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(3:02) String Quartet [PUBLIQuartet: Vln I [Curtis Stewart], Vln II [Jannina Norpoth], Vla [Nick Revel], Vlc [Amanda Gookin]]
Frustration; interruption; the happy recklessness of youth; irritating repetition; obsessively turning over an idea well beyond what is useful or healthy; memories brought forth and altered; obnoxious and jarring juxtaposition; irritating repeinterruption; anger, misplaced and deserved; chaos and confusion; constructive and abusive dialogue; unfettered joy in the midst. I can't call it Armpit. Presented at Queens College (Aaron Copland School of Music, Le Frak Hall, 2012) and at Rockwood Music Hall (NYC, 2013).
In the Darkness (Variable duration, ~17:00) Video, electronics, drums [Fred Trumpy], percussion [Joe Fee], electric bass [Howie Kenty], piano [Vasudevan Panicker], violin [Elzbieta Polak].
In the Darkness is a film and musical creation of mine, an unsettling exploration of a potential personal apocalypse. The explosive live score draws equally from the traditions of contemporary classical music, progressive rock, and film soundtracks. Weaving bits and pieces of mid-20th century public domain film footage into an entirely new abstract narrative, In the Darkness is a unique visual and audio experience that addresses issues of existential confusion, inner conflict and self-destructive behavior, sanity, perception of reality, and mortality. Premiered as the opening act of Kathleen Supové's Music with a View Festival, performed live with Elevator Rose and projectionist Eric Hertenstein (The Flea Theater, 2012), and performed at The Stone (2012) and at Queens College (Aaron Copland School of Music, Le Frak Hall, 2013). (Watch the MwaV Festival live performance here.)
Bone and Symbols (~8:15) Percussion, live electronics.
A meditation on the changing relationship between humans and technology, this version of Bone and Symbols was performed live at Queens College. Using live sampling, audio playback and resampling, and both live and computer-automated manipulation (via my own Max/MSP patch) alongside pre-recorded material, the sometimes chaotic end result is always new to both me and the audience. Presented on Randall Horton's American Music (Public Television, 2012), at the QC Multimedia Concert (Aaron Copland School of Music, Le Frak Hall, 2012), and to be featured on an upcoming Bohn Media compilation centered on the "steampunk" aesthetic (shorthand: futuristic Victorian, à la Jules Verne) (2012).
A Dubious Gamble (Variable duration, ~10:00) 4-5 primary performer/vocalists, 7-10 auxiliary performer/ vocalists, video, and electronics.
It is perhaps most explanatory to just jump in and watch the video (fullscreen recommended). Falling somewhere between music, performance art, and an abstract play, "A Dubious Gamble" deals with the difficulty of human communication abstractly, through vocal and physical performance, video, and electronic audio. This performance was recorded at the CUNY New Music Festival, "An Evening of Planned Entropy," on May 1st, 2011, organized by the Brooklyn Composers Collective, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in NYC. For more information, notes, scores, and bios for the many fantastic people involved, visit this page.
Any Lucky Ten (11:00) Clarinet [Kinan Azmeh], violin [David Fulmer], electronics.
Any Lucky Ten is primarily a piece concerning desolation, loneliness, and sadness, and the potential for beauty in what we breathe forth from our own inner world into the space without us and the emptiness of silence and darkness. Presented at the 12 Nights Festival (Harold Golen Gallery, 2009), The 12th Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology (Connecticut College, 2010), the New York City Electronic Music Festival (City University of New York, 2010), and with the TIMI Modern Music Ensemble for pipa, guzheng, and electronics (MAKO Theatre, Beijing, 2010).
I really dig this miniature, and Anthony Izzo did a fantastic job with it. (Incidentally, many of these motifs were chopped up and re-arranged for In the Darkness, to very different effect.)
Capsules (I-VII) (13:00) Solo violin [Adrianna Mateo].
Capsules is a series of seven solo violin miniatures, written for violinist Adrianna Mateo, metaphorically exploring the concept of subjective experience. They are designed to be played together, sequenced as follows: I. Full Capsule; II. The Contained I; III. Half-Full Capsule; IV. The Contained II; V. Half-Empty Capsule; VI. The Container; VII. Empty Capsule. Enormous thanks are due to Adrianna for her creative input during the piece's composition. Presented at the Queens College Performers Concert (Aaron Copland School of Music, Le Frak Hall, 2011)
This piece was created from sounds originally used in an animation. I found them quite compelling in the animation, but they didn't really make sense on their own without some arrangement. Definitely danjerous. Presented at the Musica Viva Festival's Soundwalk in Portugal (2011) and at the Fall Electronic Music Concert at Queens College (2011).
Composed for Vox Novus's 60x60 series (a format in which sixty sixty-second pieces by sixty different composers are presented back to back), 60 x 60 x 60 takes the concepts of concision and presentational disparity even further; it consists of sixty one-second compositions. Originally presented as part of the 2010 Crimson Mix at the International Computer Music Conference (EMF and Stony Brook University, 2010), 60 x 60 x 60 was also chosen as part of the 2010 International Mix, and has since been presented at numerous locations worldwide, often with 60x60 Dance, video by Patrick Liddell, and/or 60X60 IMAGES (see 'FORMALITIES: Past shows, etc.' for full performance listing).
Coruscation and Dissolution explores the tension between consonance and dissonance, harsh and shimmering textures, differing frequency of event occurrences, and varying levels of dynamics through juxtaposition and layering of diverse elements. Presented at the International Computer Music Conference (McGill University, 2009).
Only an Ephemeral Coherence, Cast Forth From Inscrutable Disorder?!?!? (6:00) Guitar, electronics.
The lives of humans are generally outwardly organized and coherent, but are born from and return to confusion and the unknown. All of the sounds in the piece were created using only guitar and voice as source material. Featured on the compilation Questions: Compositions on Cage and Ives (Bohn Media, 2009).
Scherzo; Dance. (Mvmt III of I Exhale (Hamletmaschinemusik))
Scherzo; Dance. (Mvmt III of I Exhale (Hamletmaschinemusik)) (6:02) Digitally altered piano on tape.
Originally composed for a dance by Ophelia as part of a suite of music and sound for Heiner Mueller’s play Die Hamletmaschine, directed by Malin Palani, performed by Xperimental Theatre (University of Minnesota, 2006), and by Twisted Roots (Minnesota Fringe Festival, 2007). Scherzo; Dance. received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Musics category at the Prix Ars Electronica international cyberarts competition (2008); "Astonishing poetic power" (CyberArts 2008 compendium).
I Exhale (Hamletmaschinemusik) (20:05) Digitally altered piano on tape, tape.
A 'soundtrack summary' of much of my contribution to the entire suite of music and sound for Malin Palani's production of Heiner Mueller's play Die Hamletmaschine. Presented at the International Computer Music Conference (Copenhagen, 2007).
“Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) can be defined as voices or sounds detected in recorded media that are unexplained by known physical principles." (From the CD liner notes by James Bohn.) Featured on the compilation Clairaudience: New Music from Electronic Voice Phenomena (Bohn Media, 2007) and presented as part of the Clairaudience project at Rhode Island College (2008).
Composed using only toy piano samples as source material, mangled using the MAX/MSP programming environment. Presented for live electronics and tape at the eXtensible Toy Piano Festival (XTP) (Clark University, 2005, and University of Albany, 2007).
Definitively electronic, but strangely organic, almost arachnoid: furtive, surprising, and dangerous. All sounds were made using physical modeling instruments in CSound. Presented at the International Computer Music Conference (Tulane University, 2006).
- TRICYCLE (an album of electro-prog-rock clockwork)
Hwarg - Tricycle (38:30)
Tricycle is kind of a synthesis of many divergent musical interests, in (hopefully) thematically coherent album form! Hwarg made this album with the generous support of a Matthews scholarship while at Northeastern University. Thanks to Lindy for the _____ Part 1 source material.
Electronic music, edit by Gary Pozner. Premiered on PBS. Produced by Partisan Pictures and Thirteen/WNET New York. (Winner of a Peabody Award, and narrated by F. Murray Abraham!)
Music and sound for the New England Aquarium's online interactive features Jellytown, Life Cycles, and Blobs of Goo. Graphics and games by Metaversal Studios.
Music and Flash game programming for Welcome to College multimedia capstone project. Graphics by Colleen Quigly, Margaret Bright-Ryan, and the capstone class. Sound effects by Laura Glyda.
Funky mysterious game music, composed for Welcome to College multimedia capstone project. Player must catch Maxwell the monkey in metro Boston locations.
Mischievous brass and wind ensemble game music, composed for Welcome to College multimedia capstone project. Player must answer persistent R.A.'s questions regarding roommate etiquette.
Nintendo-style game music, composed for Welcome to College multimedia capstone project. Player must arrange busy college schedule in Tetris-style format via robotic avatar.
Enjoyment and Contemporary Music: A Philosophical Op-Ed Essay.
Some of my own musings prompted by the International Computer Music Conference, among other things. Issues considered include modern music ('serious' and 'popular'), its definition, function, and purpose, and the types of enjoyment we receive from listening to it, as well as my own intentions as a composer.
A fun, simple patch; open the 3 Note Trigger PAT file and select which three sequential keys you want to perform each function. Start recording, type or play away, stop recording, and start playback. During playback, adjust speed and/or patch. Scroll down and double-click SequencerObjectRealtime for the program's guts.
Miscellaneous/Leftovers Abandon hope, all ye who enter here...
If ye've made it this far and still clamor for more music, here it be, in (mostly) alphabetical order. But beware: here, you'll find an untamed wilderness of all kinds of random stuff; these are often things that are exceedingly silly, made with turrible sounding MIDI instruments, really old and musty, pretty cool but never went anywhere or never quite cohered, remain perpetually unfinished, are poorly recorded/mixed, and/or just didn't fit very well anywhere else, but whose inaccessibility to the masses at large I lamented. I vouch not for the quality (nor consistent volume levels, really); proceed with caution.
Lots of upcoming shows! 3/19 - Elevator Rose | 4/6 - NYCEMF | 4/23 - InnoVox | 5/9 - Todd Reynolds
- March 19th, 8PM, LeFrak Hall @ QC: Playing In the Darkness with the awesome Elevator Rose, and David Valbuena pwning a new wild bass clarinet miniature.
- April 6th, 3PM, ShapeShifter Lab as part of 2013 NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival: With violinist Adrianna Mateo, premiering a new piece for violin and laptop. Yes!
- April 23rd, 8PM, LeFrak Hall @ QC, with the new InnoVox Ensemble; Blanca and David will be rockin' Any Lucky Ten.
- May 9th, 8:30PM, LeFrak Hall @ QC, with violinist Todd Reynolds and Joe, Lauren, and Monika of InnoVox. Excitement abounds!
PUBLIQuartet today @ Rockwood Music Hall, and long overdue performance updates: NU Sounds, T. Rosas, and E. John
So much has happened that I've failed to update here! Let's see:
- September 29, Fenway Center, Boston, MA: Fun with Bone and Symbols, sharing a NU Sounds bill with Min Xiao-Fen, Marc Battier, Anthony De Ritis, and Ian Headley. Huge thanks to Mike Frengel for organizing! Check out a performance video here.
- October 16, LeFrak Hall @ QC: Pianist Theresa Rosas left mouths agape banging out my clangy Malfunctioning Devices piano solos - awesome!
- November 15, LeFrak Hall @ QC: On a shared bill with Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Emily John did a killer rendition of my harp miniature Uninhabited, very cool.
- December 18, LeFrak Hall @ QC: PUBLIQuartet graced QC with phenomenal performances of the QCNMG composer string quartets, including a blisteringly fast and amazing version of my own unpronounceable monstrosity. "It was like The Rite of Spring on crack," raved attendees! (That's actually true.)
- February 10, Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2, TODAY: PUBLIQuartet will once again brave the gauntlet with their rendition of my string quartet. Extremely happy they've chosen to play it again, they're just unreal.
Showcase at The Stone, 10 PM, curated by Min-Xiao Fen. I'll be playing with my good friends Elevator Rose and violinist Adrianna Mateo. We have a huge variety of stuff: my film In the Darkness with live score, solo violin pieces, electronic ambience, and some rockin' Hwarg Tricycle electro-prog-ambient-clockwork-artmusic for ya. Full info here, see you there!
Electronics and percussion at the QCNMG Multimedia Concert...
I'll be performing a new work of mine, Bone and Symbols, at the Queens College New Music Group Multimedia Concert this Tuesday. There will be toy xylophones and cymbals and sleighbells and spatulas and laptops! Lots of great new works by the QC composers, accompanied by puppetry, video, and dance (even a ballet by Will Wheeler!). 8 PM, be there or be square, and stick around for the reception.
In the Darkness with Elevator Rose opens the 2012 Music with a View Festival...
REALLY excited: I've created and scored a film, In the Darkness, which is being performed at The Flea with the fantastic Elevator Rose to kick off the two-week Music with a View Festival, curated by pianist Kathleen Supové. The performance will be followed by an open audience discussion moderated by composer Julia Wolfe (co-founder of Bang on a Can, etc). This is one of the bigger works I've put together, a great synthesis of many of my interests, and one of my favorites. Check out the video promo below. It's going to be absolutely killer.
At the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music with pianist Theresa Rosas...
I'm very happy to be a part of the April Brooklyn New Music Collective concert, organized by Michael Rose, at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. The excellent Theresa Rosas will be premiering a series of my clangy-bangy piano miniatures, entitled Malfunctioning Devices. Also on the bill will be a piece for 12 clarinets (!), a singing saw, and more. 8:00!
Elevator Rose at Vaudeville Park, playing some Hwargmusik...
Very cool: heavy septet Elevator Rose is playing at Brooklyn's Vaudeville Park, performing an arrangment of one of my Hwarg tracks, Nothing I Can Say Would Change Your Mind from Tricycle. Neat new sound for the piece! Also on the night's bill will be music by Joe Fee, Daniel Liot Fine, Sunny Knable, and more. 8 PM!
New wind quintet with Argento Ensemble and David Fulmer, cello miniature...
The Argento Ensemble, conducted by the always excellent David Fulmer, will be premiering my latest piece, for wind quintet, at the CUNY Grad Center's Elebash Hall. Entitled Clattering in the Wind, it has a few spoken and other somewhat theatrical elements, and I think should prove pretty interesting. As a bonus, Zsaz Rutkowsi will be rocking my cello miniature, I Can't Sleep with that Racket. 7:30!
Solo violin at QCNMG Performers Concert with Adrianna Mateo...
Performers concert with the Queens College New Music Group at the Aaron Copland School of Music's Lefrak Hall. Adrianna Mateo will be playing a series of my solo violin miniatures, entitled Capsules I – VII. I've really enjoyed working closely with her in putting these together, fun times guaranteed for all. 7:30 PM, we're first on the program. Come join (and hang out for the reception afterward)!
Danjer, an electronic piece of mine, is being featured at Miso Music Portugal's2011 Música Viva Festival. Along with 25 other works, it will be playing in the Belém Cultural Centre's walking hallway in Lisbon, Portugal, from the 9th through the 14th. Check it out, along with the other concerts.
ICMC 2011 in England with Cheng Yu and the UK Chinese Ensemble...
The Master and the Sandgrabber, for pipa, guzheng, erhu, violin, and electronics, has been selected for the 2011 International Computer Music Conference, being held at the University of Huddersfield, England. I am very fortunate to have pipa player Cheng Yu and the UK Chinese Ensemble performing the piece with me. Our concert will take place at 8:00 PM on August 2nd. More information on that as it develops!
The Creative Arts Building at the University of Huddersfield
A little last minute, but Professor Hubert Howe will be hosting another concert at LeFrak Concert Hall at the Aaron Copland School of Music at 7:30 on Tuesday, chock full of electronic music, with pieces by Professor Howe himself, Dan Fine, Maria Mykolenko, Roy Vanegas, myself, and others. I'll be performing Scherzo; Dance., my good old microtonal piano piece, for keys and electronics (first time ever it will have been done live, actually), and playing guitar on Roy's Gregorian glitch-hop piece. I'll post audio once it's ready!
Portable Music III and Nota Bene Ensemble at Queens...
Concert at LeFrak Concert Hall at the Aaron Copland School of Music at 8:00, with a quirky piano miniature of mine, The Oblong Wheel, and some great pieces by other composers with the Nota Bene ensemble. Fantastico. I'll post audio when it's available.
Total mayhem at the 2011 CUNY New Music Festival...
Wow! I am not even sure how to describe succinctly what transpired, but the purported Pan-Global Piccolo Quintet of Jeff Aldrich, Eric Hertenstein, Susan Pickover, Abby Holland, and Mike Hannon all came together to make something very strange of mine occur at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, to the audience's confusion (and in more than a few cases, eventual enjoyment). Not to mention the superb auxiliary performers, Kathryn Herskovits, Becky Beahm, Brett Benge, David Claman, Priya Ravishankar, Austin Shadduck, and Barrie Zipkin. Rest assured it was not a “Piccolo Quintet #4 in D-flat.” Many, many thanks to all involved, including Amir Shpilman and the Brooklyn Composers Collective for organizing. Still waiting on a video, will post when available.
The Drift and Fading to be performed in Orchestra 60x60...
This is still in the early stages, so I don't have too many specifics yet, but my short piece for orchestra, The Drift and Fading, has been chosen to be played as part of Vox Novus's Orchestra 60x60 project, in which 60 different orchestral pieces by 60 different composers, each 60 seconds long, are played back to back by a live orchestra. It's a ridiculous and awesome premise and undertaking, and I can guarantee it will be an excellent experience. You can check out a PDF of my score, but I won't pain you with a MIDI rendering at the moment. More news as it develops!
I'm gearing up for a fantastic concert of contemporary Asian and American music at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Sunday, April 10th, at 7:00 PM, presented by DJ Spooky. It will be a cross-cultural musical exchange, featuring works and performances by the Timi Modern Music Ensemble, Rosey Chan, Anthony De Ritis, Benoit Granier, Mari Kimura, Min Xiao-Fen, Huang Ruo, Du Yun, and myself, premiering a new piece. It is shaping up to be an absolutely fantastic show, very exciting! I'm doing a lot of the coordinating for the event, come check it out!
Portable Music II and Lunatics at Large concert at Queens...
At 8:00 PM at LeFrak Hall at the Aaron Copland School of Music, we'll be having a concert with a number of violin miniatures, mine included, as well as work by the other composers performed by the ensemble Lunatics at Large. Fun fun! Update: here's a recording of my violin miniature, Half-Full Capsule, played by Cynthia Marcus. I've since decided I don't like most of it and tweaked it around, keeping the good stuff (the very first gesture, and the penultimate ascending run), but hey, why not put it up?
More performances with 60x60 mixes: Singapore, Cincinnati, and Oxford...
Vox Novus rocks the house again with 60x60 performances:
- Sat, Jan 22, 8:00 PM; 60x60 2010 International Mix; as part of Sonic Visions by Song-Ming Ang, Substation Theatre, Singapore.
- Fri, Feb 18, 1:00 PM; 60x60 2010 International Mix, 60x60 Video; Audiograft Festival, Jacqueline du Pré Concert Hall, Oxford, England.
- Fri, Feb 18, 5:30 - 10:00 PM; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix, 60x60 Images; 24th Annual Minumental Show, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Each will include my own 60 x 60 x 60.
I've just finished a soundtrack for a video installation by artist Mike Hannon. Visually, it's rather a strange piece, with a very wide single shot of multiple copies of Mister Hannon in a grocery store, perhaps achieving a Zen-like fugue of total consumerism via kinetic statis. My sound is equally strange, cobbled together from my own recordings and old movies and mangled nicely. You can listen or download HERE (19:00). The various recurring sonic events correlate to different Mikes' entrances and exits. We haven't yet found a forum to present it, and I don't have a completed video to put up with the soundtrack yet, but I like it and would rather put it up sooner than later!
More upcoming 60x60: Illinois, Italy, Australia, Toronto, and Mexico...
New 60x60 performances of 60 x 60 x 60 in great international venues; I can hardly keep up! Here they are, in order from newest to oldest: - Mon, Nov 22 – Fri, Dec 3, 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM (Installation); 60x60 Crimson Mix, 60X60 IMAGES; Interferencias: Encuentro Internacional de Arte Performático, Library, Centro de las Artes, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
Interferencias
- Sat, Nov 20, 8:00 PM; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix, 60x60 Dance; The Music Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
The Music Gallery
- Sat, Nov 20, 7:00 PM; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix, Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell; threewalls, Chicago, IL.
- Wed, Nov 17, 7:00 PM; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; Music Farmers, Wollongong, Australia.
Music Farmers
- Thur, Nov 4, 8:00 PM; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; Music Building Recital Hall, School of Music, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL.
Northern Illinois University Music Building
- Sat, Oct 16, 9:00 PM; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; 14th edition of the Contemporanea new music festival (hosted by Delta Produzioni and Taukay Edizioni Musicali), Teatro San Giorgio, Udine, Italy.
Taukay Edizioni Musicali
- Sat, Oct 16, All day (Installation); 360 Degrees of 60x60 2010, Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell; Electronic Music Midwest Festival, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL.
Electronic Music Midwest
- And the entire video of the 60x60 2010 International Mix with 60x60 Dance from the Hearding Cats performance on Oct 3 can be streamed from HEC TV. Robert Voisey, you fantastic fellow.
60 x 60 x 60 is getting a good bit of exposure, with another performance, on the complete other side of the world, at Grey Matter Books in Hadley, western Massachusetts, on July 14th at 8:00 PM. I haven't been there, but to all appearances, it's a crazy bookstore in the woods.
60 x 60 x 60 at International Computer Music Conference 2010...
60 x 60 x 60 is being performed in the 360 degrees of 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix as part of the International Computer Music Conference 2010. Each piece on the program is one minute long, so it'll be a whole day's worth of eclectic compositions (my piece occurs during the second hour). They're playing the whole thing on five separate days: June 1st & 2nd, 1 – 7 PM, at the EMF, NYC; and June 3rd, 4th, & 5th, 10 – 5 PM, in the Wang Center Chapel at Stony Brook University.
I've just finished composing a solo piano piece, Yourself at Nightfall, and was able to get a recording of it performed by the talented Andrew Ranaudo. Not sure what I'll do with it yet, but have a listen and let me know what you think.
Live shot (by Juraj Kojs?); L->R: Me, David, and Jorge
- 2009, August 18
Coruscation and Dissolution is programmed at the International Computer Music Conference 2009 at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montreal, QC, in the Continuous Listening Room from 10 AM - 4:45 PM, in the Wirth Opera Studio in the New Music Building.
DJ Spooky's Rebirth of a Nation is being released on DVD, with my re-orchestrations created for the Kronos Quartet, along with a whole lot of my programming and mixing and so forth. Zounds!
- 2009, February
It's that time of year again: Amanda Palmer just published the songbook for her debut album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, with my piano, vocal, and guitar transcriptions. Smash!
With the upcoming election, it's very important for everyone to vote, vote, vote! A group called Video the Vote is working to make sure that on election day, things proceed smoothly such that all votes are counted, irregulaties are corrected, etc. Check out their promo video, Why Would Anyone Want to Stop You from Voting?, in which I've got some music (the second bit, around 0:30). Civic Duty!
- 2008, August
Scherzo; Dance. (Mvmt III of Hamletmaschinemusik) was awarded an Honorary Mention in the Digital Musics category of the 2008 Prix Ars Electronica international cyberarts competition in Linz, Austria! The committee jury members, in their jury statement in the Cyberarts Compendium, state that it has "astonishing poetic power." This is pretty awesome; some of the winners in other categories are Ratatouille, Spider-Man 3, I Am Legend, Pamela Z, Christina Kubisch, and reactable. (Scherzo; Dance. also appears as the main introduction music on the Compendium DVD.) Very excite!
- 2008, July
Whew! The second book of my piano, vocal, and guitar transcriptions for The Dresden Dolls was just published. It's actually two books, for Yes, Virginia and No, Virginia. Loooads of transcribing, came out great!
Watch PBS for the premiere of the Nature documentary Silence of the Bees, on which I've got a bit of music. F. Murray Abraham is the narrator!
F. Murray Abraham!
- 2007, August 28
I Exhale (Hamletmaschinemusik) is being programmed at the 2007 International Computer Music Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. It will be on the 11:00 PM Night Concert at Huset i Magstræde. Not, perhaps, the most ideal venue to accomodate the dynamic range of the piece, but what can you do?
- 2007, August 2-10
Die Hamletmaschine, for which I contributed lots of music and sound, was performed again at the Minnesota Fringe Festival by the Twisted Roots ensemble. The critical and audience reviews have been through the roof: "I cannot give a higher compliment to a Fringe show" (Gunthar). Great work, Twisted Roots! And, "the lighting and sound designers deserve medals for providing brilliantly-conceived additional layers to the piece that make essential contributions" (Andrew Gricevich). Excellent!
Twisted Roots - Die Hamletmaschine (Photo by Guy Bock)
Twisted Roots - Die Hamletmaschine (Photo by Guy Bock)
Twisted Roots - Die Hamletmaschine (Photo by Guy Bock)
Yo ho! I've got a bit of sound design in director Joanne Zerdy's production of David Greig's Outlying Islands, presented by the Xperimental Theatre group at the University of Minnesota. Lots of birds smashing together, and some explosions. Go check it out, sounds like it will be an exciting performance (not just because of the explosions)!
Xperimental Theatre - Outlying Islands (Photo by Joanne Zerdy)
Xperimental Theatre - Outlying Islands (Photo by Joanne Zerdy)
Xperimental Theatre - Outlying Islands (Photo by Joanne Zerdy)
- 2007, March 4
Professors David Claman and Matt Malsky are reprising the successful eXtensible Toy Piano Festival, this time at the University of Albany, NY, at 3 PM in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center. I'll be performing Confustion (Denigrate) on the program, alongside the music of a few fellow returning players from the first XTP and a number of composers new to the project.
I haven't seen it myself, but I have a piece or two on the documentary Exploring Time showing on The Science Channel. Let me know how it is, if you catch it.
- 2007, January
Jay Laird and the folks at Metaversal Studios have once again been at work on a really funny game/video combo for the MIT alumni website involving evil robots and intrepid beavers for which Jeff Aldrich and I have made music and sound. Sadly, unless you are an MIT alum, you cannot view it. If you ARE an MIT alum, go check it out!
The Benzene Ring's new album, Breathing Water in a Dream, is completed, and it rawwwwks. Lots of proggy sort of rocking, but always in service to the music. It's a bit overdue, but much thanks goes to Eric B for the bulk of the mixing. Stream the whole thing from our website, or buy it here. Seriously, do it now. The reviews have been really positive, awesome!
(Front Cover)
The Benzene Ring
- 2006, November 16-19
Our great friend Will Daddario enlisted the help of Jeff Aldrich and me to create music and sound for the Xperimental Theatre Company's production of Heiner Mueller's Die Hamletmaschine, directed by Malin Palani and presented at the University of Minnesota's Rarig Center's Nolte Xperimental Theatre. The play is extraordinarily abstract, and we've each come up with a great deal of suitably disturbing and wretched and beautiful material, including microtonal piano pieces, terrifying factory environments, sound effects, and so forth. The production was a huge success!
Jay Laird and his chums at Metaversal Studios have made an eggcellent Flash game called Zombie Drop. If you're good enough to get to Level 2, you'll hear my Zombie Disco!
Zombie Drop
- 2006, June 11th
Be on the lookout for Napoleon's Final Battle, a documentary now showing on the National Geographic Channel, for which I contributed a few musical pieces, including that of the opening credits. (Amusing anecdote: I become involved in the show when I randomly met composer Gary Pozner, who wrote most of the show's music, at a cafe. While eating a snack, I was listening to some music through a computer audio interface, and he walked by and asked if I were a composer. I answered in the affirmative, and he invited me to send him a test piece for a show he was working on, which he liked enough to ask for a few more. Only in New York, kid, only in New York...)
Napoleon's Final Battle
- 2006, June
The Dresden Dolls just published the songbook for their eponymous debut album, for piano, vocal, and guitar, for which I created the transcriptions. Lots of work and a lot of back and forth with Amanda Palmer, and it looks muy fantastico.
I will be performing Confustion (Denigrate) on the laptop machine at the eXtensible Toy Piano Festival, hosted by David Claman and Matt Malsky, at Clark University in Worcester, MA. It goes down at 8:30 PM in Razzo Recital Hall! My piece is an all-electronic mangling of toy piano sounds, but the program is a pretty diverse mix of real people playing real miniature pianos, singing, processing things through superboxes, and so on.
Professor Tony D and I will once again be hitting the road for a composition of his for which I will be designing and performing electronics, this time to Taipei, Taiwan. The piece is entitled Ping Pong, and will feature pipa soloist Min-Xiao Fen and the Taiwan Chinese Orchestra, conducted by Min Le-Kang. The piece will be performed at Taipei Zhong Shan Hall at 7:30. Fantastic adventures!
Min Xiao-Fen (Left) and the Taiwan Chinese Orchestra
My former professor Anthony De Ritis and I will be heading up to Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan for the premiere of his new composition, entitled Amsterdam. It will be performed by the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jung-Ho Pak, and I will be performing live electronic processing on the orchestra via a Max/MSP patch I created. We'll be using a Buchla Lighting II MIDI wand to control the electronics, operated by Jung-Ho Pak, with me on the laptop. It should be an impressive setup! 7:30 at the Interlochen Bowl.
The Interlochen Bowl
My Max/MSP patch
- 2004, July 23-24
DJ Spooky premieres Rebirth of a Nation at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in NYC, for which I did the engineering and chamber orchestrations. (DJ Spooky events involving my participation quickly become numerous and are largely not listed from here on.)
Don't Come Any Closer, from Tricycle, is programmed at the Electric Rainbow Coalition at Dartmouth College, NH. It's a crazy 12-hour music marathon, with some concert-concerts for punctuation. Excellent!
(Front Cover)
Dartmouth College
- 2003, May
Hwarg has finally finished Tricycle, an album of electro-prog-rock clockwork, and something of a synthesis of his many divergent interests. Many thanks go out to the fine Matthews folks for their monetary support in this artistic endeavor. Give a listen and send an email with your thoughts, as all comments are welcome and highly appreciated!
PERFORMANCES / AWARDS / APPEARANCES: (of the contemporary/sound art sort)
• TBA; The Drift and Fading; Orchestra 60x60; TBA.
• 2012, Dec 28; TBA; The Stone, New York, NY.
• 2012, May 15; Bone and Symbols; Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2012, May 14; In the Darkness (w/ Elevator Rose); 2012 Music with a View Festival; The Flea, New York, NY.
• 2012, Apr 20; Malfunctioning Devices (w/ Rosas); Brooklyn New Music Collective concert; Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Brooklyn, NY.
• 2012, Apr 19; Bone and Symbols; American Music television program; New York, NY.
• 2012, Apr 17; One Foot on the Beam (w/ Shadduck); Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2012, Mar 12; It Ventures Outdoors (w/ Hoblin, Weismantel, Guerguerian); Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2012, Mar 12; Billows (w/ Izzo); Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2011, Dec 20; An Unwitting Descent into Torpor (w/ Stegantseva); Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2011, Dec 10; Nothing I Can Say Would Change Your Mind (w/ Elevator Rose); Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY.
• 2011, Nov 21; Clattering in the Wind (w/ Argento Ensemble, Fulmer); Queens College New Music Group concert; CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY.
• 2011, Oct 18; Capsules I – VII (w/ Mateo); Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2011, Aug 2; The Master and the Sandgrabber (w/ UK Chinese Orchestra); ICMC 2011; Univ. of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, England.
• 2011, June 17; Any Lucky Ten (w/ Mykolenko, Wheeler); Chashama Gallery 461, New York, NY.
• 2011, May 17; Scherzo; Dance.; Electronic Music Concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2011, May 10; The Oblong Wheel (w/ Faylor); Portable Music III; Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2011, May 1; A Dubious Gamble (w/ "Pan-Global Piccolo Quintet"); 2011 CUNY New Music Festival; Baruch Perf. Arts Center, New York, NY.
• 2011, Apr 10; The Master and the Sandgrabber (w/ TIMI Modern Music Ensemble); DJ Spooky presents China + NY: Contemporary Asian/American Music!; (le) Poisson Rouge, New York, NY.
• 2011, Mar 1; Half-Full Capsule (w/ Marcus); Portable Music II; Queens College New Music Group concert; Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens, NY.
• 2011, Feb 18; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 Crimson Mix, 60x60 IMAGES; 24th Annual Minumental Show; Art Academy of Cincinnati, OH.
• 2011, Feb 18; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 International Mix, Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell; Audiograft Festival; Jacqueline du Pré Concert Hall, Oxford, England.
• 2011, Jan 22; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 International Mix; as part of Sonic Visions by Song-Ming Ang; Substation Theatre, Singapore.
• 2010, Nov 22–Dec 3; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 Crimson Mix, 60X60 IMAGES; Interferencias: Encuentro Internacional de Arte Performático; Centro de las Artes, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
• 2010, Nov 20; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix, 60x60 Dance; The Music Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
• 2010, Nov 20; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix, Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell; threewalls, Chicago, IL.
• 2010, Nov 17; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; Music Farmers, Wollongong, Australia.
• 2010, Nov 4; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; School of Music, Northern Illinois Univ., Dekalb, IL.
• 2010, Oct 28; Any Lucky Ten (w/ TIMI Modern Music Ensemble); MAKO Theatre, Beijing, China.
• 2010, Oct 16; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; 14th edition of the Contemporanea new music festival; Teatro San Giorgio, Udine, Italy.
• 2010, Oct 16; 60 x 60 x 60; 360 Degrees of 60x60 2010, Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell; Electronic Music Midwest Festival; Lewis Univ., Romeoville, IL.
• 2010, Oct 3; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 International mix, dance by HEARDing Cats; Sheldon Concert Hall, Saint Louis, MO. • 2010, Jul 24; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 International mix, dance by East London Dance; Stratford Circus, London, England. • 2010, Jul 17; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan. • 2010, Jul 14; 60 x 60 x 60; 60x60 2010 Crimson Mix; Grey Matter Books, Hadley, MA. • 2010, Jun 1-5; 60 x 60 x 60; 360 Degrees of 60x60 at ICMC 2010; EMF, New York, NY, and Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY. • 2010, Mar 25; Any Lucky Ten (w/ Azmeh, Fulmer); NYCEMF 2010; Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY. • 2010, Mar 6; Any Lucky Ten (w/ Kreston, Labadorf); 12th Biennial Symposium on Arts and Technology; Conn. College, New London, CT. • 2009, Dec 4; Any Lucky Ten (w/ Mendoza, Variego); 12 Nights Festival; Harold Golen Gallery, Miami, FL. • 2009, Aug 18; Coruscation and Dissolution; ICMC 2009; McGill Univ., Montreal, Canada. • 2009, Jul; Only An Ephemeral Coherence, Cast Forth From Inscrutable Disorder?!?!?; on the CD Questions: Compositions on Cage and Ives; Bohn Media. • 2008, Aug; Scherzo; Dance. (Mvmt III of Hamletmaschine-musik); Honorary Mention, Digital Musics category; Prix Ars Electronica 2008; Linz, Austria. • 2008, Feb 24; Ghost vs. Robot; The Clairaudience project; Rhode Island College, Providence, RI. • 2007, Aug 28; I Exhale (Hamletmaschinemusik); ICMC 2007; Huset i Magstræde, Copenhagen, Denmark. • 2007, Aug 2-10; Sound design/music for the play Die Hamletmaschine; directed by Malin Palani, performed by Twisted Roots; Minnesota Fringe Festival; Minneapolis, MN. • 2007, Aug; Ghost vs. Robot; on the CD Clairaudience; Bohn Media. • 2007, Apr 5-7; Sound design for the play Outlying Islands; directed by Joanne Zerdy; Univ. of Minn., Minneapolis, MN. • 2007, Mar 4; Confustion (Denigrate); eXtensible Toy Piano Festival 2007; SUNY Albany, Albany, NY. • 2006, Nov 16-19; Sound design/music for the play Die Hamletmaschine; directed by Malin Palani, performed by Xperimental Theatre Company; Univ. of Minn., Minneapolis, MN. • 2006, Nov 11; Spider; ICMC 2006; Tulane Univ., New Orleans, LA. • 2005, Nov 5; Confustion (Denigrate); eXtensible Toy Piano Festival 2005; Clark Univ., Worcester, MA. • 2003, Aug 23; Don't Come Any Closer (from Tricycle); Electric Rainbow Coalition Festival; Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, NH.
Howie Kenty, occasionally known by his musical alter-ego, Hwarg, is a New York-based composer. His electro-acoustic prog-rock contemporary artsound music sometimes uses visual and theatrical elements. Guiding his work is the idea that the experience of music entails more than the music itself; he strives for a conceptual unity to fully immerse the audience in his works. Besides regularly premiering his pieces at international forums and venues, playing guitar in the prog-rock band The Benzene Ring, and working with artists like DJ Spooky and Amanda Palmer, he is attempting to Master the Art of Composition at the Aaron Copland School of Music as the president of the Queens College New Music Group.
required; good
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recommended
Past shows etc.
Full bio
