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By PHILIP REHARD
Reporter Contributor
“Music and Computers” is the theme of this year’s edition of June in Buffalo, the annual festival and conference dedicated to emerging composers that will take place June 2-7 at UB.
Bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood is among the distinguished performers who will appear at June in Buffalo.
June in Buffalo is presented by the Department of Music and the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music at UB. David Felder, Birge-Cary Chair in Composition in the Department of Music, is artistic director of the festival. Cort Lippe, associate professor of composition and director of the Lejaren Hiller Computer Music Studios in the Department of Music, serves as associate artistic director and a June in Buffalo faculty member.
The round-the-clock festival schedule consists of daily seminars, lectures, master classes, panel discussions and open rehearsals—capped by first-rate afternoon and evening concerts that are open to the public.
The year’s theme of "Music and Computers" has attracted some of the world’s most illustrious and innovative composers, researchers and teachers of algorithmic, interactive, multimedia, acousmatic and electroacoustic computer music.
Headlining the conference as senior faculty members, in addition to Lippe, are Charles Dodge, Roberto Morales, Miller Puckette, Morton Subotnick, Ben Thigpen and Hans Tutschku—a diverse and international group of composers and pedagogues. Leading experts in computer music, their careers span the breadth of this ever-evolving genre, from its inception in the 1970s to the present day.
The resident ensembles and soloists that will perform during June in Buffalo are recognized as some of the world's leading performers of contemporary and computer music. They include the Ensemble for Intuitive Music, a German ensemble founded in 1980 in what was then East Germany to perform music considered taboo by the communist government; members of the acclaimed German experimental chamber music group Ensemble SurPlus; members of the widely renowned New York New Music Ensemble; and the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's professional chamber orchestra-in-residence.
Other distinguished performers will include bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood, the Paris-based early music and new music specialist, and Magnus Andersson, a Swedish classical guitarist and new music pioneer.
Joining the faculty and performers will be composition students from around the world, who must undergo the festival’s fiercely competitive application process—last year there were 100 applicants for 20 spots. The festival offers these students the rare opportunity to work and mix with top musicians and world-class faculty in an intimate and casual environment. Each composer rehearses one of his or her pieces with world-class musicians in a professional setting, culminating in a public performance.
For the schedule of concerts and bios of June in Buffalo faculty members, click here.