news
“What makes a specific quality or quantity of innovation retain its intense newness over the years?”
- Brian Ferneyhough
I am currently preparing material for a new commission for flutist Mark McGregor, based on the “deadly sin” of Envy. The solo will premiere during Red Shift’s 2010/2011 season, with 6 other new works covering each of the Seven Deadly Sins—should be a great concert!
In 2009 I premiered two new works for dance and media: a collaborative work with composer Teresa Connors for choreographer Claire French, and a new interdisciplinary work with writer Caleb Johnston, for the Western Front’s “Intersections” proejct. The final result of the Intersections project, a work called “A Storied Sea”, premiered on October 29th 2009, and the Western Front.
The chamber work, limen, commissioned by Mark McGregor and Rachel Iwaasa’s duo Tiresias, with guest percussionist Brian Nesselroad, premiered in January, 2009, at Christ Church Cathedral, in Vancouver.
I also premiered a new commission, “...a scrambling decade ends”, for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, in May 2009.
On the software front, work is ongoing on my interactive composition environment, "ManuScore.” The system is backed by a new machine learning algorithm, adapted from the Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), called the Hierarchical Sequential Memory for Music, or HSMM. I presented my initial research on this system in October 2009, at the ISMIR 2009 conference in Kobe, Japan.
I've also recently started a new collaborative venture with Greg Wilder of Orpheus Media Research. More news to come.