The Sampler eShot August 2011

Yumi Kurosawa on 20-string koto

International Computer Music Conference

Venue: University of Huddersfield
Dates: 31 July - 5 August

There’s a lot of music that interests me being presented at ICMC this year. On 1 August Alexander Schubert’s Laplace Tiger for drum kit, arm-sensors, live-electronics and live video will be performed. I’ve seen similar pieces by Alex and really like the integration of players’ gestures into the sound and video. On 2 August Diemo Schwarz, who works at IRCAM, will play with improvisation and live sounds from the outside world in his piece Outprovisation, using the CataRT software he has created and which I’ve used to compose as well. As Diemo says: "If the birds are not singing in the park, I will have no tonal material!” And on 3 August Ai Kamachi presents his work 21st Red Line for 20-string koto, live electronics and laser beam(!). Kamachi says: “The data of the string vibrations and dynamics are sent to a computer in real time through sensors that are connected to each of the strings. A red laser beam is set next to the lowest string and becomes a 21st string, so to speak, hence the title 21st Red Line.” Read more >>

Tete a Tete Opera Festival: "A Fetus in America"

Venue: Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London
Dates: Friday 6 & Saturday 7 August

Exciting young composer Luke Styles' work-in-progress-opera can be seen as part of Tete a Tete. Luke has studied with Wolfgang Rihm and I recently discovered his music and was really impressed by it. It’s great to see an English/Australian composer who is also active in mainland Europe. The work-in-progress musical satire takes the traditionalists and Tea Party activists at their word: "Yes, fetuses dream, yes, they can even talk, and, well, wait till you hear them sing!" Should be fun... Read more >>

Jonathan Harvey (photo: Maurice Foxall)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Music by Jonathan Harvey 

Venue: Edinburgh Festival: Usher Hall
Dates: Saturday 13 August

Body Mandala, Speakings and ...towards a Pure Land are described by composer Jonathan Harvey as exploring “the Buddhist purification of body, mind and speech”. I think Harvey is one of the most important composers of our time, and these recent, large-scale works are hugely impressive, with a masterful mixing of electronics and orchestral textures. For these pieces Harvey has worked with a group of researchers and computer music designers at IRCAM to realise his intentions. Read more >> and if you can't make the concert, two of the pieces are on a great disc on NMC.

Henrik Schwarz

Innervisions: An Evening at the Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Venue: The Roundhouse, London 
Dates: Friday 19 August

I don't know much about it at all, but this event certainly caught my eye when I was searching for interesting events in August. Henrik Schwarz, Ame and Dixon from Berlin-based electronic music label Innervisions will be creating a live soundtrack to the 1920s silent film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, which will be projected onto an "interactive curtain" created by designer Ron Arad, suspended in the middle of the Roundhouse. Worth checking out. Read more >>

Georges Aperghis

Proms Saturday Matinee 2: Maxwell Davies, Aperghis & Sir Harrison Birtwistle

Venue: Cadogan Hall, London 
Dates: Saturday 20 August

This looks like a great event. I'm particularly interested in the world premiere piece from one of the most-performed composers in Europe, Georges Aperghis. He is best known for his vocal and music theatre writing, while this new piece, Champ-Contrechamp, is for piano and ensemble, but Aperghis says that he has written the piano part so that it "speaks" like the recitativo sections of opera. Read more >>