Media Contact: Bonnie Harkins, (619) 534-4830; bharkins@ucsd.edu

Ancient Ruins and Computer Music Converge in Greece Follow-up to UCSD@ICMC

This past September, visitors to Thessaloniki, Greece - the 1997 Cultural Capital of Europe - could explore the architectural ruins of an ancient civilization early in the morning, and then spend the day and evening listening to and participating in the music of the future. There was also a once in a lifetime opportunity to see a major exhibition of the "Treasures from Mount Athos," a unique collection of icons never before available to the public.

It was all part of ICMC97, the 23rd International Computer Music Conference, held this year in Thessaloniki, Greece. The annual conference is the most important gathering of the world's growing computer music community, which is comprised of international composers, musicians, theorists and technologists.

The UCSD Music Department had the largest representation of any institution on the impressive ICMC97 program. Eighteen musicians from the UCSD Music Department attended the conference, including Harry Castle, Mark Danks, Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Aleck Karis, Joseph Kucera, Tim Labor, George E. Lewis, Kathryn Martin, Andrew May, Elizabeth McNutt, Peter Otto, Miller Puckette, Roger Reynolds, Steven Schick, David Shively, Rand Steiger, Steven Kazuo Takasugi and Michael Theodore.

Twenty-nine works by music faculty, students and alumni were featured. A large component of these 29 works was created by UCSD Music students - current graduate students and alumni - which is an impressive tribute to the quality of work emanating from UCSD Music instruction and research programs. These works were selected following a juried competition with more than 500 scores and tapes submitted from around the world. The work presented included music compositions, research papers and performances that showcased UCSD's internationally acclaimed computer music research.

The Music Department also hosted a computer music booth in the exhibition hall where scores could be examined, composers and performers were available to respond to questions, and web sites could be accessed.

Some statistics on the conference:

• ICMC97 had 440 registered participants from all over the world; the ICMC97 satellite meeting on multi-media education had 80 participants.
• More than 13,500 people attended ICMC97 concerts, which were showcased in a number of venues, ranging from the Ceremonies Hall of Aristotle University, which is the largest institution of higher education in Europe, to the popular Mylos Jazz bar.
• The exhibition hall was visited by nearly 7,000 people.
• Three hundred children took part in activities of the "Children's Corner."

Professor of Music Rand Steiger described UCSD participation as a culmination of many years of work.

"The large number of UCSD representatives at ICMC97 was unusual. The primary reason for this impressive representation is that about four or five years ago, many of us were determined to re-invigorate the department's interest in computer music, and to bring about more departmental activity in computer music. We hired two new faculty members, rebuilt facilities in computer music research, and recruited new students. These factors - combined with faculty members like Roger Reynolds, Department Chair Dick Moore, and Miller Puckette - created a groundswell of activity in computer music that is now coming to fruition. This year, we wanted a coming out at ICMC to show people our work."

And was it successful?

Music Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Roger Reynolds described UCSD participation in these personal reflections: "In a nutshell, though UCSD's presence was never openly advertised, it was certainly clear and impressive to everyone. The computer music heavyweights like Jean-Claude Risset (of CNRS in Marseille, France), Paul Lansky (Chairman of the Princeton Music Department) and David Wessel (Director of the Computer Music Center at UC Berkeley) were all, as they told me, keenly aware of the force and breadth of what UCSD showed in Greece. The Festival Director, Thanassis Rikakis, related that UCSD's breadth and strength was all his Greek students could talk about in following weeks. The main thing, I thought, was the musical excellence that was central to everything that we did."

Reynolds continued, "On the opening night, the contemporary legend, Iannis Xenakis was unable to give his keynote talk, due to deteriorating health. He asked that I read a letter from him and I did so to a packed house (the audiences were impressively large and enthusiastic throughout). There followed a long, blistering, multi-channel representation of Xenakis' 1962 work ‘Bohor.’ The next piece on the program was student percussionist Dave Shively playing student composer Michael Theodore's ‘Hilbert's Caverns.’ This was a very tough spot for any composer, young or old, but Michael's work more than held its own. Strong reaction, and excellent word-of-mouth afterwards. On the second half of this opening evening, Jim Avery's Ensemble SurPlus from Freiburg performed Brian Ferneyhough's ‘Incipits’ with most impressive elegance.

"On the second day," said Reynolds, "the all-UCSD program featured performers Aleck Karis and Elizabeth McNutt. An elegantly shaped first half began with Jaroslaw Kapuscinski's ‘Catch the Tiger’ (its infectious humor immediately captured the audience), followed with Milton Babbitt's ‘Reflections,’ and ending with Jonathan Harvey's 'Tombeau de Messiaen.' By the close of this half, the elegance of Aleck's playing, the strength of the music and the quality of the sound had the audience literally bravoing. Elizabeth McNutt followed strongly with Andrew May's ‘Twittering Machine’ and Philippe Manoury's ‘Jupiter.’ They too went off very well, especially the subtlety of the spatialization Miller Puckette managed in the Manoury. It was a stunning event, probably the best concert for consistently high quality of materials and execution."

Reynolds continued, "The Sunday evening concert began with Steve Schick's mesmerizing performance of Kaija Saariaho's ‘Six Japanese Gardens.’ My ‘Watershed III,’ with Steve as percussion soloist and the SurPlus ensemble was, physically, the largest and also the longest work on the festival. Its use of real time computer spatialization represents a real frontier, and a dangerous one. Here, everything went better than it ever had. Steve was magnificent, conductor Jim Avery and his group were focused and intense, and the spatialization technology worked without a hitch. (Peter Otto had admiring reactions from the technical director of the group now working with Luciano Berio at his research facility in Florence). I called the team (Joe Kucera, Tim Labor and Peter Otto) to the stage to share the applause, and it was clear from the crowd's reaction, that there was widespread appreciation of their collaborative contributions.

"Papers by Miller Puckette and Mark Danks made a strong showing to full houses as well. Miller, by simply by exercising the casual authority that he has (and is), and student Mark Danks, with the impressively expanded capability of his GEM work linking audio and visual synthesis.

"It cannot be stressed enough how important the UCSD staff presence was. Kathryn Martin was on top of everything, checking endlessly, and to the desired effect. She and Joe Kucera, I think, had a lot to do with the fact that the sound systems worked for others as well as for us. They were constantly there, and always effective and gracious. This consistent balance and complementarity between students and faculty, faculty and staff, has become a hallmark of UCSD's program, and it was a joy to see it play out naturally in an international context."

When Professor of Music George E. Lewis was asked to describe UCSD's most significant contribution at ICMC, he replied, "Computer music research at UCSD includes the development of a broad spectrum of interactive technologies. Here, both technological and cultural implications of new technology are explored. This resulted in a diversity of discourse that far exceeded anything else presented at ICMC. The Steiger/Puckette/Sorensen piece featured improvisation and interactivity, as did the work of graduate student Harry Castle. The work of Roger Reynolds featured real-time spacialization within a through-composed framework; the work of recent Ph.D. Jaroslav Kapuscinski blurred the boundaries between composed music and composed visuals.

"Important, too," Lewis continued, "was the high caliber of performance, which demonstrated that UCSD is a place where performers of the highest caliber are nurtured. Particularly successful in this respect was the memorable concert of Aleck Karis, and Miller Puckette's presentation of Phillippe Manoury's ‘Jupiter,’ where graduate flutist Elizabeth McNutt performed brilliantly the very demanding flute part for this interactive work. Miller's re-creation of this work, by the way, was a technological tour-de-force whose significance was not lost on the computer-literate ICMC audience. It showed the progress that computer music has made in transferring older technologies used to create older works, to new media, thus extending the life of the work."