From a 10-foot pendulum incorporated into a musical performance to a three-movement piece about mental disorders performed with the Jacksonville Dance Theatre, this year’s Electroacoustic Barn Dance beginning on Thursday, Nov. 14, promises to showcase expanded boundaries.
“This is all about helping our students find their voice,” says Mark Snyder, Jacksonville University Assistant Professor of Music Business and Production who founded the annual event and continues to serve as its artistic director. “Our students experience music performed in ways they might not have considered and think ‘I can go there, too.’”
Four Jacksonville University students – Gabrielle Prieto, Taylor Neal, Kiernan Hutchinson, and Erik Blomgren – are presenting pieces. Taylor is also serving as the event’s programming and assistant technology director.
The Jacksonville University School of Music partnered with the Jacksonville Dance Theatre and Ronan School of Music to present the ninth annual three-day festival of electronic music and art. The Electroacoustic Barn Dance offers contemporary electroacoustic music from a diverse range of composers and presenters, regardless of the age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality, who submit works for performance.
“This festival is known for its really great community,” Professor Snyder says. “It’s a place to get together and exchange ideas and fellowship. But it’s really dedicated to our undergraduates.”
A panel of eight reviewed more than 400 submissions from schools on six continents before choosing the 40-50 pieces that will be performed during eight concerts at Terry Concert Hall. The first concert begins at 7:34 p.m. Thursday, Nov 14.
Professor Snyder will perform his composition “Disorder” with the Jacksonville Dance Theater, including Associate Professor of Dance Brian Palmer, as part of the performance beginning at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 16, at Terry Concert Hall.
Two after-hours concerts, including one featuring the 10-foot tall pendulum, also are scheduled for the Ronan School of Music on Nov. 14 and 15.
The complete schedule of events is available on the Electroacoustic Barn Dance website.
This year’s festival features clarinetist Andrea Cheeseman, bassoonist Thomas Dempster, flutist Sarah Jane Young and percussionist and Jacksonville University Artist in Residence Tony Steve. At least one of the featured artists will perform at each concert.
The event also includes installations scheduled from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. at Terry Concert Hall and Phillips Fine Arts Building (Room 220) Nov. 14 and 15.
Fulbright scholar Shu-Cheng Allen Wu will present his paper SuperSampler, a gesture-making sampler synthesizer in SuperCollider, at 3:15 p.m. Nov. 15. Maxwell Tfirn will present Sonifying Reflected Light Through Machine Learning and Sound Synthesis at 3 p.m. Nov. 16. Phillips Fine Arts Building (Room 220) will play host to both presentations.
Some of the 44 schools from around the world scheduled to participate in this year’s event include:
- Louisiana State University
- Duke University
- Bowling Green State University
- University of Oregon
- University of Limerick
- Indiana University
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of South Florida
- The Ohio State University
- University of Oregon
- Montana State University
- Texas Tech University
- Royal Academy of Music, London
- Ohio University
- Rutgers University
- Conservatorio Verdi Milano
- University of Alabama – Birmingham
- Fitzhugh School of Random Assorted Instruments
- Indiana University
- Conservatory of Music of Frosinone
- University of Georgia
- Marshall University
- University of Pittsburgh
- Crane School of Music
- Minnesota State University
- Bath Spa University (UK)
- SUNY Oswego
