Concert 2 – Saturday, January 27, 10:00 AM – Music and Dramatic Arts – Black Box Studio
Concert point of contact: Treya Nash – tnash6@lsu.edu & Scott Nelson – snels45@lsu.edu
PROGRAM
MetaPersona_Archetype-002 by Fiona Xue Ju – 7’30”
Fiona Xue Ju, immersive audio, lights, video, and physical performance
Instinctual by Shahrzad Talebi – 6’30”
Synthia, Cynthia? by Grace Burton – 5′
Subnet 255 by Russell George – 4′
Russell George, computer
That’s When I’m Satisfied by Ethan Soledad – 2′
Ethan Soledad, spoken word
Some dank chords on a lumatone… by Paul Mortilla – 6′
Paul Mortilla, lumatone
Polyhydra Reverie by Dominick Licciardi – 5′
A Beautiful Alien Abduction by Rachael Haastrup – 3′
Can we just talk? by Izzy Blair – 5′
Izzy Blair, piano, voice, and Pure Data
Recapture by Rolf Rydahl – 4′
Pjesma Za Samoću by Heather Pryse – 8′
Heather Pryse, live electronics, and flute
shaped by brutality by Benjamin Damann – 6′
Live electronics
Daniel Lynge, baritone saxophone
PROGRAM NOTES & COMPOSER BIOS
MetaPersona_Archetype-002
MetaPersonæ_Archetype-002 is a sub-project of a long-term experimental project “MetaPersonæ” that merges virtual reality and artificial intelligence with interdisciplinary approaches across various art forms. It’s a performance installation featuring immersive audio, lights, video, and physical performance. It crafts fixed media with the object-based audio system and interactive lighting design. In this performance, the artist plays with the metaphor of uploading a physical being to a digital realm, an initial space where nothing yet exists. What is familiar transforms into the alien; original sounds evolve into a digital living entity, continuously deconstructing and morphing in real-time. Amidst this vastness and emptiness, “the body” becomes a living paradox. Is it a physical presence, a virtual avatar, or a combination of the two? The artist embodies both the question and its silent answer, existing simultaneously as void and potential. Liberated yet full of essence, they exist in a state of pure being.
Fiona Xue Ju, originally from China, is currently working towards her Ph.D. in EMDM (Experimental Music and Digital Media) at Louisiana State University. She has been involved in collaborative and interdisciplinary projects, assuming various roles such as composer, media artist, improviser, performer, director, activist, and sound, light, and video designer. Fiona earned her Bachelor’s degree in composition from Oberlin Conservatory in the U.S. and completed her Master’s in CoPeCo (Contemporary Performance and Composition) at CNSMD Lyon in France, studying also at three other conservatories in Europe: EMTA in Tallinn; KMH in Stockholm; and HfMT in Hamburg.
Fiona’s work encompasses chamber ensembles, electronics, and multimedia productions that have been presented across the U.S. and Europe. She strives to integrate technology and electronic music with visual and performance arts, crafting immersive experiences that bridge digital and physical spaces. Through her art, Fiona challenges audiences to rethink their perspectives on reality and society, while also infusing her work with political ideas that transcend cultural boundaries and encourage deeper philosophical thinking.
More info and works: www.xjcomposer.com
Instinctual
Instinctual (2023), An encounter in two parts.
Synthia, Cynthia?
“Am I real, and what is my purpose?” In this uncanny and estranged film, we meet Synthia, a robot with a seemingly human life. Synthia does things almost like anyone else might but yet, she struggles to be human as she attempts to fulfill certain tasks that are as simple as even drinking a cup of coffee. The audio for this film was AI-generated and represents Synthia’s internal turmoil and monologue as she “lives” her life. With each passing day, her life is the same so please, let her show you what it’s like to be locked behind a screen.
Grace Burton is a Music Technology minor at Texas A&M University.
Subnet 255
In this piece I explore the FM synthesizer.
Russell George is a Junior at Tulane University majoring in Computer Science. He is also a percussionist in a band that covers Aphex Twin and Squarepusher.
That’s When I’m Satisfied
Some dank chords on a lumatone…
How many ways can you slice a pie? 12, 24, 31, 72, infinite? Or maybe each slice is a little different (Just intonation). Just some nice exploration of how the ‘rules’ of harmony change when you play around with tuning and temperament.
Paul Mortilla bio: Composer, conductor, producer interested in micro-timings and Extended Just Intonation, space with counting and without counting, digital music, resonance, and harmony. Music-driven collaborations with Alarm Will Sound, Pathos Trio, Friction Quartet, Callithumpian Consort, Dogs of Desire. A current doctoral student at Rice University. MM from Yale School of Music and BM from Indiana University
Polyhydra Reverie
Dominick is a musician from New Orleans, born and raised in the French Quarter, he loves granular synthesis, sampling, and computerized music.
A Beautiful Alien Abduction
Oluwanifemi (Rachael) Haastrup is a pre-med neuroscience major and music technology minor at Texas A&M University raised in London, England, and now calling Katy, Texas home. Rachel’s special interests include musical instruments as well as digital illustration and graphic design, writing music quite a lot using any creative outlets available.
Can we just talk?
Throughout the DSP class, I have loved playing with synths and modulating amplitudes on arpeggiators, so that’s what I started with for this composition and built the rest of the sounds around that. As a pianist it is hard for me to create music without thinking about how it would sound with piano incorporated into it, so that is how I approached my instrument as I was building it. This piece started with the arpeggiator at the beginning, and the rest of the sounds were built around that initial arpeggiator. I included an advanced sampler that samples a voicemail of mine of someone asking “can we just talk?”, and that’s reflected in the title as well.
Izzy Blair, from Arkansas, is a junior at Tulane University studying Piano Performance and Computer Science with a minor in Music Technology. She has been playing piano since she was six and is classically trained. She has been studying Plug Data at Tulane and greatly enjoys creating instrument patches that can accompany the piano.
Recapture
Rolf Rydahl is a junior Performance Studies student, with a minor in Music Technology, from Katy, TX, with interests in audio engineering and music business. Rolf also runs a home studio, interns at a local music venue, and is in the process of creating Texas A&M’s own music business focused student organization.
Pjesma Za Samoću
Orson Welles is famous for saying that, “We are born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for a moment that we are not alone”, but what if you don’t have those outside forces? Samoću is a Croatian word that describes that feeling of being completely alone; it is interchangeable with the words solitary, friendless, and forlorn. The concept of this piece is to create the illusion that the performer is not alone on stage through the use of simultaneous singing and playing and triggered electronics, and then gradually throughout the piece the performer realizes that they are alone, which causes a delirious state that ends in the performer giving up the illusion and admitting they are alone.
Heather Pryse is a current Music Composition student studying at the University of North Texas under the guidance of Dr. Sungji Hong, Dr. Joseph Klein, Dr. Kirsten Soriano, and Professor David Stout. Previously she studied at Shenandoah University with Jonathan Newman and at the University of Virginia with Kevin Davis and Heather Mease. Her most notable achievements include a Finalist placing in the Marion Brown Prize residency 2023, an Honorable Mention Finalist placing in the 2023 Flute New Music Consortium Flute and Electronics Category, a Semi-Finalist placing in the Instrumental Chamber Music category of the American Prize 2018 and being featured on National Public Radio for the premier of her first symphony “The Feminist Fantasy” by the Crozet Community Orchestra under the direction of Philip Clark. Her music focuses on exploring the intersection between the jazz and classical music idioms through the use of improvisatory elements, as well as theatrical multimedia productions which utilize live and fixed electronics, poetry recitations, cake decoration, and other performance elements. Pryse also studies Flute at the University of North Texas in the studio of Terri Sundberg and Dr. Elizabeth McNutt, and previously at Shenandoah University with Jonathan Snowden.
shaped by brutality
Benjamin Damann program note: My piece is for stereo playback and live performer. I’ll be using my own laptop setup with Max/MSP, a foot switch, interface, etc. I’ll send two 1/4″ TRS outs from the interface to the board and need a mic from the bari sax directly to the board as well. There is no processing or amplification of the sax in the patch!
