro quattuor (2014,
premiere)
minimal music
Marianne Gythfeldt - bass clarinet
Andrew Borkowski - violoncello
Mike Frengel - electric guitar
Se-Lien Chuang - piano
Andreas Weixler - composition
The piece is part of a series of minimal music for changing
instrumentation starting 1990, which has been performed by
Klangforum Wien, Züricher Ensemble für Neue Musik among many others
and released on CD by the percussion ensemble Dama Dama. Idem
consist of fractions of two whole tone series, which are shifted by
a half tone. Each instrument is just repeating a few notes and the
notes are traveling from one instrumental group to the other. The
border between melody and accompaniment lies in the ear of the
listener.
6 incidere (2014/15, premiere)
e-guitar, multichannel electroacoustics &
live electronics
Mike Frengel - electric guitar
Se-Lien Chuang - composition, electronics
Andreas Weixler - live electronics
The extended contemporary playing techniques are applied in this
piece, e.g. the chords of the flageolets, using of the bottleneck
slide, tapping, bending etc. The use of effect devices by the
musician is optional, it depends on the availabilities and the
accessibilities. The electroacoustic part has been composed of the
transformation of the recording sounds of the Yang-chin by applying
the Waves-Plugins of GTRStomp6. The aims are to achieve the
homogenous embedment in the e-guitar natural sounds on the one hand,
and there again to abet the sophisticated electric characteristics
of this instrument. Also there will be an improvised part for the
musician to forge links between the written notes and the unwritten
traces.
7 Ashley Ave (2008)
algorithmic composition for piano and
SpectraSonic
Se-Lien Chuang - piano
Andreas Weixler - composition, electronics
The algorithmic composition was written during a guest composer stay
at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland in
the fall of 2008.
A wide-ranging chord is broken down into individually changing
pulsations; the result is almost a permuted arpeggio that includes
amazing musical results.
Realtime audio processing fulfills the idea of pulsation by creating
repetition of certain frequency spread all over the concert hall.
8 for Pi (2005)
multichannel electroacoustic composition
Andreas Weixler - composition
The piece is about an old theme of music, about expression and
arousal of emotion and relief of tension, where words cease.
Produced at the Electronic Studio of the Technical University
Berlin, 2004/05. First premiere: UltraSchall Berlin, 2005, further
international premieres. All sounds are created from the
instrumental sound of percussion instruments (among these a huge
plate in c#), a marimba and the sound of the sea at Croma /UK. Sound
processing with GRM and Wave audio plugins and spatialistation by a
dynamic sound file player, a program routine the composer created in
Max msp for the algorithmic movements of the sounds.
Marianne Gythfeldt - bass clarinet
Andrew Borkowski - violoncello
Mike Frengel - electric guitar
Se-Lien Chuang - concept, interactive visuals,
piano
Andreas Weixler - concept, live electronics
Fragments of memories (produced both by human beings and by
computer) generate a synthesis of sounds and visuals. The sounds of
live instruments serve as interface in an audiovisually interactive
concert that merges a contemporary instrumental sound and realtime
computing in an amazing improvisation. While visual images and
processes are being generated during the concert, a multi channel
granular synthesis, spectral delays and virtuoso chances fit
together minute tonal particles that make up the instrumental sounds
into a constantly changing acoustic stream made up of different
pitches, durations and positions in the electro-acoustic space. The
musical and visual components interact and reciprocally influence
each other in order to blend into a unique, synaesthetic,
improvisational work of art.
musicians
Andreas Weixler
born 1963 in Graz, Austria, is a composer for contemporary
instrumental composition, computer music with an special emphasis on
audiovisual interactivity and interactive score. He is teaching
currently as a associate university professor at Bruckner-University
computer music, music and media technology and is a lecturer at
InterfaceCulture of the University of Arts in Linz, Austria.
His education starts with contemporary composition at the University
of Arts in Graz, Austria with Andrzej Dobrowolski, Younghi Pagh-Paan
and diploma by Beat Furrer, and is completed by international
projects, study stays and researches. His concepts led to concerts,
performances and lectures in Europe, Asia, North and South America,
selections for the International Computer Music Conference ICMC
Perth/Ljubljana/Huddersfield/NYC/Belfast/Copenhagen, NIME New York,
ISEA Nagoya, New York Electroacoustic Music Festival, Wien Modern,
ars electronica festival Linz, JSEM Tokyo, Experimental Intermedia,
New York, Salzburger Festspiele, Ultraschall Festival für Neue Musik
Berlin, Sonorities Festival, Belfast, European Electroacoustic Music
Brussels, Sumida Triphony Hall Tokio, National Theater Concert Hall
Taipeh, Seoul International Computermusic Festival, Computermusic
Festival Montreal among many others. Andreas Weixler founded
intermedia concert series like Sonic Intermedia (ars electronic
center Linz) and is running Atelier Avant Austria together with
Se-Lien Chuang. http://avant.mur.at
Se-Lien Chuang
composer, pianist and media artist, 1965 born in Taiwan, since 1991
residence in Austria.
The artistic emphasis ranges from contemporary instrumental
composition/improvisation, computer music, electronic sound
processing up to audiovisual interactivity.
Studies in composition (Beat Furrer), music and media technology
(Karlheinz Essl), piano/recorder, electroacoustic music in Austria.
International production, research stays and lectures as well as
numerous representation of compositions in Europe, Asia, North- and
South America: Salzburger Festspiele, Wien Modern, Ultraschall
Festival Berlin, ICMC
Athen/Perth/Ljubljana/Huddersfield/NYC/Belfast/Copenhagen, SICMF
Seoul, NYCEMF, NIME New York, ISEA Singapore/Nagoya, IAMAS Japan,
Ars Electronica Linz, SONORITIES Festival Belfast, among others. http://avant.mur.at/chuang
Mike Frengel - electric guitar
born Mountain View, CA, 1972, graduated with a B.A. in
electroacoustic music from San Jose State University in 1995, where
he studied music composition with Allen Strange and Dan Wyman. He
spent another three years in the San Francisco Bay Area working at
Apple Computers Inc. as well as remaining affiliated with the
C.R.E.A.M. Studios at SJSU as a Research Scientist. Mike completed
his M.A. in electroacoustic music composition at the Bregman Studios
at Dartmouth College in 1999, where he studied with Jon Appleton,
Charles Dodge, Larry Polansky, and Christian Wolff. He completed his
Ph.D. at City University, London, where he studied composition with
Denis Smalley. Mike was a prize-winner in the 2000 Luigi Russolo
Composition Competition. His works have been included on the Sonic
Circuits VII, ICMC’95, CDCM Vol.26, 2000 Luigi Russolo and ICMC 2009
compact discs and are performed at music events around the world.
Mike is currently on the faculty of the music departments at
Northeastern University and Boston Conservatory, where he teaches
courses in music technology and composition. http://www.mikefrengel.com
Marianne Gythfeldt - clarinets
has distinguished herself in chamber music and contemporary music
performance on the international stage. She is equally at-home
in traditional, contemporary and alternative genres as clarinetist
of Zephyros Winds, Consortium Ardesia, Collide-O-scope, SEM
Ensemble, and former member of the Naumburg award-winning group New
Millennium Ensemble. Marianne is especially recognized in the fields
of electro acoustic music, contemporary chamber music and
performance education. She was recently appointed Assistant
Professor of clarinet and woodwind coordinator at Brooklyn College
Conservatory where she will continue her work as a leader in arts
engagement, outreach and development. Ms. Gythfeldt spent eight
years as clarinet and chamber music professor at the University of
Delaware where she won the Delaware Division of the Arts established
artist award. Ms. Gythfeldt has recorded with CBS Masterworks, CRI,
Albany, Koch and Mode Records. http://www.mariannegythfeldt.com
Andrew Borkowski - violoncello
Cellist Andrew Borkowski performs regularly as soloist/chamber
musician and with orchestras throughout New York City, as well as
the Western New York area. He appeared in the 2013 NYC
ElectroAcoustic Music Festival, performing pieces for solo cello and
electronics, and collaborated with some of today’s leading composers
of electro-acoustic music. An avid educator as well as
performer, Andrew serves on faculty at the Eastern School of Music
and Arts, and Sage Music at the LIC Music School, and also teaches
at the annual summer festival, Chamber Music Institute, at the
University of Maine. He has performed all over the world, including
appearances in Beijing and Shanghai, China and also appears
regularly with Manhattan Symphonie, among other orchestras, and has
performed extensively in New York City’s premier concert venues,
including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, Symphony Space, and Barge
Music. He holds a B.A. in Cello Performance from the State
University of New York at Buffalo, and an M.A. in performance from
the Copland School of Music at Queens College and does extensive
work in teaching artistry and mentoring, including joining the
roster of Associated Solo Artists Inc. in 2013, a non-profit
teaching artist organization aimed at enhancing music education
through high level performance and lecturing. http://andrewborkowski.net
