The SEAMUS Board of Directors is an elected body of individual, volunteer members who work diligently to keep our organization running smoothly. The Board Members each serve in two-year terms. To ensure smooth transitions SEAMUS holds nominations for half of these positions annually. This year, we will be holding elections for Treasurer, Vice President of Programs and Secretary. Click here for more details.
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Producer Jack Dangers has released a re-realization of the Barron's historic 1956 soundtrack to MGM's epic sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. Entitled Forbidden Planet Explored, it is available on the Important Records label.

Early proteges of John Cage, Louis and Bebe Barron's influence on the escalation of electronic music is immeasurable. Among many groundbreaking acheivements, they were the first ever commissioned to write an all-electronic score to a major motion picture. MGM's 1956 release of Forbidden Planet was, for many of us, our introduction to electronic music and that may still be true today as the soundtrack to that album is one of the best selling original electronic music albums ever released.

In a recent week-long interview conducted by NPR's Susan Stone, Bebe Barron went into detail on the role she played in the realization of their historic body of work which accompanied Forbidden Planet - her recording, editing and sifting through hours of source materials for snippets worthy of further processing. Due to conflicts with union regulations, these efforts went largely unnoticed by the crediting institutions at the time -- but this all changed on February 7th with National Public Radio's insightful focus into the Barron's pioneering experiements.

SEAMUSONLINE spoke to Susan Stone about the interview, the effect it had on her, and on working with Bebe. click here to read the interview

For those who may have missed it, you can stil hear the NPR braodcast in its entirety by clicking here

photo credit: Susan Stone

IMPORTANT UPDATE

SEAMUS 2005 notifications are now in the process of being emailed. Adjudication results for a small number of video and multi-channel works are still being compiled. Also to be finalized are some works that require local performance resources. Every effort is being made to resolve all remaining issues regarding the music and video submissions by 2/20, with final acceptance emails for these and paper submissions going out shortly afterward.

Keep your browsers pointed to the official SEAMUS 2005 webspace for more information

CALL FOR NOMINEES: SEAMUS Board of Directors

The SEAMUS Board of Directors is an elected body of individual, volunteer members who work diligently to keep our organization running smoothly. The Board Members each serve in two-year terms. To ensure smooth transitions SEAMUS holds nominations for half of these positions annually. This year, we will be holding elections for the following positions:

Secretary:

The Secretary of the Board is responsible for taking, editing, and distributing board meeting minutes (the meetings all take place at the annual conference) as well as gathering and coordinating board email discussions throughout the year.

Treasurer:

The Treasurer of the Board is responsible for providing annual fiscal reports to the Board, generating and filing annual SEAMUS tax reports, working in consort with the VP for Membership by depositing member dues, and other aspects of our fiscal operations.

Vice President for Programs:

The VP for Programs works to develop innovative programs for SEAMUS and to coordinate current program offerings. The VP for Programs serves as the point person for SEAMUS EA Music Month, including the production and dissemination of the SEAMUS EA Music Month posters.

At this point, we are requesting nominations for people who are willing to serve on the SEAMUS Board in one of these positions. If you are interested, yourself, or would like to nominate someone else to serve, please contact me at r.pinkston@mail.utexas.edu. If you wish to someone else, please contact them to determine if they are willing to serve before submitting your nomination. Please get your nominations in to me by Sunday, February 13th. As a part of your nomination, please indicate which of the board positions the candidate is interested in filling.

Once the candidates for these board positions have been identified, we will mail out an official ballot (late-February). The results of the election will be announced at SEAMUS 2005 at Ball State University and the new officers' terms will officially begin at the general membership meeting at the conference.

click here for a listing of the current SEAMUS Board of Directors

Alex Shapiro is a familiar face in southern California’s new music community, as a well known composer, activist and event moderator. Although the majority of her catalog is filled with chamber works for acoustic ensembles, she's worked closely with electronic music since the mid 1970s, progressing from the joys of a modular Aries system, to the Buchla's 100 Series groovy touch sensitive pads, on to the land of Arps, and then to the brave new world of Yamaha's DX7 algorithms. Exhausted from soldering patch cords, Alex now enjoys the serenity of programming within the safe confines of her trusty CPU, using Digital Performer and Mach Five. From 1983 to 1997, Alex used her digital studio to compose scores for film, TV and documentary projects. Since then, she's hiked up her electricity bills by creating electro-acoustic works for solo performers accompanied by a prerecorded track. Alex's electronic works have been commissioned by clarinetist F. Gerard Errante, 5-string electric violinists Sabrina Ann Berger and Mary Lou Newmark, and contrabassoonist Carolyn Beck. New electro-acoustic works are currently being composed for bassist Tom Peters and Great Highlands bagpiper Ian Whitelaw, and a CD of all of these will be released in late 2005.

Published by Activist Music, Alex's scores are found in libraries and universities nationwide, and her works are performed weekly in concerts across the U.S. and internationally. Her music can be heard on the Cambria Master Recordings, Innova Recordings and Oehms Classics labels as well as on many NPR radio stations.

Born in New York City in 1962, Alex was educated at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, where she was a student of Ursula Mamlok and John Corigliano.

Earlier composition studies from age fifteen were with Leo Edwards at Mannes College of Music and with Michael Czajkowski and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music School. Ms. Shapiro is the recipient of national honors and awards including those from The American Music Center, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum and Mu Phi Epsilon, and she has been awarded artist fellowships from The California Arts Council and The MacDowell Colony.

Alex is President of the Board of Directors of The American Composers Forum of Los Angeles, and has also served as an officer on the boards of national music organizations including NACUSA, The College Music Society, and The Society of Composers & Lyricists. She resides in Malibu and Santa Barbara, California, and when she's not composing she can often be found ocean kayaking, sailing, or communing with the sea life at the tide pools.

To hear audio clips of several of Alex’s electro-acoustic works, click here

You may also visit alexshipiro.org for more information.

The SEAMUS MEMBER FOCUS is an ongoing news feature of SEAMUSONLINE. which randomly spotlights individuals from it's fellowship. Members are asked to keep their webspaces current...you could very likely be next!

SEAMUS's 20th anniversary was recently recognized in the May edition of Mix Magazine. For anyone who may have missed it in print, the article is still featured on MIXonline: go here

Music From SEAMUS, Vol 13

The 13th edition in the Music From SEAMUS CD series has been released. Taken from works presented at the 2003 National Conference at ASU, this compilation includes Mark Applebaum, John Appleton, Larry Austin, Benjamin Broening, Konstantinos Karathanasis, Elainie Lillios, James Mobberley, Noel Paul and Russell Pinkston. click here to order.

Journal SEAMUS Editors appointed

We are very pleased to announce that we have completed our Journal SEAMUS/ staff with the addition of two new editors.

Tae Hong Park has agreed to serve as Managing Editor, and will, therefore, will coordinate all the submissions, send materials out for review, collate the results of the jury, and then pass them along to the Editor if they are acceptable, or work with the author on suggested revisions.

Clay Chaplin has agreed to serve as the Assistant Editor of Festivals and Conferences. He will identify events and potential reviewers, and coordinate submissions.

The editors encourage contributions in the form of papers, articles and review items from all members of the electro-acoustic music community, including composers, performers, and researchers. Areas of interest include the aesthetics, theory, technology, and history of electro-acoustic music in the United States. All contributions are reviewed by a jury of SEAMUS members.

Please submit items for consideration to Kristine H. Burns Editor, Journal SEAMUS, Florida International University, School of Music, University Park Campus, Miami, FL 33199.

The Society recently conducted a survey among its membership to determine the priorities and needs the society must address in the coming years. Top level results of that survey can be seen here

SEAMUS wishes to congratulate Barry Vercoe as the recipient of the 17th Annual Seamus Lifetime Achievement Award on April 24th

Barry Vercoe, Professor of Music and Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, and Assoc Academic Head of the Program in Media Arts & Sciences has been awarded the recipient of the 2004 SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award. full story

Every year, the Board of Directors selects the recipient of the SEAMUS Award, in recognition of lifetime achievement and contribution to the art and craft of electro-acoustic music. The award is presented at the SEAMUS National Conference.

The 16 previous award winners are listed below. Click on the recipient name for a bio:

SEAMUS would like to gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the following companies in sponsoring the 2004 member survey: Native Instruments, Bias and Sonic Foundry/Sony.

Get Involved

More News Archives

Past SEAMUSONLINE front pages can be reveiwed here

Comments? Questions? Contact?

email the President, Russell Pinkston
email the VP of Membership, Brian Belet
email the SEAMUSONLINE webmaster

The SEAMUS Webpeople are currently updating the contact information of the Members Listings section of SEAMUSONLINE (go here). If you are not currently listed or if your link is incorrectly listed, drop them a line here. Current SEAMUS members may request either a website or email link, not both.

Scott Smallwood • Electrotherapy (deep listening)

David Ozab • Tempo Ficta (cdbaby.com)

Michael Rhoades • Dream Travels and the 18th Rule (Perception Factory)

.(SEAMUS members - send info on
your CD releases here)

The annual SEAMUS National Conference is the cornerstone ofhe organization's yearly schedule. If you and your institution are interested in hosting one of these prestigious events, click here to download the SEAMUS National Conference Handbook for guidelines.