RYAN CARTER Chamber Works

JACK Quartet Yarn/Wire Calder Quartet Emanuele Torquati Duo Dillon-Torquati Keith Kirchoff

RYAN CARTER (*1980)

1 too many arguments in line 17 (2010) 09:22

2 When All Else Fails (2017) 10:39

3 grip (2006) 15:51

4 Errata (2010) 10:41

5 break; (2018) 16:34

6 On the limits of a system and the consequences of my decisions (2016) 09:22

TT 72:29

JACK Quartet 1 Calder Quartet 3 Emanuele Torquati, piano 4 Christopher Otto, violin Benjamin Jacobson, violin Ari Streisfeld, violin Andrew Bulbrook, violin Duo Dillon-Torquati 5 John Pickford Richards, viola Jonathan Moerschel, viola Francesco Dillon, piano Kevin McFarland, cello Eric Byers, cello Emanuele Torquati, piano

Yarn/Wire 2 The Calder Quartet appears Keith Kirchoff, piano 6 Laura Barger, piano courtesy of Pentatone Jacob Rhodebeck, piano Ian Antonio, percussion Russell Greenberg, percussion

2 Recording dates: 1 16 May 2010 2 8 June 2017 3 18 April 2013 4 5 5 October 2018 6 11 November 2017 Recording venues: 1 Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, New York, USA 2 Troutman Studios, New York, USA 3 Allegro Recordings, Burbank, California, USA 4 5 Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, New York, USA 6 Wellin Hall at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, USA Engineers: 1 Paul Howells 2 Ryan Carter 3 Matthew Snyder 4 5 Ryan Streber 6 Graham Espe Mastering: Ryan Streber Liner Notes: Stephan Hammel

Cover based on untitled artwork by Heinz Göbel, from the collection of Martin Rummel

3 self into new material to be dissect- ral impression from variation to error. ed, recast and rendered new. Carter’s Carter has reconstructed a glitch. In- insights into the form of technologi- deed, the title of the piece refers to an cal mediation were not garnered from error message: the line is a numbered a distance. He is a programmer who line of code. has produced a substantial amount of electronic music. This output includes A note in the score tells us that “this A streaming clip stalls. The sound pieces involving novel electronic in- piece is inspired by an experience and image start, skip, and loop. A pro- struments and phone applications that watching a YouTube video that was gram freezes, spinning in place. A pat- mobilize the functionality and ubiq- not buffering properly, resulting in a tern dissolves, generating a network uity of the smartphone to involve the chopping and looping of short vid- of variants in its wake. In the compo- listener in the compositional process. eo segments.” He goes on to say that sitions assembled on this album, Ry- The pieces on this album, then, are “the material in too many arguments in an Carter attends to these rhyming in- metadiscourse: chamber works about line 17 is also manipulated by process- stances of technological breakdown, electronic sound. es akin to granular synthesis, with an among others. He mines their form affinity for glitches and unexpected for insight into the nature and extent too many arguments in line 17 is results.” The unexpected is not limited of the shaping effect that ever more Carter’s third string quartet and one to the improperly buffered Fortspin- pervasive and sophisticated technolo- of two on this album. Written for the nung and bent pitch. A glitch at mea- gy exerts on our ears and on our lives. JACK Quartet in 2010, the piece is a sure 90 is punctuated by the first vi- Tools mimic the agency we express study in meter and articulation. The olin getting up and walking to another when using them at the moment they performers are given a lexicon of ar- place in the performance space. fail, so it is no accident that to the ex- ticulations, including two types of tent that Carter’s focus is on technolo- saltando, four types of col legno, and When All Else Fails is a more recent gy it is also on failure. One is reminded five types of pizzicato (left hand, fin- composition, written in 2016–2017 for of Martin Heidegger’s well-known ob- gernail, and Bartók pizzicato in addi- the ensemble Yarn/Wire. It is scored servation about hammers, which es- tion to the standard variety). The first for two percussionists and two pia- cape into independence from the right two bars do not outline a subject so nists. Both pianos are prepared with hand at the moment they miss the much as set up a pattern. At the mo- towels and coins affixed to the strings nail and crush the left thumb. Howev- ment when that pattern threatens to at specified partials. The pianists are er, in those compositions that thema- become fully intelligible, the music also instructed to play harmonics in- tize breakdown, compositional agency stalls. A momentary cross rhythm sig- side the piano. The percussionists is not subverted so much as re-orient- nals a break in the flow. Harmonics play triangle, woodblock, claves and ed. The stuff of breakdown resolves it- and microtonal inflections shift the au- tuned gongs, but much of the determi-

4 native timbre of the piece results from score, he categorizes sounds into four theme of this piano solo is the mis- the vibraphone, alternately sound- categories that span the range from take. He writes that his primary in- ed with motor, rasping stick, Mole- fully determinate to utterly indetermi- strument is the piano and that the lim- skin-wrapped Becker blue mallet, and nate. Carter’s sounds can either be its of his technical proficiency do not bow. The relatively simple pitch idiom continuous, periodic, gestural or ran- diminish his joy in playing. The motiv- allows for timbre to articulate the for- dom. While the first two categories ic core is the gesture in the opening mal construction. The result in a son- are more or less straightforward, the bars. The mistakes that Carter him- ic landscape downstream from those third and fourth present an interesting self made while attempting to play it of John Cage and Henry Cowell. Put contrast between a sound that “avoids form the process through which the in mind of American experimentalists, any regular pulse but expresses a de- development occurs. Written in the the listener could well associate the liberate intent” and a sonic moment of same year as too many arguments in haunted and hollow sound world here chaos. At times, chaos is marked in the line 17, the pianist’s mistake appears with the bracing experience the Ameri- score: Carter write a letter Z through as a glitch in the flesh. The material can experiment was undergoing at the a note stem when he wants to indicate often stalls, repeats or doubles back. time this piece was written. However, that a pitch sustains a “random tremo- Glitches here, though, are altogether the mood is not funereal. The at times lo.” The players are pressed to explore humane. Pauses and repeated notes asynchronous voices are brought to- the point of indistinction between for- are warmly ponderous. In a piece in gether in stillness near the close with mal intent and material consequence. which movement in generated by re- a tempo marking that reads: “Taking a Large sections of the piece never al- constructed mistakes, an interesting deep breath.” low the layers of sound to align, allow- dialectic opens up between composing the overall result to be an emergent er – who, by his own admission, can- grip, from 2006, is Carter’s second property of developing relationships not play the piece – and performer, string quartet, and the earliest compo- between the instrumentalists. Each, who, given the challenges of the score, sition on the album. The composition however, has a grip on what they play. is likely to makes mistakes. The score predates both Carter’s move to New The form that emerges is not one that indicates those moments that are suf- York City and the new era in American fails, but one that routinely breaks in- ficiently structural as to be least able life that began in 2008. It was com- to delightful, even momentarily dance- to withstand mistakes. missioned by the Calder Quartet and able moments. in 2007 won the Suzanne and Lee A change occurs roughly midway Ettelson Composer’s Award. Earliest, A developed variation of grip’s opti- through. The pace slows and gestures it is also the most optimistic. The piece mism can be heard in Errata, for solo are played in rhythmic freedom. The is an experiment in the rhythmic inter- piano from 2010. If the string quartet mistake prone pianist that is the im- action between voices, or what Carter pressed the middle space between plied subject of the piece has changed calls “layers of sound.” In a note in the musical intent and musical action, the tack. One is given the impression that

5 the implied pianist is getting a grip the clear-eyed forward drive of the ac- here to feature fixed media and live on what is to be played by practicing companiment. The result is repeated signal processing. That fact might sev- slowly and gradually speeding back sinking and sharpening of the pitch. A er its aesthetic from the other works up. The damper pedal is held during C natural might succeed a C a quarter in this collection, but the electronics in this section. As the piece speeds back tone flat, or a D natural might be fol- this composition are a reimagining of up and finds its footing, the pedal is lowed by a D a quarter tone sharp, all an acoustic phenomenon peculiar to slowly released. If the tempo returns in very quick note values. Soon the pi- the piano. Carter explains that in the to that of the start, the dynamics have ano part gains speed and confidence process of composing previous works reversed. The gestures fade into si- and the cello line attempts and fails for the instrument, he would encounter lence. And the repeated notes that to form a descant above a droning D. faulty sostenuto pedals. At times, he were glitch-like in the opening bars re- As that new challenge gives way to would allow this technical flaw to be- appear in the final bars as deliberate- a sustained harmonic, the piano become a structural feature of the piece. ly conclusive. gins a pattern in even notes that elon- In this work, the electronics serve as a gates measure by measure, from 5 “second, virtual sostenuto pedal.” The The most recently composed piece notes to 7 to 9 until it reaches 21 and electronics both sustain and trans- on the album, break; , is a duo for cel- breaks off. The following section in- form pitches, forming a kind of haunt- lo and piano from 2018. While there is volves the piano developing a rhyth- ed acoustic environment in which the no genre classification for the work, in mic motive against the cello’s variously piano part moves. That movement is the company of two string quartets it uneven articulations through each bar. regulated by a subterranean struc- might be heard as a cello sonata. Giv- The cello is given a section to speak ture. A six voice mensural canon or- en the declamatory quality of the cel- on its own, a kind of cadenza, but the ganizes the pitches throughout the lo line, however, perhaps it is bet- process that has been running since piece. Given the number of voices and ter heard as monody. The piano part the start gives way near the end of the way in which they are embedded brightly rolls out a march-like melody the piece. Another glitch. The tempo in the overall structure of the work, in imperfect consonances and keeps marking is “Frozen.” The composition the canon itself is not audible on the itself in time by a rhythmic pattern never recovers. The final note of the surface. Rather, the form is an echo that forms its own sound layer. The cello is played with a decelerating bow of the same principle of transforma- cello part sings along but struggles until the last resonance of the piano is tion through sustain that animates the to articulate a coherent phrase. After no longer audible and the musical ma- piece as a whole. four measures the sound is already chine falls silent. marked “gritty” and the line is played Stephan Hammel, by the performer at the frog. Carter The collection’s conclusion is On the Assistant Professor of Musicology, carefully notates the microtonal inflec- limits of a system and the consequenc- University of California – Irvine tions that bend the pitch away from es of my decisions. It is the only work

6 7 8 9 RYAN CARTER

Ryan Carter composes for instru- ments, voices, and computers. Ryan’s work often explores new musical pos- sibilities presented by emerging tech- nologies, while remaining critical of the assumptions and unintended side effects embedded in them. Alternate- ly playful, quirky, visceral, and intense, his music has been described by the New York Times as “imaginative … like, say, a Martian dance party.” Ryan has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the National Flute Association, the MATA Festival, the Metropolis Ensem- ble, Present Music, The Milwaukee Children’s Choir, and the Calder Quar- tet, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the American Compos-

10 Ryan has collaborated with the Berke- Raised in Wisconsin, Ryan holds de- JACK QUARTET ley Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber grees from Oberlin Conservato- Symphony, Duo Dillon-Torquati, the In- ry (BMus), Stony Brook University ternational Contemporary Ensemble, (MA), and New York University (PhD), the JACK Quartet, Keith Kirchoff, the where his teachers included Richard Mivos Quartet, the Nieuw Ensemble, Hoffmann, Pauline Oliveros,Daniel the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, Yarn/ Weymouth, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Hailed by The New York Times as the Wire, and many others. Awards include Matthias Pintscher. Ryan has pursued “nation’s most important quartet”, the the Lee Ettelson Award, the Aaron Co- additional studies with Louis Andries- JACK Quartet is one of the most ac- pland Award, the Left Coast Compo- sen and Gilius van Bergeijk at the Roy- claimed, renowned, and respected sition Contest, the National Associa- al Conservatory of The Hague (the groups performing today. JACK has tion of Composers/USA Composer’s Netherlands) and with Brad Garton at maintained an unwavering commit- Competition, the Publikumspreis at the Computer Music Center at Colum- ment to their mission of performing the Heidelberg Spring Festival, and bia University. Ryan is Assistant Pro- and commissioning new works, giving the LA Phil Prize at Hack Music LA. fessor of Music at Hamilton College. voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of In addition to composing acoustic mu- openness toward contemporary clas- sic, Ryan is an avid computer musician, sical music. Over the past season they programmer, and performer. His iMon- have been selected as Musical Amer- keypants app (available for download ica’s 2018 “Ensemble of the Year” and on the App Store) is an album of algo- named to WQXR’s “19 for 19 Artists to rithmically generated, listener-inter- Watch.” active electronica. As an extension of iMonkeypants, Ryan founded Head- Through intimate relationships with to- less Monkey Attack, a collaborative day’s most creative voices, JACK em- project blending live instrumental per- braces close collaboration with the formance with electronic dance mu- composers they perform, leading to a sic synthesized in real time from code radical embodiment of the technical, in the RTcmix programming language. musical, and emotional aspects of their Recent work includes developing a work. The quartet has worked with art- web-based platform for motion-con- ists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, trolled interactive electronic sound Julia Wolfe, George Lewis, Chaya for audience participation on mobile Czernowin, and Simon Steen-Andersen, devices. with upcoming and recent premieres

11 including works by Tyshawn Sorey, YARN/WIRE In 2016, the ensemble won first prize Georg Friedrich Haas, Clara Iannotta, in the open category as part of the in- John Luther Adams, Catherine Lamb, augural M-Prize competition at the and John Zorn. University of Michigan. More recently, it is has been honored by Stony Brook Committed to education, the quartet University as one of its “40 under 40” teaches each summer at New Music alumni who are leaders in their field. on the Point and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. JACK has al- Yarn/Wire has commissioned many so done educational programs at the American and international compos- University of Iowa String Quartet Res- ers including Raphaël Cendo, Zosha Di idency Program, the Lucerne Festi- Castri, Peter Evans, Michael Gordon, val Academy, Harvard University, NYU, George Lewis, Alex Mincek, Thomas Princeton University, Stanford Univer- Yarn/Wire is a New York-based per- Meadowcroft, Misato Mochizuki, sity, and more. cussion and piano quartet (Ian Antonio Tristan Murail, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Russell Greenberg, percussion/ and Øyvind Torvund. The group has Comprising violinists Christopher Ot- Laura Barger and Ning Yu, pianos). given the United States premieres to and Austin Wulliman, violist John Noted for its “spellbinding virtuosity” of works by Enno Poppe, Stefano Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay (TimeOut NY) and “mesmerizing” per- Gervasoni, and Georg Friedrich Campbell, JACK operates as a non- formances (New York Times) the en- Haas, among others. As well, the en- profit organization dedicated to the semble is admired for the energy and semble enjoys collaborations with performance, commissioning, and ap- precision it brings to performances of genre-bending artists such as Tristan preciation of new string quartet music. today’s most adventurous music. Perich, David Bithell, Sufjan Stevens, and Pete Swanson. Founded in 2005, Yarn/Wire is dedicated to expanding the repertoire Yarn/Wire has recorded for the WER- written for its instrumentation, through GO, Distributed Objects, Populist, and commissions and collaborative initia- Carrier record labels in addition to tives that aim to build a new and last- maintaining their own imprint. Yarn/ ing body of work. Influenced by its Wire appears internationally at prom- members’ experiences with classical inent festivals and venues including music, avant-garde theatre, and rock the Lincoln Center Festival, BAM, New music, the ensemble champions a var- York’s Miller Theatre, River-to-Riv- ied and probing repertoire. er Festival, La MaMa Theatre, Festi-

12 val of New American Music, London’s CALDER QUARTET Highlights include Lincoln Center, Barbican Centre, the Edinburgh Inter- Metropolitan Museum of Art, multiple national Festival, Shanghai Symphony performances at Wigmore Hall, Barbi- Orchestra Hall, and Hong Kong New can, Salzburg Festival, Donaueschin- Music Ensemble’s Modern Academy. gen Festival, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Ton- Their ongoing series, Yarn/Wire/Cur- halle Zurich, IRCAM Paris, Hamburg’s rents, serves as an incubator for new The Calder Quartet performs a broad Elbphilharmonie, Centro Nacional de experimental music at ISSUE Project range of repertoire at an exceptional Difusión Musical Madrid, a residency Room in Brooklyn, NY. Through these level, always striving to channel and at the Perth International Arts Festi- and other activities, including educa- fulfill the composer’s vision. Already val, residency and Beethoven cycle at tional residencies and other outreach the choice of many leading compos- Santa Monica’s Broad Stage, and a re- programs, Yarn/Wire works to pro- ers to perform their works, the group’s turn to Los Angeles’ Disney Hall. Their mote new music in the United States. distinctive approach is exemplified by long list of collaborators includes the a musical curiosity brought to every- Cleveland Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, thing they perform. Thomas Adès, Peter Eötvös, Anders Hillborg, Daniel Bjarnasson, Andrew Winners of the prestigious 2014 Avery Norman, Audrey Luna, Johannes Fisher Career Grant, they are wide- Moser, Joshua Bell and Edgar Meyer. ly known for the discovery, commis- In 2017, the Calder Quartet signed an sioning, recording and mentoring of exclusive, multi-disc record deal with some of today’s best emerging com- Pentatone with their debut recording posers. The group continues to work featuring Beethoven scheduled for re- and collaborate with artists across lease in Fall 2018. musical genres, spanning the rang- es of the classical and contemporary The quartet has been featured in ex- music world, as well as rock and film/ tremely popular TV shows such as the tv soundtracks, and in venues ranging Late Show with David Letterman, the from museums to Carnegie and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, KCRW’s Hollywood Bowl. Inspired by innova- Morning Becomes Eclectic, the To- tive American artist Alexander Calder, night Show with Conan O’Brien, Late the Calder Quartet’s desire to bring Night with Jimmy Kimmel, and the immediacy and context to the works Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. they perform creates an artfully craft- ed musical experience.

13 In 2011 the Calder Quartet launched EMANUELE TORQUATI monics, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, a non-profit dedicated to furthering Tuscany Regional Orchestra (ORT) its efforts in commissioning, present- and Haydn Orchester Bozen. ing, recording, and education, col- laborating with the Getty Museum, A notable performer of new music and Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and an avid chamber musician, he enjoys the Barbican Centre in London. The Emanuele Torquati is rapidly gaining a diverse and varied career as a pia- Calder Quartet formed at the Univer- international recognition for his poet- nist. He was artist-in-residence at The sity of Southern California’s Thornton ic and passionate music making, com- Banff Centre with the project “Voyage School of Music and continued stud- municative performances and engag- Messiaen” in 2008 and in 2010 with ies at the Colburn Conservatory of ing programming. He has been hailed “Intimate Sketches: Visions on Leos Music with Ronald Leonard, and at the as “a thoughtful musician and a cham- Janàcek”, and recently at the IIC Par- Juilliard School, receiving the Artist Di- pion of contemporary music” by the is within the program “Les Promesses ploma in Chamber Music Studies as New York Times and as “a vibrant pi- de l’Art.” the Juilliard Graduate Resident String anist, excellent overall” by the Bos- Quartet. The quartet regularly con- ton Globe. His flourishing career has His first recording,Promenade senti- ducts master classes and has taught taken him to some of Europe, Cana- mentale, devoted to the complete pia- at the Colburn School, the Ober- da, America and Africa’s most illus- no music of Albert Roussel, has been lin Conservatory of Music, the Juil- trious venues, in such diverse cities followed by the complete piano mu- liard School, the Cleveland Institute as Addis Ababa, Buenos Aires (Te- sic of Alexander Zemlinsky for Brilliant of Music, University of Cincinnati Col- atro Colon), San Francisco, Toronto, Classics. In 2017 a new album, The lege Conservatory, and USC Thornton Banff, New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Vale of Dreams: Charles Griffes Piano School of Music. Boston, Paris, Lyon, Frankfurt, Berlin, Music, was released. Leipzig, Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, Mu- nich, Graz, Ljubljana, Kiev and Oslo. Moreover, he has worked intensive- ly with leading composers including His concerts have been broadcast by Salvatore Sciarrino, Sylvano Bussotti, RAI, BBC Radio3, Deutschland Ra- Wolfgang Rihm, Kaija Saariaho, Beat diokultur, MDR Kultur, Radio France, Furrer, Jonathan Harvey, Brett Dean, Swiss RSI, RTE Lyric and Euroradio. Thomas Larcher, Magnus Lindberg, As a soloist he has performed with Peter Ablinger and he has collaborat- such orchestras as Italian National ed among others with musicians such Radio Orchestra (RAI), Lithuanian Na- as Isabel Charisius, Matthias Pintscher, tional Symphony, Buenos Aires Philar- Michael Gielen, Marisol Montalvo,

14 Garth Knox, Susanne Linke, Inon DUO DILLON-TORQUATI They have released various CDs high- Barnatan and Prometeo String Quar- ly praised from critics, including the tet. The recipient of several interna- Liszt complete works for cello and pi- tional awards, Torquati has been sup- ano, a 3-CD box set of Schumann’s ported by Institutions such as CEMAT, transcriptions and recently a rare se- Accademia Musicale Chigiana, DAAD lection of Brahms rarities (Lieder, Hun- Bonn, Ambassade de France en Italie, garian Dances and Violin Sonata No. 1). Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Graz, Ensemble Modern, The They have played in several major fes- Banff Centre. He has been invited to tivals and musical centers in Europe give masterclasses at several univer- and North America with major orches- sities and conservatories in Italy and Duo Dillon-Torquati (Francesco Dillon, tras, among others with Orchestra abroad, such as New York Universi- cello and Emanuele Torquati, piano) Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Tori- ty, Boston University, University of La is a union of two performers not on- no and the Lithuanian Symphony Or- Plata and Universidad Popular de Còr- ly devoted to an open-minded explo- chestra. In 2016 they gave the national doba (Argentina), Trinity College Dub- ration of the standard repertoire, but premiere of Kurtàg’s Double Concerto lin and Southampton University. He is also particularly sensitive to exploring and in the 2019–2020 season they will currently Professor at State Conser- neglected and hidden works. More- premiere a new double concerto writ- vatory “G. F. Ghedini” in Cuneo. over, they both are notable performers ten by Arturo Fuentes for them and of new music and have worked close- Haydn Orchester Bozen. Their con- Torquati was born in Milan in 1978. ly with composers such as Salvatore certs have been broadcast by Radio His most influential teachers were Sciarrino, Francesco Filidei, Jonathan France, Swiss RSI, BBC Radio3, Eu- Giancarlo Cardini and Konstan- Harvey, Kaija Saariaho, Toshio roradio, Italian National Radio and RTE tin Bogino. He also worked close- Hosokawa, Thomas Larcher. Lyric. ly with Alexander Lonquich, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Ian Pace, Michael They have commissioned a wide se- They recently toured the US and Ar- Wendeberg. He went on to special- ries of new works written for them, gentina, and upcoming concert en- ize in chamber music first withFranco and the list includes a varied series gagements include Beethoven’s Rossi (Quartetto Italiano), then he of composers such as Marco Momi, complete sonatas and variations inter- achieved a master’s degree at the In- Silvia Borzelli, Milica Djordjevic, Helena spersed with three new works that will ternational Chamber Music Academy Winkelman, Ryan Carter, Federico be presented at Columbia University of the Trio di Trieste. Since 2010, he is Gardella, Arturo Fuentes, Daniele in New York. Artistic Director of music@villaromana Ghisi, Lucia Ronchetti and Daniela for German institution Villa Romana. Terranova.

15 KEITH KIRCHOFF concerti by Tschaikowsky and Chopin. three albums in his Electroacoustic He has also been a featured soloist Piano series on Thinking outLOUD in many music festivals including the Records. Festival de Musique Actuelle de Victo- Keith Kirchoff is a pianist, compos- riaville, Festival Internacional de Müsi- Kirchoff has served as Vice Presi- er, conductor, concert curator, and ca Contemporánea, the Society for dent of SEAMUS (Society for Electro- teacher. Described as a “virtuosic tour Electro-Acoustic Music in the United acoustic Music in the United States) de force” whose playing is “energet- States (SEAMUS), the Oregon Festi- and is the founder and Artistic Direc- ic, precise, (and) sensitive,” he works val of American Music, and the Inter- tor of Original Gravity: a Boston-based towards promoting under-recognized national Computer Music Conference concert series that features the music composers and educating audiences (ICMC). of local composers and pairs that mu- of the importance of new and exper- sic with locally brewed beer. Togeth- imental music. An active lecturer who Throughout his career, Kirchoff has er with Christopher Biggs, he founded has presented in countries throughout premiered well over 100 new works SPLICE Music: an organization dedi- the world, his recital programs focus and commissioned several dozen. As cated to promoting collaboration and on the integration of computers and a strong supporter of modern mu- providing advanced electroacoustic modern electronics into a traditional sic, he has worked closely with many music education to performers and classical performance space. prominent composers including Chris- composers. Additionally, he is the pia- tian Wolff, FredericRzewski, and Lou- nist in both the SPLICE Ensemble and Kirchoff has played in many of the is Andriessen. As a lecturer, Kirchoff the Boston-based quartet Hinge. United States’ largest cities includ- has presented seminars, lectures, and ing New York, Boston, Miami, Chica- master classes on the music of the 21st Kirchoff has won awards from the go, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San century at many of the country’s larg- Steinway Society, MetLife Meet the Francisco, and Austin, as well as major est universities. One of the nation‘s Composer, the Foundation for Con- cities throughout Italy, New Zealand, prominent performers of electronic temporary Arts, was named the 2011 Australia, England, Canada, Belgium, music, his “Electroacoustic Piano” tour Distinguished Scholar by the Seabee Mexico, China, and The Netherlands. has been presented throughout three Memorial Scholarship Association, He has appeared with orchestras continents, and he has twice host- and with the SPLICE Ensemble was throughout the U.S. performing a wide ed an international composers’ com- awarded both grants from Chamber range of concerti, including the Bos- petition seeking music for piano and Music America and the Fromm Foun- ton premiere of Charles Ives’ Emerson live electronics: first with the Universi- dation. He has recorded on the New Concerto and the world premiere of ty of Toronto in 2011, and then again World, Thinking outLOUD, Zerx, Ravel- Matthew McConnell’s Concerto for with the American Composers Forum lo, Tantara, New Focus, and SEAMUS Toy Piano, as well as more traditional in 2015. Since 2011, he has released labels.

16 RYAN CARTER (*1980)