Bryan Christian will present his dissertation research "Combination-tone Class Sets and Redefining the Role of les couleurs in Claude Vivier's Bouchara" as a paper at the 2013 Annual Society for Music Theory Conference to be held in Charlotte, NC, Oct. 31 - Nov. 3, 2013.
Christian's composition Combination was selected as one of four winners in the nief-norf Summer Festival’s International Call for Scores. Nief-norf will host Bryan for two days, where he will receive a performance of Combination (here in a newly revised version for cello and percussion) and also present a lecture on his work. Combination, initially for violin and percussion, was written for the Wet Ink Ensemble and their residency at Duke University.
Bryan Christian was awarded the 2013 William Klenz Prize in Music Composition from the Duke University Department of Music for his composition Chain Shift.
Jamie Keesecker provided sound design for Pinar Yoldas' Very Loud Chamber Orchestra of Endangered Species. Yoldas, a Ph.D. student in Visual and Media Studies, describes the project: "Can environmental pollution datasets be communicated through an immersive interface? How can scientific data be rendered affective and effective?" The project uses the skulls of 12 endangered species who are given voices by "mixing data sonification with actual sound recordings of the related species. The sound installation is partially triggered by the location and number of the human beings in the installation area. The soundscape changes in tandem with the pollution levels."
Paul Swartzel was a guest on WUNC's "The State of Things" on May 7. Swartzel discussed his dissertation piece, Barbeque Man Unleashed: The Greatest Professional Wrestling Work of All Time, a multimedia piano concerto/musical drama featuring action figure photography. [LISTEN]
Department of Music