I have a degree in what...?

Go ahead... ask me. I can explain it to you, but the best way to understand it is to experience it. But that's the best part! Anyone can experience ethnomusicology, if they have some interest in learning about music and how we as humans interact with it. That is essentially what ethnomusicology is.  Now, who here doesn't like music? Moving on.

I graduated with a Bachelors in Ethnomusicology with certificates in Music and “Technology, Arts and Media” from the University of Colorado Boulder. While it took five years, I learned a lot during my progression from engineer to musician to technologist. At each step I learned a little more about how they are all related. What’s next?

I’m currently thinking about some graduate schools, as well as just jumping into the workforce. Either way, I am going to take a little time to clear my head from school and work on projects I’ve had to put off for so long now. Projects that will ultimately show up in this blog...

(Seriously if you want to know more about ethnomusicology, email me)

ATL&S Fall 10 Shows

 These were some of the most technically advanced shows to come through ATL&S in my time.  It was also my last semester here, and my skills were pushed to their limits.  In addition to my usual sound duties, I did a lot of projection work for many of the shows.

There are links to more information about each program.  There are pictures and information in the links.

2010.07.30-31 & 08.05-07

CU New Opera Workshop 

"Sister Carrie", "Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead", "Autumn Orchard" 

Leigh Holman, Andrew Metzroth, Hally Albers, Robert Aldridge, Herschel Garfein, Daniel Kellogg, J. Michael Martinez

  

2010.08.27-29

Dangerously Safe

Gemma Wilcox and Liz Barron, Betsy Tobin, Jessica Bynam, David Ortolano

2010.08.10

reConstruction

Ryan Wurst

2010.09.17-18 & 24-25

Disappear Here

Nathan Montgomery, Kim Olson, Ana Baer Carrillo, Jessica Bynam, David Ortolano

2010.10.03

Stockhausen Festival

Paul Miller, Bryan Wolf

2010.11.18

UNA

Katie Key's MFA Dance Thesis Performance

Kristin Dalleske, Autumn Bjustad, Rebecca Holley, Esmeralda Kundanis-Grow

2010.12.12

Bridging Imaginary Boundaries

real-time collaboration between CU, NYU, IUPUI

John Gunther, Synthia Payne, Cole Ingrahm

Bridging Imaginary Boundaries

Broadcast Station

Back in March, Synthia Payne and John Gunther organized a telematic music event "Memory and the Internet".  This was a collaboration between CU, NYU, and KAIST in Korea over Internet2.  Gunther and Payne returned this Fall for another installation of the event, "Bridging Imaginary Boundaries".  I feel these remote performances are truly on the cutting edge of music technology, so I was very excited to have another such collaboration.  For this version, we changed a few things, and collaborated with IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue at University of Indiana) as opposed to KAIST.

Ute Mountain Ute Bear Dance Documentary

Since May of this year, I have been working with Dr. Brenda Romero on an ethnomusicology documentary for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.  After taking her course in Native American Music, we discussed editing some video footage of an event she had captured previously in 1996.  The footage featured the 'music complex' surrounding the annual Bear Dance including festivities like a parade, powwow, feast, and games.  However, she was still showing it in its raw format, fast forwarding to portions that were interesting.  So, with the help of a UROP grant, we began editing the tapes into an hour long documentary.

UNA - Katie Key's MFA Thesis Performance

 

"Una is a trip through the shadows of our subconscious.  The audience witnesses the main character, Una, surrender to her demons as she moves through worlds made of materialism, emotion, and spirit.  Each world grows in abstraction as her journey travels deeper into her subconscious.

The overarching narrative is a dreamscape, yet each world shifts into its own style of narration from verbal, to non-linear vignettes, to singularly visual.  This is not just a story about Una; I hope that the audience will see glimpses of themselves."

~Katie Key

Javanese Gamelan Transcriptions for Rachel Chacko

I was asked by Rachel Chacko, a Ph.D. graduate, to help her digitize some Javanese Gamelan transcriptions. Confident in my abilities, I agreed to to the project. Unfortunately, I did not realize how difficult this task would be. The learning curve for the transcription program (Finale) is very steep and the music requires very complex concepts to be shown. For example, most of the notations are in 9/8 time, but many measures have 10 beats in them... at first this was impossible for me to do. But after many hours in the lab, I eventually cracked the program before it cracked me. However, I did come away from the experience with a new skill set and the confidence that I can manipulate a wide variety of programs. This is a crucial skill in ethnomusicology.

Email me for more information about any kind of music transcriptions or customized sheet music.

Stockhausen 2010

Kreuzspiel

CU Pendulum New Music in conjunction with ATL&S has begun to do an annual contemporary composer series.  Last year was George Crumb, and this year featured Karlheinz Stockhausen.  Paul Miller organized to have Stockhausen's personal engineer, or sound projectionist, Bryan Wolf come from Pforzheim, Germany to run with the event.  Stockhausen was a pioneer of experimental electronic music and has created some amazing compositions for surround sound systems as well as orchestration.

Disappear Here - 5 projections at once

2010 ATL&S Innovator award recipients Kim Olson and Nathan Montgomery produced a projection and movement themed show in the Butoh style.  The goal is to "explore the wilderness within and without, the seen, unseen, and the world’s ephemeral beauty."  Nathan began the show in a net hung from the ceiling as a 'womb' (or diaper as some of us called it) and natural elements such as flowers and tumbleweeds were used as props.  The technical challenges for me were tremendous, as I was responsible for synchronizing 5 different projections.

Long Neck Big Heart

Over a year ago, Tim Foss approached me to discuss working on sound design for his MFA thesis project. Over the months, the project evolved into a fascinating story about a man coming to terms with his own insecurities along with the help of two precocious children and a man who may or may not be Santa Claus. The story is told through animatics, live music, and performance. Being involved with such a project for so long was very interesting as I was able to help shape and mold the final product.


I was involved with voice acting (Santa), recording small children's voices for overdubs, Foley and sound design work, as well as custom media programming. The piece of technology I developed was a program in MAX/MSP for a foot pedal board (FCB-1010) used to control the video playback. It also allowed  Tim to record and manipulate musical loops. This created an ‘impossible’ live, one-man, acapella performance.  It was a very fun effect to witness live.
Email me for more information about this kind of program or other performances involving interactive technology.

Shodekeh and blOrk

World famous beatboxer Shodekeh gave a free concert for the Conference on World Affairs Athanaeum series that we participated in with blOrk.  I warmed the house manipulating Paul Hembree's Henon Attractor patch.  (Sorry I can't share it, cuz its not mine).  Actually, running that thing for 30 minutes was a miracle as it tends to crash if you're not extremely careful. 

We then performed a "Man vs. Machine" piece with each blOrker trying to make crazier noises than Shodekeh.  It was a fun experience and we had top notch stage presence.  John Gunther and company also performed Cantaloupe Island with Shodekeh.  Shodekeh also performed a sort of interesting rendition of 'Viva La Vida' with the a capella group CU on the Rocks.  It was a pretty interesting version of the song.  We only had a couple of hours to rehearse and a lot of it was improvised, but the performance turned out really well.

Dangerously Safe

Gemma Wilcox and Liz Barron performed "Dangerously Safe" for the Boulder 2010 Fringe Festival.  The performance was a unique way to utilize the space, and it created some memorable moments.  To begin, the audience was split into two different groups and seated on opposite sides of the space.  While the two groups were facing each other, there was a curtain preventing any visual contact.  Both performed simultaneously to their respective audiences by improvising, showing video, telling mythical stories, and having shadow dance fights through the curtain.  Ultimately, the piece came together when the curtain was finally drawn and the audience was reminded of the dual nature of the performance.

Film by Betsy Tobin, Tech by Jessica Bynam and David Ortolano

reConstruction

This is a clip from Ryan Wurst's performance on prepared piano:

Prepared Piano - clips, screws,balloons...

For those of you who don't know, to 'prepare' an instrument means to attach objects to the strings on an instrument.  When you play it, interesting, somewhat random timbrel effects happen.