Aurie Hsu and Steven Kemper

Aurie Hsu, belly dancer

Paula Matthusen

Juraj Kojs and Adrian Knight

[Natacha Diels flutes]
[Dave Broome Rhodes]
[Luke Dubois video]

FETA and the FRIENDS altogether

David D. McIntire

[David D. McIntire]
[Ryan Oldham]
[Brian Padavic]

Aurie Hsu is a composer, pianist, and belly dancer. She has presented pieces at ICMC, SEAMUS, SIGCHI, Pixelerations, FETA’s Acoustica 21 and 12 Nights, Third Practice Festival, and the Logos Tetrahedron Concert Hall. Aurie performs with the RAKS (Remote electroAcoustic Kinesthetic Sensing) system, a wireless sensor interface designed for belly dance developed in collaboration with composer Steven Kemper. She received a Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies from the University of Virginia and holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College. Aurie is a Lecturer in the Mason Gross School of the Arts Music Department at Rutgers University. auriehsu.com

Steven Kemper creates music for acoustic instruments, instruments and computers, musical robots, dance, video, and networked systems. His compositions have been performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, NOW ensemble, and the Grupo Sax-Ensemble, and presented at SMC, ICMC, SEAMUS, SIGCHI, 12 Nights, Third Practice Festival, Pixilerations, American Composers Alliance Festival of American Music, and the Seoul International Computer Music Festival. Steven received a Ph.D. in composition and computer technologies from the University of Virginia. Steven is currently Assistant Professor of Music Technology and Composition in the Music Department at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. stevenkemper.com

Teka-Mori for belly dancer, RAKS (Remote electroAcoustic Kinesthetic Sensing) system, and computer-generated sound, features an interactive relationship between movement and music and conveys a dystopian, “broken-machine” aesthetic through noisy, distorted sonic materials.

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. Her work often considers discrepancies in musical space—real, imagined, and remembered. Her music has been performed by Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, orchest de ereprijs, the Estonian National Ballet, The Glass Farm Ensemble, James Moore, Will Smith, Terri Hron, Kathryn Woodard, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster and Jody Redhage. Awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Awards, the MacCracken and Langley Ryan Fellowship, and recently the 2014 Elliott Carter Rome Prize. Matthusen is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. paulamatthusen.com

eden's arch of promise bending: The piece is based on the composer's investigation of the Old Croton Aqueduct.

Adrian Knight (b. 1987, Uppsala, Sweden) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. His works are published by Project Schott New York. Commissions and performances include pieces for The Living Earth Show, R. Andrew Lee, Minnesota Orchestra, Mobius Trio, Red Light Ensemble, Nonsemble 6, Tigue, Margaret Lancaster and the Yale School of Drama. In 2008 he founded the record label Pink Pamphlet as an outlet for his own and his friends' recorded work. He is a founding member of Blue Jazz TV and ambient duo Private Elevators. He performs and writes regularly with David Lackner in the Synthetic Love Dream Band. adrian-knight.com

Juraj Kojs (Slovakia/USA). Miami New Times described his muscle-powered multimedia Neraissance as "striking and unforgettable," and MiamiArtZine called his Signals "enthralling and immersive." Kojs’s commissions include Meet the Composer, Harvestworks and Miami Theater Center. Kojs published in Organized Sound, Leonardo Music Journal and Journal of New Music Research. Kojs directs Foundation for Emerging Technologies and Arts (FETA). He holds a Ph.D in Composition and Computer Technologies from University of Virginia and taught at Medialogy Aalborg University, Yale University, University of Virginia and Miami International University. Kojs is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice at University of Miami's Frost School of Music. kojs.net

Natacha Diels is a performing and composing musician. She founded the experimental chamber group Ensemble Pamplemousse and has been its executive director since 2002, and is one-half of the performance duo On Structure. Her work has been performed by JACK Quartet, Dal Niente, ICE Ensemble, Anne La Berge, and Pamplemousse, among others. She has been programmed by such organizations as New York’s MATA Festival, Louisville’s Experimental Music Festival, Roulette, the Bar Harbor Music Festival, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. As a performer, she has premiered solo and chamber works around the world by composers such as George Lewis, Alvin Lucier, Chiyoko Szlavnics, and Tristan Perich. Natacha can be heard as flautist and composer on Carrier Records (with Ensemble Pamplemousse) and as flautist on New World Records (with Christian Wolff). She is currently in her fifth year of enrollment in Columbia University’s doctoral composition program. natachapop.com

An imaginative and versatile pianist/composer, David Broome has a playful taste for all genres of music. His performances have been appreciated in America, Australia, Russia and across Europe. He has been described in the New York Times as a “deft and focused performer,” as well as an artist who composes “juicily atmospheric music.” Time-Out NY has commented on his “human-paced repose” and The AU Review described him as being “soaked with unbelievable talent.” David holds a Master’s of Music from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor’s of Music from Towson University where he studied with pianists – Phillip Kawin, Anthony de Mare and Reynaldo Reyes.

R. Luke DuBois is a composer, artist, and performer who explores the temporal, verbal, and visual structures of cultural and personal ephemera. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University, and has lectured and taught worldwide on interactive sound and video performance. He has collaborated on interactive performance, installation, and music production work with many artists and organizations including Toni Dove, Todd Reynolds, Jamie Jewett, Bora Yoon, Michael Joaquin Grey, Matthew Ritchie, Elliott Sharp, Michael Gordon, Maya Lin, Bang on a Can, Engine 27, Harvestworks, and LEMUR, and was the director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra for its 2007 season. lukedubois.com

David D. McIntire was born in upstate New York and has had some training on the clarinet. He has maintained his livelihood through playing, teaching, composing, and writing about music. Also played clarinet and saxophone with a number of groups, including the Colorblind James Experience and the Whitman/McIntire Duo. Presently, he leads the Ensemble of Irreproducible Outcomes, a trio of composer/performers devoted to indeterminate music. He holds music degrees from Nazareth College of Rochester, Ithaca College and in 2009 received a DMA in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he was awarded a Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship. He currently serves on the board of Electronic Music Midwest and teaches at Missouri Western State University. He also operates Irritable Hedgehog, a label specializing in minimal and electroacoustic repertoire, whose releases have been widely praised for their excellence and historical importance.

Composer and trumpeter Ryan Oldham (b. 1977) is currently an adjunct assistant professor at UMKC (University of Missouri – Kansas City). He holds degrees from the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance (D.M.A.), University of Louisville (M.M, and the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (B.A.). He primarily writes music for acoustic instruments. His works vary in scope, from several operas to piano miniatures - and everything in between. Oldham’s music has been performed in Sweden, Mexico, and the United States. In addition to composition, Oldham is a trumpet player and contributing composer in the free-form improvisation trio E.I.O. (Ensemble of Irreproducible Outcomes).

Brian Padavic is a composer, bassist, and music educator residing in Kansas City. The music that Mr. Padavic composes and performs covers a wide range of musical genres, from jazz to rock, contemporary chamber ensembles to avant garde improvisations, and American to European folk music. Mr. Padavic received his Master's degree in composition from the University of Missouri- Kansas City in 2012, and also holds a Bachelor's degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA (2007). He taught for four years in the Recording Arts Department at Johnson County Community College, performs frequently in the Kansas City metropolitan area, and is constantly pursuing events to showcase his music and the music of his improv group, The Ensemble of Irreproducible Outcomes. Mr. Padavic's most recent ambitions led him to study in Paris, France, with legendary double bassist, François Rabbath, as the recipient of the Lighton International Artist Exchange Program and an Inspiration Grant from ArtsKC.

Trio & Sine Waves unites three separate and seemingly unrelated audio entities. The first is a field recording that I made during a snow storm in early 2013. I put my flash recorder out on our back porch for an hour or so, wondering if I could actually capture the sound of snow falling. Along with the snow and the wind, a number of birds came by to offer their input. Cardinals, bluejays, crows and others all make their presence known. Second, a cascade of sine waves, produced in such a way that with each new wave, the frequencies change slightly (and unpredictably), so that one never hears any combination more than once. These are not tuned to any tempered scale. Finally, the trio. When we perform this piece, each member chooses two pitches (without telling the others), which are the only ones used for the duration. Any “noises” that can be produced by each instrument are also permitted. We strive to embed our utterances seamlessly into the fabric of the field recording and the electronics. With each new performance a new mix of the electronics is made, varying the sine waves and layering in earlier performances (in a highly treated and concealed manner). Trio is an intense piece to perform. The goal is to create a wholly unified sonic landscape from its disparate elements. We usually play seated, and prefer intimate spaces, where we can play very softly and be heard easily. The concentration required over a sustained span, along with the demands on endurance make it a simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating prospect. Originally, performances lasted about 35 minutes. The piece has grown over time, now generally clocking in at about 50 minutes.