CNMAT Notes.Indd

CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS Saturday, February 11, 2006, 8 pm Hertz Hall CNMAT Presents: Mark Dresser, Myra Melford, Bob Ostertag, David Wessel Th is presentation is made possible, in part, by the generous support of Liz and Greg Lutz. Cal Performances thanks our Centennial Season Sponsor, Wells Fargo. CAL PERFORMANCES 29 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS Jazziz magazine noted, “Th e confi dence to go included the Kronos Quartet, avant-gardists so far into uncharted territory and the ability John Zorn and Fred Frith, heavy metal star to carry listeners along—then bring them Mike Patton, jazz great Anthony Braxton, back—attest to Melford’s vision.” dyke punk rocker Lynn Breedlove, drag diva Myra Melford is currently Assistant Justin Bond, fi lmmaker Pierre Hébert and Professor of Improvisation and Jazz in the others. He is rumored to have connections Department of Music at the University of to the shadowy media guerrilla group Th e California, Berkeley. Yes Men. Bob Ostertag recently joined the Department of Technocultural Studies at the University of California, Davis, where he is an Associate Professor. Myra Melford (piano and electronics) is “the genuine article, the most gifted pianist/ Mark Dresser has been composing and composer to emerge from jazz since Anthony performing solo contrabass and ensemble Davis,” according to critic Francis Davis. A music professionally throughout North composer and bandleader with a “commitment Composer, performer, instrument builder, America, Europe and the Far East since to refreshing, often surprising uses of melody, journalist, activist, historian, kayak instruc- 1972. He has recorded more than 100 CDs harmony and ensemble playing,” according to tor—Bob Ostertag’s work cannot easily be with some of the strongest personalities in NPR, Melford currently leads or co-leads four summarized or pigeon-holed. As a composer, contemporary music and jazz, including groups: the electro-acoustic quartet, Be Bread; he has released 21 CDs of music and has ap- Anthony Braxton, Frances-Marie Uitti and Th e Tent, a fl exible group of fi ve musicians peared at music, fi lm and multimedia festivals Gerry Hemingway, to name but a few. He whom she employs in settings ranging from around the globe. As a journalist, his writings has been on the faculty at Th e New School electro-acoustic quintet to drummerless trio of on contemporary politics have been published and Hampshire College, and was a 2004 trumpet, bass guitar and piano/harmonium; in many languages. Electronic instruments of David Wessel began performing professional- Lecturer in the Council of Humanities and a cooperative duo with reedist Marty Ehrlich; his own design are at the cutting edge of both ly as jazz drummer in high school. He studied Department of Music at Princeton University. and Equal Interest, a collaborative trio with music and video performance technology. a mixture of mathematics and experimental He is Professor of Music at the University of reedist Joseph Jarman and violinist Leroy Born in Albuquerque in 1957, he dropped psychology and holds a PhD in mathematical California, San Diego. Jenkins. She also performs solo concerts and out of the Oberlin Conservatory after two psychology from Stanford. During his univer- has recorded and performed with composer- years, settled in New York City in 1978 and sity years, he was aligned with the jazz avant- saxophonist Henry Th readgill, conductionist immersed himself in the “downtown” music garde and began working in the electronic Butch Morris and violinist Jenny Scheinman. scene of the period. He left music in 1980– medium. His research in music perception Early in her career she led the Myra Melford 1981 to work in Central America and became and cognition led to a position at IRCAM Trio; the quintet Th e Same River, Twice; an expert on the region, with writings pub- in Paris, where he worked with a number of and the electro-acoustic trio/quartet Crush. lished in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe composers including Berio, Boulez and Stock- Since 1991, she has appeared on more than and the United States. In 1988, he moved to hausen. His computer music research at IR- 20 recordings, including nine as a leader. As San Francisco and resumed his musical activ- CAM was oriented towards live performance ity. His radically diverse collaborators have and from the early 1980s onward he insisted 30 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 31 ABOUT THE ARTISTS on the use of personal computers and the de- from around the world may be involved at velopment of a live performance computer CNMAT. CNMAT houses a dynamic series music practice. In tonight’s performance, he of educational, performance and research is using a tactile controller developed by Don programs focused on the creative interaction Buchla and interactive software he has writ- between music and technology. Areas of ten in the Max/MSP programming environ- study include sound synthesis and analysis, ment. David Wessel joined the music faculty music perception and cognition, performance at the University of California, Berkeley, in controls, sound diff usion and software tools 1988 and is co-director with Edmund Cam- for composition and improvisation. Linking pion of the the Center for New Music and all of Berkeley’s disciplines dedicated to the Audio Technologies (CNMAT). study or creative use of sound, CNMAT forms a consortium with two other major Th e Center for New Music and Audio centers: IRCAM in Paris and CCRMA at Technologies (CNMAT) is a music research, Stanford. Opportunities to work at CNMAT composition, teaching, recording and are available to graduate students in musical performance facility located in the hills just scholarship and composition, as well as to north of the UC Berkeley campus. Th ere students from the center’s other participating are many ways that the public, composers, disciplines. musicians, researchers, professors and students 32 CAL PERFORMANCES.

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