Composition at Lawrence will be especially exciting this year. We will host the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference February 9-11, 2012. Lawrence University will provide its excellent facilities and resources for the conference, and the co-hosts will be Lawrence music composition professor Asha Srinivasan and Ed Martin of our neighbor UW – Oshkosh’s music composition program. Please visit us on the SEAMUS 2012 website for details on works submissions, the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Composer Commissioning Program, travel and lodging, conference registration, and the conference schedule.
Electronic music composition is an important field in today’s composition arena and a growing area of study at Lawrence. The Lawrence Electronic Music Studio, designed for composers, has state-of-the-art studio equipment along with a Macintosh computer with Digital Performer, Reason, Max/MSP, Sibelius, Finale and other music software installed. The studio also has several top quality microphones for clean, precise recordings, as well as an Alesis QS8 synthesizer.
We also teach electronic music in the Science Hall Lab, a unique interdisciplinary space that we share with the science and art departments. The lab features Logic Pro as the main DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software, which is installed on each of the 12 iMac computers and the instructor computer. Each station also has an M-audio 49i Keystudio keyboard interface and students taking the introductory lab class have access to a high quality microphone and portable recorder. This year, for the first time, Professor Steven Jordheim (our saxophone professor) and I will co-teach Electroacoustic Composition and Performance, a course that focuses on collaboration between composers and performers. I will also teach Introduction to Electronic Music, a course open to all students at the university, regardless of musical background. We regularly offer courses in advanced electronic music techniques as well as private lessons for advanced students.
Listen to Edgewater, composed by Tim Honig ’11 in the Introduction to Electronic Music class.
Last year our featured electronic music guest artist was Sonict Duo (Matt Sintchak, saxophones and Jeff Herriott, electronics). During their two-day residency Matt and Jeff presented a stunning multimedia concert, met with our composition studio class, led an electronic music workshop and met informally with composition students. It was inspiring for us to hear—and see—Sonict Duo’s work, get to know the artists, and talk directly with them about their creative process.
The return of Erik Schoster (he can jog) and Bryan Teoh '05 (8bit bEtty)
The Lawrence Electronic Music Club hosted a performance by former Lawrence students Erik Schoster and Bryan Teoh ’05, who in their post-Lawrence lives as working professional musicians are also known as he can jog (Erik), and 8bit bEtty and Kitty Scratch of Death (Bryan). Erik and Bryan were the first laptop-based members of the Improvisation Group of Lawrence University in its early years of existence, and their electronic compositions were the first ever to be heard on our New Music at Lawrence recital series. You can read Bryan’s report about their return to Lawrence on his website.
Welcome Composers!
Professors Joanne Metcalf and Asha Srinivasan and the composers of Lawrence University Conservatory of Music welcome you! We created this blog to share the excitement of composition at Lawrence with young composers everywhere. Find music by our students and recent graduates in the Listen category and music by faculty on the Faculty page.
