Issue 3 of the 2010 SEAMUS Newsletter is here, featuring an interview with Joel Chadabe, CD reviews, and member news.

You can download your copy here.

Issue 2 of the 2010 SEAMUS Newsletter is here, featuring an interview with Curtis Roads, a SEAMUS 2010 recap, and a tribute to James Brody and Franz Kamin.

Also, a new design for the newsletter!

You can download your copy here.

The Call for Proposals to host the 2012 SEAMUS National Conference has been posted. Contact Christopher Hopkins, SEAMUS Director of Conferences for more information.

The SEAMUS Board of Directors is pleased to announce the selection of the Frost School of Music of the University of Miami as the site for the 2011 SEAMUS National Conference to be held January 20-22. Colby Leider and Kristine Burns will co-host.

Given January temperatures ranging from 60-70ºF this will indeed be a Springtime conference. Colby and Kristine have plans for some exciting peripheral events that may include a pre-conference outdoor excursion/concert and special banquet. The 260-acre University of Miami campus is located in Coral Gables, Florida, with easy access from Miami International Airport (MIA) and Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL).

Electronic Submissions and Call for Works With the 2011 conference SEAMUS is making a permanent move to complete online submissions. Details of the process for submitting works online will be provided in an upcoming Call for Works. The change to online submissions puts SEAMUS in line with other media-intensive conferences and will have the benefit of streamlining the adjudication process, which given a substantial increase in the number of submissions over recent years has become a critical need. For the 2011 conference the online submissions will have the added benefit of allowing us to maintain an October submissions deadline in spite of the need for earlier acceptance/confirmation notifications ahead of a January conference.  Christopher Hopkins, Director of Conferences, will host the submissions server with a technical team located at Iowa State University. For answers to questions about submissions formats and procedures not covered in the Call for Works please contact Chris at director_conferences@seamusonline.org. Submissions will be open from August 16 through October 15. The Call for Works will be out shortly.

President Kristine Burns is now broadcasting the latest SEAMUS news via facebook. Now you can stay up to date with electro-acoustic music by following SEAMUS on facebook.

In this first issue of 2010, I’ve brought together more reviews of diverse material.  While some organizations prefer to include only recordings of its membership in reviews, my approach is to bring a variety of material to the attention of our readers. In this spirit, I bring to you a CD by the Japanese composer Miyuki Ito, not very well known in this country.  Also for review in this issue is a review of a recent 3-DVD set of releases by the McLean Mix.

The other review is of a web site whose contents may alarm some at first glance. The Avant Garde Project is a site that is dedicated to re-distributing out-of-print recordings. Most of the recordings are from the mid-century LP era, and most fall under the general category of Modernist “Classical” Avant Garde, although some recordings of improvised music (Derek Bailey, for instance).  There are some recent recordings as well.  It should be known that the proprietor of the site has declared that only out-of-print materials will appear on the site.  If a recording has been re-issued unbeknownst to him, it will be removed.  Indeed, if you look through the offerings, you will find several instances where particular tracks have been removed from circulation.  The music is available in FLAC format as well as MP3.  I’m hoping to make Jay Batzner’s review a regular part of the SEAMUS Newsletter – considering there are 150+ recordings, I’d say we have a lot of material from which to work!

You can read about it  here.

Enjoy!

Anthony Cornicello

REGISTRATION for SEAMUS 2010

PRE-CONFERENCE KYMA WORKSHOP There will be a Pre-SEAMUS Conference Workshop on Kyma, led by Symbolic Sound’s President, Carla Scaletti. It will take place Wednesday, April 7, 2010 from 10 am to 6 pm (w/ 1 hour lunch break). There is no charge to conference participants, but space is limited so please pre-register by March 15 as part of Conference registration (Step 2).

Description: A one-day course on sound design, composition & live performance in the context of the Kyma sound design language. The course will delve into material not covered in Kyma X Revealed. If you are curious about Kyma, the course offers a chance to see Kyma in action, solving sound design and musical problems. If you are Kyma veteran, the course offers some new approaches to teaching Kyma and to using Kyma in your own work (plus a glimpse at some newly developed synthesis algorithms you haven’t heard yet!) If you are new to Kyma, this course can serve as an opportunity to learn more about how to use Kyma.

BULLETIN BOARD There is an electronic bulletin board for making contact with others about ride sharing and room sharing. http://seamus2010.vanillaforums.com/

GETTING FROM MSP TO ST. CLOUD The merger of Northwest and Delta airlines has resulted in flights from Minneapolis to St. Cloud being eliminated. There are, however, Executive Express shuttles from MSP to St. Cloud. Check the Travel and Lodging page in the coming weeks at the conference website for more details about SEAMUS specific shuttles: http://seamus2010.stcloudstate.edu/travel.html.

HEADPHONE CONCERTS Each night of the conference will feature Headphone Concerts, so remember to bring your headphones this year.

You can now register online for SEAMUS 2010 at St. Cloud State University.

Click here to go to step 1 of the online registration process

Welcome to the newly redesigned website for The Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the United States.