November 21-22 marked the 14th annual Electric LATEX festival, and was also my first time participating. LATEX is an annual student-run electronic music festival that is made up of students from the University of North Texas, The University of Texas at Austin, Tulane University, Louisianan State University, Rice University and Texas A & M.
LATEX 2014 was hosted by the University of North Texas, and they did an absolutely fantastic job hosting. The three concerts were held in the Merrill Ellis Black Box Theater, which houses a 16-speaker sound system capable of independent 16-channel diffusion. The concerts featured fixed media works as well as pieces utilizing live performers on both acoustic and electronic instruments. Some of the highlight pieces for me at the festival were the following: Purple Quartz by Tim Harenda (UNT) for cello, bass clarinet, bass flute, piano, vibraphone and electronics Aerophoneme by Eli Fieldsteel (UT) for flute and SuperCollider I am Afraid to Sleep Because of What I Might Dream by Stephen Barkan (Tulane) for fixed media Homoousis by Eric Evans (UNT) for flute, cello and fixed electronics I presented my own piece, Wind Chimes Clatter through the Mist and Fog, for 8-channel fixed electronics. In addition to presenting my own piece (with some light diffusion), I also got to do a kind of collabroative performance with my friend Steve Sachse on his piece Improvisation for SuperCollider and NanoKONTROL, in which Steve performed the electronic component while I did a 16-channel diffusion of the piece. While I was a student at Bowling Green State University working on my MM we had a similar festival called Threshold with Ball State University and the Oberlin Conservatory (the University of Miami has recently joined) and it was always a great time and a wonderful opportunity for student composers of electronic music to share their art with each other. I think the most beneficial aspect of conferences like these is that they are run entirely by students. Not only do the students get an opportunity to present their music, but the hosting school gains experience with the ins and outs of putting on a festival and tall of the logistics that go into putting on a multi-concert event. Next year's LATEX will be hosted by Rice University and is sure to be another wonderful showcase of music by Louisiana and Texas composers. The following are some photos from the 2014 LATEX festival (courtesy of CEMI at UNT):
1 Comment
10/18/2016 09:15:12 am
In These types of performances everybody learn a lot. But if we talk about fun, the electronic festival in Barcelona, is the best chance for do something different in the unsleeping city of Spain.
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