And now we’re starting to fall into the first days of Autumn in New England. As I looked up at the blue sky today, there was not a cloud to be seen. I breathed in a deep breath and took in the crisp air smelling the fireplaces begin to warm up for the cool months ahead.
It seems as though so many things are starting to work themselves out right now. The beginning of a new semester after a long summer. My classes are fantastic and few : Sound Design, Composition Seminar 2, and Interactive Real Time Performance. So far in Sound Design we’ve had extremely fun assignments, check out the creature noise I made using only my own vocals samples.
Composition Seminar has been amazing so far. We haven’t begun to write anything yet, but our discussions and what we’re being exposed to is just enthralling. Mike Frengel is a great teacher and mentor. Someone who is open to many different views and thus is reliable to look to for direction. We’ve listened to some amazing new music, mostly Indeterminant and chance music. Things that I’ve never really been exposed to too much before. We’ve also read a bunch on the aesthetics of these types of music and the cognition of a modern day listeners brain when hearing this music in a paper by my professor. (CognitionAndAesthetics_byMikeFrengel) I’m very excited for what this class has to unfold.
Interactive Real Time Performance is taught by Ronald Smith and should be a little bit on the challenging side for me, but i’m sure extremely rewarding. We’re beginning to learn MaxMSP and how to build instruments within the program. I think the last time I used the right side of my brain this much was in Music Tech II freshman year. Needless to say its a much needed and stimulating change of pace. (i made this patch in class and i thought it looked like a cartoon robot)
I’m also working on some music outside of the class room.
On November 21st at NYU, my best friend and inspiration, Ines Garcia is debuting her Senior Independent Project. It is a movement piece featuring Lydia Warr and Ines Garcia, in which I will be doing live vocal processing and violin performance. I am very excited to contribute my musical mind and love for performance to this and think it will turn out to be a great piece. I will definitely keep everyone updated on the progression of this. Just fyi if you are interested in seeing it and can’t get to NYC, there will also be a showing of excerpts from the piece in early December at the Fenway Center of Northeastern University.
I’m also working with and playing violin with some great musicians in the Boston music scene right now. A band called Those Wolves Actually Happened (listen to some stuff!) Also, a beautiful new project called Valeo , and some other really exciting budding projects with really really talented people. You can expect a lot of updates about these things too!