Sound in SPACE Festival
The Art of Electroacoustic Music Interpretation

Dates: November 17–19, 2011
Location: Fenway Center, 77 St. Stephen Street, Boston
Admission: All concerts, workshops and panels are free and open to the public
Website:  www.goethe.de/boston-soundinSPACE

Presenters:
Goethe-Institut Boston
Cultural Services of the French Consulate
Harvard University
Northeastern University

Event description:
Imagine sitting in a room surrounded with 32 speakers strategically placed throughout to augment the acoustics of the space. The sounds move around the room, some coming straight at you, others hovering lazily overhead. This dramatic spatial sound choreography delivers an entirely new dimension to the concert experience. Common in Europe where orchestras of up to 80 speakers exist and are regularly adjusted to the acoustics of individual halls, the US is still slow to incorporate this new performance practice into electroacoustic music concerts.

In the Boston area we are lucky to have Harvard University’s “Hydra” Speaker-Orchestra, a 32 piece system. Usually “played” on campus to the benefit of Harvard students and a few connoisseurs, the “Hydra” will make a rare appearance in Boston at the Northeastern University Fenway Center (just around the corner from Symphony Hall) as part of the Sound in SPACE Festival this November 17-19, 2011.

The Sound in SPACE Festival takes a closer look at electroacoustic music interpretation and gives composition students and the public insight into its fascinating possibilities. The festival brings together prominent representatives from top-notch institutions in Germany, France and the USA as well as features the final round of the Sound in SPACE Competition for students of North American institutions.  The six finalists present their works in two concerts following participation in interpretation workshops and coachings. Further concerts portrait the French and German composers-in-residence as well as recent North American electroacoustic works. A panel discussion frames the debate on interpretation of electroacoustic music in Europe and North America. The festival ends with an awards ceremony. All concerts, workshops and panel discussions are open to the public.

Background:
In Europe there has been a great deal of thinking associated with sound-images, which with the advancement of loudspeaker orchestras could then finally be realized. Such innovation in music performance came with a new requirement for interpretation theory and implementation in live performance. Ideally each and every space requires a studied interpretation of the sounds of a given composition, its changes in dynamics, and its compositional gestures.

Two key cultural institutions for this revolutionary music are currently the GRM (Groupe de Recherche Musicale) in Paris and the ZKM (Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie) in Karlsruhe. Their regular cooperation in the promotion and performance of electroacoustic music in the past 15 years has opened up new sonic worlds for audiences through international artistic collaboration, innovation and experimentation.

The term ‘orchestra’ in ‘Loudspeaker Orchestra’ is appropriate not only because of the deployment of individual 'loudspeaker-instruments' in space, but also because of the different registers and timbral qualities of each loudspeaker. However, the setup of a speaker orchestra is not fixed. The largest ‘Speaker Orchestra” in the world is the GRM „Acousmonium“ with 80 loudspeakers. It groups very different types of loudspeakers into an imposing spatial setup.

Participants
Ludger Brümmer, director of ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics in Karlsruhe (Germany)
Daniel Teruggi, director of GRM | Groupe de Recherche Musicale (France).
Hans Tutschku, professor & director of electroacoustic studios at Harvard University
Mike Frengel, professor at Northeastern University
Elainie Lillios, professor at Bowling Green State University

Complete Schedule:
Thursday, November 17, 2011
4:00 PM    Interpretation Workshop
7:30 PM    Competition Finalists Concert
9:00 PM    Portrait Concert – Daniel Teruggi

Friday, November 18, 2011
4:00 PM    Interpretation Workshop
7:30 PM    Competition Finalists Concert
9:00 PM    Portrait Concert – Ludger Brümmer

Saturday, November 19, 2011
4:00 PM    Panel Discussion with invited composers
6:00 PM    Curated concert of recent electroacoustic works from North America
8:00 PM    Composition Competition Awards Ceremony

For more information:
www.goethe.de/boston-soundinSPACE

This program is supported by the Elysée Treaty Fund for Franco-German Cultural Events in Third Countries.

Elainie's long-awaited solo electroacoustic compact disc has been released on Empreintes DIGITALes.

It features a collection of her electroacoustic music dated 1998-2007.

Purchase your copy from electrocd.com.

Listen for FREE on electrotheque.net until November 9!