G.A. Miller Residency at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from Oct. 3rd to Oct. 14th, 2022

Compiled by Anastasia Chernysheva with David Rosenboom (edited 6/17/2023)

Announcement about the event series: “Collapsing Distinctions—building possible worlds in art-science convergence”

Sources of inspiration that move both art and science forward often emerge from an intricate dance in a liminal space where curiosity and intuition overlap with materialization and substantiation. This series of events highlights that dance, exploring what’s possible through musical and scientific imagining, to discover productive, self-reflexive, creative practices. George A. Miller Visiting Professor David Rosenboom’s paradigm propositional music will serve as a focus to draw together practitioners at UIUC from music composition and performance, computer music and instrument design, biochemistry, neuroscience, electrical and computer engineering, history, new media art and design, and more, to explore building models of possible worlds in a critical technical practice of art-science convergence.

Oct. 3rd: MillerComm Lecture and Discussion: Neuromusic – Propositions from an Art-Science Convergence

In the lecture opening his residency at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana as a G.A. Miller Visiting Professor (supported by the decades-long grant program run by the Center for Advanced Study), David Rosenboom explored his journey towards development of the unique compositional approach he calls “propositional music” that started while he was a student in Urbana in mid 1960s.

Following the introductions made by professor Tamara Chaplin, head of the grant program committee, and graduate student Anastasia Chernysheva, the grant recipient and producer of the event series, David began the talk by explaining his overarching concept of propositional music. Defined as an attitude toward composing that involves building proposed models of worlds, universes, evolution, brains, consciousness, or whole domains of thought and life, and then proceeding to make dynamical musical embodiments of these models, inviting us to experience them in spontaneously emerging sonic forms. He continued by describing the verdant interdisciplinary environment at UIUC in the mid-1960s, when entities like the Biological Computer Laboratory and Experimental Music Studio grew in concert from the exciting emergence of ideas in cybernetics, early views of artificial intelligence, linguistics, systems theory, information theory, algorithmic composition, ideas about building intelligent instruments with new technology, and more were all interacting. This part of the talk David concluded by giving examples of seminal events that were a strong influence on his emerging ideas.

In the second thematic unit of the lecture David Rosenboom described examples of his early compositional work involving model building, especially highlighting his 1966 work “A Precipice in Time,” written for double percussion setups, alto saxophone, piano-celeste, cello, pre-recorded parts doubling some of the instruments, and four-channel electronic sound rotator. He continued unfolding more details about the propositional music approach along with broad ranging questions about musical intelligence, ways to organize large numbers of performers in self-organizing events, teleconcerts linking performers geographically separated, and a concept about time, which he refers to as multiple nows.

Departing from the past exercises and proposing to look towards future, in the fourth “movement” of the lecture David opened up about a new, emerging research and development project he refers to as concurrent complexity. Considered as a neuro-cybernetic approach to measuring complexity in multi-modal, networked stimulus environments and correlating those to measures of complexity in signals from hyper-brains (linked EEG measures from multiple participants) to produce immersive, creative experiences in a feedback framework that can enable self-organization. Within the compositional framework, David considers this approach as an example of working with complex adaptive systems and dynamically emergent forms.

Drawing on analogies from physics, David Rosenboom explained another of his compositional methods involving what he calls musical configuration spaces. He showed examples of scores and related musical structures in which configuration spaces map all the ways vast sets of musical relationships might be collapsed into specific realizations in performances. These examples ranged from scores for soloists and ensembles to large-scale, collaborative opera.

Then proceeding with the most explicitly art-science converging part of history of his work – extended musical interface with the human nervous system – David gave a context to the development of his idea to apply biofeedback techniques in the arts, particularly what he realized as brainwave music. He drew connectivity from what started as an expression of techno-optimism prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s to what has become a broad field of research and creative practice today, represented in international conferences, publications, recordings, and interactive media installations.

In the final part of the lecture David Rosenboom, discussed the nature of predictability, unpredictability, and what he refers to as deviant resonances in various kinds of networks (broadly conceived), instrument designs, and biological interfaces, with speculations on their relevance to new areas of research and creative production. This pondering became a preface to the panel discussion unfolding between science historian David Sepkoski, composer and instrument designer Carla Scaletti, physicist and author of science inspired musical works, Smitha Vishveshwara, and Rosenboom himself about art-science – the zone of influence and cross-pollination where art might be a tool for scientific research and science might be a source of aesthetic experience.

Oct. 4th: The first “Interactive Composing Machine” from the University of Illinois: Appraisal of Multi-Faceted Compositional Legacy of Salvatore Martirano

This event was truly a hybrid one. It collapsed into a demonstration of interviews recorded for a film started by John Martirano about his farther but never released. Then it was followed by a performance (by Greg Danner and Ken Beck) transmitted from the Sousa Archives, where the SalMar Construction found its home. David commented on various techniques and aspects of the electronic instrument and compositional and performative possibilities of its use.

After that Rosenboom presented a historical as well as personal narrative covering about forty years in the career of Martirano, from 1960 to 1990s when he passed away, highlighting the role of Salvatore Martirano as a teacher, mentor, and friend in his life. Extensive consideration of the unique musical instrument, one of the earliest digital-analog musical “machines,” was in the center of the lecture. After this analytical as well as biographical survey, two examples of poetry written and read by Michael Holloway, the original gas-masked politico in L’s GA and a life-long friend of Martirano, was played as an audio recording. It was intended that Michael would join us for celebrating his creative collaborator. Unfortunately, he passed away just two weeks before the event.

The final point of the evening was a panel discussion between David Rosenboom and Ben Grosser (both students of Martirano) themed as “How is Salvatore Martirano’s work, and influence generally contextualized today in the history of American experimental music, and how should it be appropriately referenced now?” The rather intimate conversation shared with the audience was followed by many inquiries and thanking notes for attendees.

Before the event David had a chance to appreciate the extraordinary exhibition prepared by director of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Scott Schwartz, and his colleagues. Displayed in conjunction with the residency in the South Lobby of the School of Music – which required unprecedent remodeling of the space – the exhibition presented some of the electronic musical instruments in the collection of the Archives and highlighted some memorable milestone in the creative careers of Martirano and Rosenboon, with particular focus on their collaboration and on the piece “L’s GA” (1967).

Oct. 5th: Guest lecture at Experimental Music Studios’ Forum: “Circuits and Fingers – Composer-Performer Convergence in Electronic Instrument Designs”

The lecture for the EMS Forum, led by the current director of the Studios, Eli Fieldsteel, was so well attended by students and faculty that we needed additional chairs. Presenting at EMS itself was a special journey though the current Studios, recalling the time of David exploring early electronic music instruments as a student in the mid-1960s, when the original Studio was located in another other building. (Since the present building of the School of Music was completed and opened only in 1970s, which initiated the movement of EMS from the old Stiven House location chosen by the founder, Lejaren Hiller in 1958.)

The presentation of Rosenboom was focused on the electronic music systems he developed through the decades. Particular emphasis was placed on the early digital keyboard instrument, Touché, developed in collaboration with Donald Buchla in 1979-1980, and a recent digital simulation and expansion, called Touché II, that was used during the second concert of the residency. The narration was supplemented by scanned archival materials discovered during archival work in the preceeding summer, images of custom instruments developed by Rosenboom, and excerpts from two recordings created primarily with the Touché, “Future Travel” (1981) and “Daytime Viewing” (1983), initiating very unique sonic imagery due to the exceptional rarity of the instrument and its sophisticated built-in features.

Oct. 5th: Electric Strings – Recital/Workshop “Transducers and Tunes”

The workshop was centered mainly on rehearsal and discussion of some pieces to be performed by students during the Oct. 7th concert. David provided feedback on the works performed and suggested refinements to implement. After hearing the impressive play of Genevieve Knobel, Valerie Willey, and Chuck Bontrager – all collaborating with the program director and author of many arrangements for the performance pieces, Rudolf Haken – the group of participants discussed approaches to playing electronic violins of various types, from five-string to six-string models, those used in performance without supplemental equipment (such as effects pedals), and those used for interacting with modular electronic setups.

Oct. 6th: Playing with Algorithms – Building Individualized Composer-Performer Software Toolkits

The intensity of the Wednesday events made us proceed to the fourth day of the residency in a more relaxed manner. The midday guest lecture for the iSchool course "Introduction to Computer Music” taught by Sever Tipei focused on the influences, concepts, and uses of computer music software developed by Rosenboom. In particular, he focused on creating an instrument – in this case, a digital one – as an extension of compositional practice. The use of algorithms for real-time performance as realized in Hierarchical Music Specification Language (HMSL), developed by Phil Burk, Larry Polansky, and David Rosenboom in the 1980s, was a central point of the lecture and gave prompts for future creative investigations to be pursued by students on their own. In the course of his as much historical as compositional and technical narration, David provided many illustrations spanning from non-published diagrams, drawings, and notations related to HMSL and its spin-offs (as JMSL developed in the early 2000s by Nick Didkovsky). Musical samples demonstrating the use of HMSL for the recording of the “Zones of Influence” (1985) and for “On Being Invisible II (Hypatia Speaks to Jefferson in a Dream)” (1995) were included.

Oct. 7th: Wireless Wires: Performance/Master Class with Electronic Strings Ensemble

The first end-of-the-week performance in this residency came as a collaboration with Rudolf Haken and students of the unique (for the US) graduate program he directs – Electric Strings. In the rainbow lights of the Music Building Auditorium, starting at 7:30 – students performed their own compositions and pieces arranged for performance with electric violins.

The range of genre orientations of compositions performed fused multiple distinct features and styles so that generally the repertoire might be characterized as modern and contemporary and largely post-genre. The concert program illustrates the width of imaginative and performative capacities of the University of Illinois Electric Strings Ensemble members:

·       “J-Pop/Anime” (arranged for electric string ensemble by Rudolf Haken) performed by Makiba Kurita, Rudolf Haken, Andreas Ruiz-Gehrt, Noa Gruenberg, Marlo Campbell, Renata Caceres, and Nathan Kim.

·       “Dryades,” for three 5-string fiddles and Whammy pedal of Genevieve Knoebel performed by Genevieve Knoebel, Chuck Bontrager, and Rudolf Haken.

·       “Yama” of Earl Maneein performed by Andreas Ruiz-Gehrt with a 5-string Yamaha violin.

·       “Eruption” of Eddie van Halen (arranged by Rudolf Haken) performed by Anna Wallace with 7-string Wood Viper.

·       “Allemande from Sonata No. 4” of Eugene  Ysaye performed by Chuck Bontrager with seven-string Wood Viper violin.

·       Duo No. 3 “Moonlight Journey” performed by Valerie Wiley NS Design 5-string violin and Rudolf Haken with 6-string Wood Viper.

·       “Treacherous Cretins” of Frank Zappa (arranged by Rudolf Haken) performed by Valerie Wiley with NS Design 5-string violin.

The truly epic performance of “Allemande…” by Chuck Bontrager – a composition inspired by Mumfordian considerations of the direction of human progress, and the striving for control over nature that resulted in the creation of the weapon of mass destruction (atomic bomb) – created a situation when a listener could launch on a cathartic process through the journey of self-reflection and thinking of pathways of humanity on a macro level. While “Eruption” performed by Anna Wallace and “Treacherous Cretins” performed by Valerie Wiley exposed listeners to the unthinkable fusion when modulated traditionally classical instruments were a means to reenvisioning rock and avant-rock pieces. That was a very playful fusion!

The culmination of the one-and-a-half-hour-long concert was a solo performance of David Rosenboom. His dramatic outwardly presentation of his piece “Choose Your Universe” conveyed with NS Design five-string vioviola and electronics, was accompanied by expressive “choreographical” movement, which wasn’t an intentional part of the performance – but an emergent dance-like element, the splash of energy emancipated in the dynamics of a performer navigating the space.

Oct. 9th: Choose Your Universe – Composing Your Improvisation Practice

As a guest composer-instructor for the Improvisers’ Exchange Workshop led by Jason Finkelman, David saw his primary purpose in exposing participants to new improvisational practices – based on their experience. So, after a concise introduction about his background and specifically – work with students and faculty at CalArts and adapting curricula so that the teaching would encourage going beyond traditional compositional and performance practices – he asked participants (among attendees were both students and the broader art community members) to improvise something together.

Then, giving feedback, David proposed participants refer to his graphical score for “Golden Gestures” (drawings extracted in the 1980s from the 1967 composition, “Then We Wound Throuth an Aura of Golden Yellow Gauze”), a score known for its unique sound language elements. All participants were exposed to the score for the very first time and had to study and interpreted it “on the fly.” Yet, it was intentional to focus on this complex score since it was composed for this kind of improvisation.

Most players performed on brass instruments. Jason Finkelman – who specializes in the berimbau, an Afro-Brazilian musical bow – performed on African and Brazilian instruments handcrafted by an African percussionist. Joy Yang played theremin and piano interchangeably. Amy Hassinger provided various voice effects to unify the improvisation. All players we guided by Rosenboom initially performing as a conductor.

Later the group tried a couple of other pieces. Which gave an opportunity for Rosenboom to improvise with the group playing piano. At some point, he and Joy Yang began to exchange their instruments, and when she took the seat at piano, David was prompted to play the theremin. And he did!

Later the group was joined by Briar Schlenker playing cello, and David lectured a bit more about the history and theory of improvisation education before the final set.

The workshop took place in a jazz room at Smith Music Hall, which was symbolically memorable in the time of David being a student at UIUC; it was home to the School of Music till it moved to the new building.

Oct. 9th: Interview for WEFT Champaign 90.1FM

Later the same day, David moved to Downtown Champaign for an on-air interview for the radio program of Jason Finkelman “Fanfare for the Speeding Bullet” where experimental and improvisational music is regularly featured. Being a radio host at WEFT Champaign 90.1FM for almost twenty years, it was the first time when Jason had a chance to discuss so much broader historical subjects with his guest.

The extensive conversation, accompanied by selections from Rosenboom’s recordings comprising two hours, focused on such topics as the history of experimental music and the creative environment in Champaign-Urbana in the mid-1960s – with particular attention on mentors and teachers of David, David’s move to New York in the late 1960s and his work with the Electric Circus, organically leading to the brainwave musical explorations of the early-mid 1970s, and then transition to the West Coast in the late 1970s, including collaborations with Don Buchla. Playing excerpts from the “In the Beginning,” “Invisible Gold,” and “Future Travel” albums, “On. Being Invisible Part I” (from “Invisible Gold”), a late 2000s version of the 1969-70 composition “How Much Better if Plymouth Rock Had Landed on the Pilgrims” (Section VI “Culture” – arranged by Daniel Rosenboom), “Predictions, Confirmations, and Disconfirmations” (collaboration with J.B. Floyd), and David’s newest album called “Nows” (collaboration with Sarah Belle Reid), Jason and David quite organically shifted to the discussion of particular details related to the compositions and albums.

The recording might be found here: https://spinitron.com/WEFT/pl/16514469/Fanfare-For-The-Speeding-Bullet

On the day of the presentation, the event started with an exciting talk of Carla and Martin describing how proteins fold and how sonification can highlight aspects of protein folding that are difficult to visualize. Carla proceeded with a demonstration of how an interactive user interface that allows the environment of a protein to be tuned, so that one can hear and see via sonification and visualization, how real-time interaction with data provides insights into a scientific problem like protein folding.

Then they passed the baton to David – who gave a reversal but complementary perspective to the talk of Carla and Martin. While they highlighted the technique of perceptualizing data from nature for scientific purposes, Rosenboom emphasized his decades-long experience of using data extracted from the electroencephalograms of individuals for creating aesthetic “artistic” experiences. He showed details of how, with hyperscanning of several brains treated as a single brain, he has mapped principal oscillation patterns (resonances) occurring among individuals interacting in a sonic environment to an array of electronic resonators in a computer music instrument, implementing a bio-cybernetic musical experience.

The third part of the event was an interactive demonstration realized by Rosenboom and Gruebele – as composer/software operator and brainwave performer/subject of the real-time experiment. The entirety of the subjects

Oct. 11th: Notation as Interface – Configuration Spaces, Transformation Tools, and Multiple Nows

In a lecture for the Composers Forum – the long-term tradition at the School of Music started back in the 1950s – David in detail considered some of his most graphical and elaborate scores, many of which emerged as a result of the creative application of scientific intuitions in the domain of composing. After being introduced by Stephen Taylor, composition faculty at the School of Music and former student of Rosenboom at CalArts – which was particularly symbolic – David began with consideration of the early pieces started and composed during the UIUC period and slightly thereafter. Those were “A Precipice in Time” (1966), “Then We Wound Thouth an Aura of Golden Yellow Gauze” (1967), and “And Come Up Dripping” (1968).

Then in a sequential and detailed manner, he considered the series of pieces “In the Beginning” (1979-1981). Particular attention was paid to the very “playful” and the most scientific series composition, “In the Beginning: Etude III”, for keyboard and two oranges, which had been written for the film director G. Manupelli who didn’t play piano. Though Manupelli didn’t perform it himself since the time of release, the Etude has been performed extensively by the composer himself and several others. The science-inspired part of it is derived from the study of affect by scientist and musician Manford Clynes, who tried to identify the correspondence of gesture shapes to particular emotions. Rosenboom used the well-known shapes of Clynes that stood for reverence, love, joy, humor, and passion in his score. In earlier experiments, he also tried to compare those and others to brainwave activity observed in subjects calling them up using method acting techniques.

Oct. 13th: Propositional Music of David Rosenboom

October 13th was a culminating day of the residency – the highest point when so many apparently disparate aspects converged in an immersive and experiential manner during a concert starting at 7:30 pm at Music Building Auditorium. And, as with many important events based on a harmonious interplay of many factors, a couple of aspects created a certain angst of uncertainty before the concert day.

A key instrument to be used by Rosenboom, Yamaha Disklavier, had a late installation and some critical defects that created a real prospect of the impossibility of its use on the concert day. There was a real concern that the whole programming of the concert will need to be changed on the day before the performance. Fortunately, with the help of the tech crew of the School of Music and assistance from Yamaha, the emergent trouble was settled. And with the dedicated help of Jake Metz, David succeeded to program the piano in an express regime.

The other tech aspect requiring some extra action was the work of new brainwave-sensing headbands. Here again, Jake was of immense assistance to David – delving himself into the intricacies of their ‘tuning.’ Thus, on the pre-concert day, we succeeded to rehearse the two active-imaginative-listeners – brainwave performers, i.e. Jake himself and Joy Yang.

The day of the performance was intense, as expected. A favorite haunt of music students and faculty, Manolo’s pizza place, became the single fast nurturing option a bit more than an hour prior to the concert. However hectic the course of events was – the audience chairs filled and we got started on time.

After an introduction given by Carlos Carillo, the Illinois Modern Ensemble – in collaboration with the actress Ellen Magee – performed the piece “Hymn of Change” from “Bell Solaris.”

And right after – we had to jump of the cliff into the brainwave performance of the piece “Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones (Deviant Resonances)”. Joy Yang and Jake Metz performed with the brainwaves for twenty-seven minutes and David Rosenboom, after setting the Touché II software for its own autonomous performance in response to Joy and Jake, interacted with them playing his electric vioviola and used ‘mutative’ sounds of an analog electronic setup. While in the background, a video show of his compositional drawings slowly unfolded. The brainwave performers seemed to learn to navigate sonic output as proceeding further. Jake – a long-term meditation practitioner – seemed to feel absolutely harmonious in the performance situation. Sitting in front of the audience with his eyes closed and creating the dominant soundscape with outputs of his mind work. While for Joy the experience seemed to be much less comfortable – yet more dynamic and, we could even say, cathartic. She proceeded from the attempt to keep the focus and preventing any bodily movement to the place of almost starting to cry. But towards the end, she seemed to get in synchrony with Jake for a while and they together produced a qualitatively different soundscape from all preceding sonic bursts.

The solo section, comprised by several pieces, was opened with Rosenboom playing the first part of “Tango Secretum,” written on the poetry of Martine Bellen. Then it was followed by the piano performance of “Earth Encomium” with “Nothingness is Unstable” accompanied by responsive generative video projections created by Ben Grosser. Since the artist himself couldn’t attend the performance, he was helped by John Martirano – acting as an operator, running the software, and as performer whose actions modified algorithmic transformations that appeared on the screen. These interactive transformations – responding to the play of Rosenboom through the mechanics of “computational listening” – were drawn from the text of phrases spoken in public by the father of John and friend and mentor of David, Salvatore Martirano.

Then Rosenboom shifted to the more intensified play of the “Out of Truth (Don’t Motto)” performed with a projection of a short film created by Lewis Klahr. Apparently, the last section of the piece “Tango Secretum” was on the program; but the performer – entering his “zone” – shifted right to the Zones. “Keyboard Study for ‘ZONES’” was also followed by colorful projections of the acidic green, lily, black, graphite, black and white geometries created by Ben Grosser. The section was finished by the improvised, and thus highly intense, performance of the piece “Music for Unstable Circuits (+Piano)”.

The concert was finalized by the Illinois Modern Ensemble, performing with singer Carly Wingfield and being guided by Stephen Taylor (conductor), the epic socio-political piece “Battle Hymn of Insurgent Arts.” This last ‘accord’ was full of dramatism and lyricism, almost of old-fashioned late 19th-century kind, that then traversed into a jazz-rock celebrational fusion of the brass instruments, percussion, and guitars.

….and then most of us got together for a photoshoot!

Oct. 14th: Music in Vitro – Playing Duets With Living Neuron Cultures; or – starting the day at an art museum & finishing in a science lab

The event was comprised of the solo presentations given by David Rosenboom and Mattia Gazzola about the background of their work and aspirations of future projects and collaborations. The talks were followed by demonstrations illustrating the first step made by David and the lab of Mattia toward the future convergence of their agendas. Intending to examine the possibility of directly linking the electrical activity sensed in living neuron cultures with a computer music instrument that, in turn, may generate acoustic vibration stimuli for the neurons to react to, David presented a musical interpretation of the recordings of neuronal spikes’ activity provided by the Mind in Vitro group. Helped by the research assistant at Gazzola’s lab, Seoung Kim, he created 4 samples (made in REAKTOR program) sonifying the bursts of neuronal spikes – some of which were originally stimulated by exposure to light.

Since the greater project imagined by Rosenboom proposes creating a new kind of performance biofeedback system, they proceeded with a panel discussion – when he and Mattia were joined by Kevin Hamilton, who provided them with feedback about artistic and cybernetic implications of their ideas, as well as initiated discussion about the feasibility of disciplinary divides (art-science-tech-humanities). Panelists also touched on the question of assigning meaning to interaction among the groups of neurons, and the possibility of co-creative communication of neuron network. The theoretical framework, that might foster this broader long-term cross-disciplinary discussion, as proposed by Rosenboom, lies in the domain of biosemiotics.

Finishing the event, though, we proceeded to more conversation in a lab of Mattia, who generously proposed to give us a tour. Oddly enough, the guest visitors were not all scientists – artist and administrator (Kevin Hamilton), composer-performer (David Rosenboom), and scholar (Anastasia Chernysheva). Yet, it was a memorable experience for all of us – so that we aspire to proceed with the collaborative intent.

Participants of the event series

●      David Rosenboom, George A. Miller Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana; Roy E. Disney Family Chair in Musical Composition – professor at the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts.

●      Rudolf Haken, Professor of Viola and Electric Strings; director of the Electric Strings program.

●      Jason Finkelman, Teaching Artist of the School of Music; Coordinator, Robert E. Brown Center for World Music.

●      David Sepkoski, Thomas M. Siebel chair in History of Science, professor at the History Department.

●      Carla Scaletti, President of the Symbolic Sound Corporation.

●      Smitha Vishveshwara, Professor of Physics; Co-creator of Quantum Voyages.

●       Carlos Carrillo, Associate Professor of Composition-Theory, School of Music; Co-director of the Illinois Modern Ensemble.

●      Mattia Gazzola, Assistant professor at the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering; Co-director of Mind in Vitro.

●      John Martirano, son of Salvatore Martirano, co-curator of the honorary legacy program – along with Dorothy Martirano.

●      Jake Metz, founder of the MultiModal Productions, Media Commons Technology Specialist at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

●      Joy Yang, doctoral student at the University of Illinois School of Music.

●      Kevin Hamilton, Professor of New Media, School of Art and Design; Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts.

●      Martin Gruebele, James R. Eiszner endowed chair in Chemistry, Professor at the Department of Chemistry.

●      Stephen Taylor, Professor of Composition-Theory, School of Music; Co-director of the Illinois Modern Ensemble.

●      Eli Fieldsteel, Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory and director of the Experimental Music Studios at the School of Music.

●      Sever Tipei, Professor Emeritus of Composition-Theory, School of Music; Director of the Computer Music Project, iSchool.

●      Ben Grosser, Associate Professor, School of Art and Design; Assembly Fellow at Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University.

●      Seoung Kim, graduate student, Department of Mechanical Science & Engineering, research assistant at Gazzola Lab.

●      Students-performers of the Illinois Modern Ensemble.

●      Students of the Electric Strings Program.

Acknowledgments:

The event series was supported by many.

Starting with Masumi Iriye (Deputy Director of the Center for Advanced Study; curator of the G.A. Miller Scholar grant that enabled this residency) and Tamara Chaplin (professor at the History department; director of the committee for G.A. Miller grant program) who believed in this project before it began and gave it a chance to unfold.

Then Elaine Robbins (Assistant Director for Operations and Finance at the School of Music) and Jeffrey Sposato (Director of the School of Music) helped with the practical unfolding the event series and the residency.

Truly invaluable was the help of the operations manager at the School of Music – Nathan Mandel and audio engineer at the School of Music – Graham Duncan (helped by DMA student and technical assistant – Xavier Davenport) who assisted with what be put as “flesh and blood,” oftentimes under appreciated and overlooked, of the event series. With rentals, logistics, facilities management, recording, lighting and much more. Their support is particularly dear to the organizer’s heart.

The performance and presentation of David Rosenboom was supplied by the Yamaha Artist Services with the mediation of Makia Matsumura and by the InteraXon’s founder Ariel Garten, who assisted by providing two Muse headbands.

Frederick Zwicky, photographer affiliated with the U of I News Bureau, made an excellent photocapturing of some events on the program.

Scott Schwartz, besides curating the exhibition, helped in co-organizing the event dedicated to Salvatore Martirano.

Major credit and efforts in production of the event series were due to Anastasia Chernysheva. Yet, Anastasia was lucky to be helped and supported throughout eight months, including her application for G.A. Miller Grant in late February-early March and the duration of the residency – half of October ’22, by Jason Finkelman. His efforts, optimism, and capacity to back up when things fell off was invaluable and very much appreciated.

As well, many units, mostly associated with the University of Illinois, provided formal and practical support in launching the project:

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (Art of Science Program), Department of Chemistry, Department of Computer Science, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of History, Humanities Research Institute, Neuroscience Program (Beckman Institute), Office of the Chancellor, Robert E. Brown Center for World Music, School of Art & Design, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, Symbolic Sound Corporation.

More:

●      News release by U of I Bureau

●      Coverage by CalArts

●      MillerComm Lecture Announcement on the CAS website

●      Recording of the MillerComm Lecture given on Oct 3rd 2022