TechnoSonics XVI: Music & Contemplation
Wednesday, October 14 – Tuesday, October 20

All events are FREE and open to the public | 434-924-3052

TechnoSonics is an annual themed festival that showcases digital music and intermedia, and brings high profile outside performers and composers to collaborate with UVa composers and faculty performers.

TechnoSonics XVI, a weeklong exploration of the integral relationship between music and contemplation, will feature five installations, a series of lectures and roundtable discussions, meditations and two concerts, including a 24-hour concert in the UVA Chapel.

This festival is produced by the Composition and Computer Technologies Program in the Department of Music with participation from UVA’s Center for Contemplative Sciences.  This is an Arts Enhancement Event supported by the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts.

Wednesday, October 14, 3:30 to 5:00
B012 Old Cabell Hall
“Music, Contemplation, and the Brain” Roundtable with Jim Coan, Department of Psychology, UVA ; Contemplative Sciences Center, UVA

Thursday, October 15, 2:00 to 3:30
OCH Lobby —> out-of-doors
Walking Meditation with Leslie Hubbard, Contemplative Sciences Center, UVA

Friday, October 16
Ringing of Bells with Brenda Hutchinson
sunrise — 7:23 AM @ a space of your own choosing
sunset — 6:37 PM @ Homer, The Lawn, UVA

Friday, October 16, 8:00 pm
Old Cabell Hall
TechnoSonics Evening Concert
featuring works by Matthew Burtner, Brenda Hutchinson, Judith Shatin, Eli Stine, Paul Turowski, and Kojiro Umezaki

Friday, October 16, 11:59 PM
UVA Chapel
TechnoSonics 24-Hour Concert begins
featuring works by Jon Bellona, Dylan Bolles, Peter Bussigel, Ted Coffey, Luke Dahl, Kevin Davis, Brenda Hutchinson, Michelle Lou, Ryan Maguire, MICE, Fernando Rocha, Judith Shatin, Aaron Stepp, Eli Stine, Max Tfirn, Travis Thatcher, Rachel Devorah Trapp, Paul Turowski, Kojiro Umezaki, and Kristina Warren

Saturday, October 17
Ringing of Bells with Brenda Hutchinson
sunrise — 7:24 AM @ just outside the UVA Chapel
sunset — 6:35 PM @ just outside the UVA Chapel

Saturday, October 17, 11:59
UVA Chapel
24-Hour Concert concludes

Sunday, October 18, 7:25 am
Ringing of Bells with Brenda Hutchinson
sunrise — 7:25 AM @ a space of your own choosing

Sunday, October 18, 11:30 AM to 1:00 pm
OpenGrounds, Studio B
“Music and Trust” Roundtable
with Kojiro Umezaki, Department of Music, UCI

Tuesday, October 20, 9:30 to 11:00 am
OCH Lobby —> out-of-doors
Walking Meditation
with Leslie Hubbard, Contemplative Sciences Center, UVA

Installations:
Bella Reyes, Tree Breath — Good Climbing Tree, UVA Chapel
— select times, 10.14 thru 10.21

Aaron Stepp, Junkyard Temples, Set II: Solanum — Music Library, Old Cabell Hall
— ongoing, 10.14 thru 10.21

Eli Stine, ImageAfter — Maker Space, Wilson Hall
— select times, 10.14 thru 10.21

Max Tfirn, Reflective Catacombs — Catacombs, Old Cabell Hall
— ongoing, 10.14 thru 10.21

Travis Thatcher, Untitled — UVA Chapel Entryway
— select times, 10.17

The University of Virginia Music Department  has been a leader in music technology innovation for almost 100 years. The first Chair of the Music Department, Arthur Fickenscher was an electronic music instrument inventor who developed a new interface for musical expression called the Polytone. Fickensher joined the faculty of UVA in 1918 and became the Chair of Music in 1920 when the Department was formed. In 1967, UVa Professor Donald MacInnis, a student of Milton Babbitt and Vladimir Ussachevsky, created one of the first computer music languages, MUSIGOL, in consultation with Max Mathews at Bell Labs and UVa Engineering Faculty. In the 1970s the VEMS (Virginia Electronic Music Studio) supported work by students and faculty, resulting in UVa’s first substantial contributions to electronic music composition. Founded in 1987 by Judith Shatin, the Virginia Center for Computer Music (VCCM), housed in Old Cabell Hall, ushered in a new focus on computer music for UVa.

Out of these innovations, the Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) Program launched in 2002 along with the first Music PhD in the State of Virginia. CCT is unique in its focus on a combined approach to composition and technological research. In addition, CCT draws on its sister UVa programs, the innovative Critical and Comparative Studies (CCS) program, and a diverse Performance program. Today, a team of UVA Music faculty including Judith Shatin, Matthew Burtner, Ted Coffey, Luke Dahl, Noel Lobley, Peter Bussigel and I-Jen Fang along with CCT Technical Director Travis Thatcher collaborate to build a unique climate of creative and technical research around composition and computer technologies.

Past TechnoSonics programs have included:
2014: TechnoSonics XV: Found Sound Concerts with Joo Won Park & Annie Gosfield
2013: TechnoSonics XIV: Motion
2012: TechnoSonics XIII: Music and Politics, Featuring Guest Composers Mara Helmuth and Christopher Adler
2011: TechnoSonics XII: Light
2010: TechnoSonics XI: Mediated Nature
2009: TechnoSonics X: Building<
2008: TechnoSonics 20 Years of “Play” Anniversary Tour

An Arts Enhancement Event supported by the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts.