CMS Gesprächskonzert #13

Spencer Topel & Pauline Kim Harris

#electronics #violin #acoustics

5.11.2018 ABPU_Sonic Lab 19:30

Photo Spencer Topel
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programm

/SHä'kôn/           Spencer Topel & Pauline Kim Harris
ambient-immersive exploration
 
Double Fancy Immersion       Harris, Chuang, Topel, Weixler
audio visual ensemble improvisation

n-graves           Spencer Topel
multi-channel piece
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/SHä'kôn/           Spencer Topel & Pauline Kim Harris  (2018, 45 minutes)
ambient-immersive exploration

PK Harris Topel Duo presents a reconstruction of the J.S. Bach Chaconne (BWV 1004) as an ambient-immersive exploration presented over the course of 45 minutes using both electronic, acoustic, and live violin. The Chaconne serves as a structural backbone to the work, appearing often as small disassociated fragments, while at other moments the Chaconne is inaudible, informing only temporal structure. As with renditions of the Chaconne by past composers such as Brahms and Busoni, /SHä'kôn/ extends the notion of transcription metaphysical, framing the Chaconne both as a musical composition and as a collective-subconscious memory.

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Double Fancy Immersion     Harris, Chuang, Topel, Weixler      (2018, 15 minutes)
audio visual ensemble improvisation

Two experienced duos - Spencer Topel & Pauline Kim Harris aka PK Harris Topel Duo and Se-Lien Chuang & Andreas Weixler aka Atelier Avant Austria - meet together to perform a continuous improvisation using acoustic, electronic and acoustic-electric hybrid instruments blending responsive visual elements with dynamic multi-channel immersive sound.

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n-graves           Spencer Topel (2017, 15 minutes)
multi-channel piece

this piece after Alvin Lucier's Five Graves to Cairo installation Spencer Topel commissioned while at Dartmouth.
It exploits constructive-destructive interference across the entire array and was premiered 2017 at ZKM Karlsruhe.
The audience can move around the space to get the full effect since the listener's movement contributes to the synthesis of the effect.

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Spencer Topel
is an artist working with sound, performance, and installation. He is a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Danish International Visiting Artist Residency in 2013 (DIVA), the Palmer Dixon Prize from the Juilliard School for best composition, BMI and ASCAP Awards, and was an artist-in-residence with the Meitar Ensemble in July 2014 (Tel Aviv).

Recent performances and exhibitions include Part des Anges (Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University), ICED BODIES: Ice Music for Chicago (The Arts Club of Chicago), Echoic Memory I, II (The drawing Center NY; Estonian Music Days 2016, Tallinn), Vox Nihili (HAU, Finkenau, American Modern Ensemble), String Quartet (FLUX Quartet), Palavers (String Noise), Listening Glass (P.3+ Bamboula NOLA), Capturing Resonance in collaboration with Soo Sunny Park (DeCordova Museum), Callings (TonBurst Ensemble,Chosen Vale Festival, FIGURA Ensemble), and Details on the Strasbourg Rosace (Third Sound, Meitar Ensemble).

Topel has produced works for many of America's premiere music and art institutions, including The Barnes Foundation, The Arts Club of Chicago, The Drawing Center NY, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Juilliard Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, TILT Brass, FLUX Quartet, and the Callithumpian Consort. Notable national/international collaborations include HUB New Music (Boston), FIGURA Ensemble (Copenhagen) the Contemporarte Ensemble (Venice) and the Meitar Ensemble and the Israeli Conservatory (Tel-Aviv). 
Topel received degrees from Cornell and The Juilliard School before joining the Tenure-Track Faculty at Dartmouth College, and is currently artist-in-residence at the Yale Quantum Institute at Yale University.

Pauline Kim Harris
is a Grammy-nominated artist who engages in classical to the experimental/avant-garde. Co-concertmaster and soloist with the S.EM. Ensemble, Ostravska Banda, Ensemble LPR and Wordless Music Orchestra, she is also a frequent guest with New York City’s leading new music ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Signal, Argento,Transit,Talea and ICE and has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Pauline serves as Music Director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and has performed as violin soloist for choreographer Pam Tanowitz and David Parker of The Bang Group. As a curator, she co-produced Drawing Sounds II, with husband, Conrad Harris at the Drawing Center, most recently, Petr Kotik @75 at (le) poisson rouge and continues at Carnegie Hill Concerts. As a member of violin duo, String Noise, she has expanded the two violin repertoire, pushing boundaries in groundbreaking new works. Despite her active performance schedule, Pauline carves out time to compose. Commissioned by the St. George’s Choral Society her piece for organ, choir, cello and soprano, “When We Were” was premiered in 2016. A collection of new works will be presented in July 2019 at her debut residency at The Stone as well as the world premiere of "gold/crack" at Roulette in June. Pauline was in the final masterclass of Jascha Heifetz.
Spencer Topel
https://www.spencertopel.com

Pauline Kim Harris
http://www.paulinekimharris.com


organisation: Se-Lien Chuang & Andreas Weixler
sound engineer: Elwin Ebmer




CMS invited lecture series #34

Spencer Topel

Sound Synthesis Revisited: Nonlinear Modulation in Acoustic Instruments

 5.11.2018 ABPU_Sonic Lab 14:30

lecture info