Cube Fest 2022

James Bagshaw is a third-year Ph.D. researcher at the University of Hull, investigating the composition of popular music for Higher-Order Ambisonics. Bagshaw is also a full-time lecturer in music at Hull College Group.

Yvette Janine Jackson is a composer focused on narrative soundscape composition and radio opera. Jackson creates episodic electroacoustic experiences that immerse the audience in narratives based on social issues and historical events. Her work has been featured at Fylkingen, Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier Tonspur Passage, International Festival of Computer Art in Maribor, the Fridman Gallery in New York, Tonband Fixed Media Festival at Audiorama, Spreckels Organ in Balboa Park, the San Diego Art Institute, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Borealis Festival, and in residency at Stockholm Elektronmusikstudion. Recent commissions include Lot’s Wife for ensemble and electronics by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Remembering 1619 for violin and tape, Atlantic Crossing read by the Naples Philharmonic with support from the American Composers Orchestra, and Cannot Be (Unrung) for carillon and electronics, which was co-commissioned in 2018 by the University of Chicago and University of Michigan for Tiffany Ng.

Christophe Lengelé is currently working towards a doctorate in music (composition and sound design) at Université de Montréal. Lengelé’s research gathers spatial sound design, electronic and electroacoustic composition, and performance with a special focus on the development of live experimental audio tools and interfaces built from open source software. After studying law and economics and working as a marketing and market analyst in international companies for a few years, Lengelé decided to quit the business field in 2006 and returned to school for electroacoustic composition, receiving a master of arts degree in computer music.

Nikos Stavropoulos (Athens, Greece; 1975) is a composer of predominantly acousmatic and mixed music. Stavropoulos read music at the University of Wales (Bangor, Wales), where he studied composition with Andrew Lewis and completed a doctorate at the University of Sheffield (England) under the supervision of Adrian Moore. His music is performed and broadcast regularly around the world and has been awarded internationally on several occasions. His practice is concerned with notions of tangibility and immersivity in acousmatic experiences and the articulation of acoustic space, in the pursuit of probable aural impossibilities. Since 2006, he has been a member of the Music, Sound, and Performance Group at Leeds Beckett University (Leeds, England), where he is a reader in composition and lectures on electroacoustic music. Stavropoulos is a founding member of the Echochroma New Music Research Group and a member of both the British ElectroAcoustic Network (BEAN) and the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA).

Dexter van der Schyff is a composer, record producer, and DJ based in Montreal. Van der Schyff’s work specializes in multichannel works, dance music, and pop production. He is currently finishing his undergraduate at Concordia's electroacoustics program. Van der Schyff has recently specialized his studies in water-based sound and takes interest in creating forward-thinking pieces centered on hydrophone recordings.

King Britt writes, “I have been a creative working artist, focusing on music for the past 30 years. My work has taken me all over the world, performing, producing, and curating in choice venues such as Berghain (Berlin), MoMaPS1 (New York), and Liquid Room (Tokyo). As a producer, I am always exploring new sonic worlds as a means of personal expression of my powerful lineage as an artist of color. I have broken boundaries, pushed envelopes, and enlightened many on my quest to manifest my aural visions. One of the most fruitful of collaborations has been with legendary singer Roba El-Essawy (MidnightRoba), who laid the groundwork for the early ‘90s trip-hop movement as the powerful voice of London outfit Attica Blues. Channeling ancestral energy from her Egyptian heritage and unparalleled love of jazz, Roba brings a sonic viewpoint that is unique only to her.”

“I have produced and remixed many from Meredeth Monk to Solange to Emily King, always bringing my sound to enhance their already magical artistry,” Britt continues. Recently I have been diving into spatial audio for closer experiences to the divine. I am also a professor at University of California San Diego in computer music and researching sonic worlds.”

Jupiter Blue consists of husband and wife musicians David M. Hotep and Tara “Jupiter Girl Blue” Middleton. Both are current members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of Marshall Allen. Hotep has spent 20 years as the Arkestra's guitarist, while Middleton has honed her performance skills as vocalist, violinist, and lyricist under Marshall Allen's guidance since 2012. While Hotep has had three decades of experience in jazz, avant garde, and experimental music, Middleton has been a musician since early childhood, playing classical violin until college, where she switched her discipline to jazz studies. Together as Jupiter Blue, they bring the unexpected from electronics, electric guitar, and celestially processed vocals and violin; calling forth jazz-sourced vocals, rhythms, harmonic soundscapes, and shadows of unseen worlds.

Sea Novaa is a Bahamian-American composer, sound artist, and sonic activist based in Berlin and New York. Novaa’s classical compositions are deeply influenced by the avant-garde aesthetic, electronic music, Taoism, and their Afro-Caribbean roots. Their works explore themes of nature, spirituality, Afrofuturism, and self-exploration. Novaa seeks to create sound worlds that fuse together acoustic and electronic means of expression.

Stephen James Taylor has composed music for most of the films of Academy Award-winning director Charles Burnett, as well as the musicals, comedies, and dramatic films of Robert Townsend. In 2009 Academy Award-nominated producer Reginald Hudlin tapped Taylor to write all the music for the limited animated series The Black Panther, for which he invented a Wakandan musical dialect for the main title song. His body of work encompasses shows and films from all the major studios. The score to Richard Tanne's feature film, Southside with You, received rave reviews from multiple publications, and his classical orchestral works have been performed by the Atlanta Symphony (1996 Olympics Opening Ceremonies), the Detroit Symphony, and the Cleveland Symphony. After receiving his music composition degree from Stanford, Taylor went on to study privately for several years with Henri Lazarof (composition professor at UCLA), Dr. Albert Harris (conducting), and microtonal scale pioneer Ervin Wilson. For more information, please visit stephenjamestaylor.com.

John Young is a composer whose output includes multichannel acousmatic pieces, large-scale radiophonic work, and music combining instruments and electroacoustic sounds. Young’s music uses computer technology to transform and reassemble sounds in new ways to create sonic drama and musical development. Some of his recent work has used oral history and archival recordings in a narrative-based approach to electroacoustic music. He is professor of composition in the Institute for Sonic Creativity at De Montfort University, Leicester, having previously been director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Commissions include works for the GRM (Paris), the IMEB (Bourges), Distractfold Ensemble (Manchester), and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (New Zealand).  In 2015 he was the recipient of a KEAR fellowship at BGSU (Ohio). Two solo discs of Young’s work are available on the Empreintes Digitales label at electrocd.com/en/bio/young_jo/discog/.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Chris Coleman is a transgender composer and conductor and comedian who taught music for 30 years at Hong Kong Baptist University. Coleman’s music ranges from large-scale multimedia/improvisation pieces to works for orchestra, symphonic band, chamber ensemble, instrumental solo, fixed media, and voice; their CD Multiple Worlds is published by Ablaze Records. Coleman is a founding member of People’s Liberation Improv, Hong Kong’s longest-running comedy improv troupe, and has performed with them in Beijing, Seoul, and Manila. A trans-media artist, Coleman also works in painting, sculpture, and computer graphics and performs stand-up comedy under the name Rose Rage.

Born in Athens, Greece, Orestis Karamanlis has, upon completing a Ph.D. in electroacoustic composition, been active in composing new music and lecturing in academia. Currently a scholar at the University of Athens, Karamanlis has produced a diverse body of sound art and new media work, which is frequently performed in concert venues and urban spaces. For more information, please visit orestiskaramanlis.net.

Composer João Pedro Oliveira holds the Corwin Endowed Chair in Composition for the University of California at Santa Barbara. Oliveira studied organ performance, composition, and architecture in Lisbon. He completed a Ph.D. in music at the University of New York at Stony Brook. His music includes opera, orchestral compositions, chamber music, electroacoustic music, and experimental video. He has received over 50 international prizes and awards for his works, including three prizes at Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, the prestigious Magisterium Prize and Giga-Hertz Special Award, first prize in the Metamorphoses competition, first prize in the Yamaha-Visiones Sonoras Competition, and first prize in the Musica Nova competition. He taught at Aveiro University (Portugal) and Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Oliveira’s publications include several articles in journals and a book on 20^th-century music theory. For more information, please visit jpoliveira.com.

Barry Truax is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Communication (and formerly the School for the Contemporary Arts) at Simon Fraser University, where he taught courses in acoustic communication and electroacoustic music. Truax worked with the World Soundscape Project, editing its Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, and has published a book, Acoustic Communication, dealing with sound and technology. As a composer, he is best known for his work with the PODX computer music system, which he has used for tape solo works, music theatre pieces, and those with live performers or computer graphics. In 1991 his work, Riverrun, was awarded the Magisterium at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, France. Truax’s multi-channel soundscape compositions are frequently featured in concerts and festivals around the world. In 2015-2016 he was the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor at the Technical University in Berlin. For more information, please visit sfu.ca/~truax.

Lidia Zielinska studied composition with Andrzej Koszewski at the Music Academy in Poznan (Poland). Zielinska has worked at the Experimental Studio of Polish Radio in Warsaw, IPEM/BRT in Ghent, EMS in Stockholm, ZKM in Karlsruhe and Experimentalstudio des SWR Freiburg. She currently holds the post of professor of composition and head of the SMEAMuz Studio of Electroacoustic Music at Poznan’s Music Academy. She has conducted summer courses, workshops, and seminars and published and lectured extensively on contemporary Polish music, the history of experimental music, sound ecology, and traditional Japanese music at the invitation of universities in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Zielinska is the vice president of the Polish Association for Electroacoustic Music, former vice president of the board of the Polish Composers’ Union, and member of the program committee of the Warsaw Autumn Festival.

Philippe-Aubert Gauthier is a professor at École des arts visuels et médiatiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada). Originally trained in engineering and acoustics, Gauthier has been active in spatial audio research since 2003. As an artist, he is interested in the intricacies and exploratory combinations of arts, sciences, and technologies. Working mostly within the field of sound and digital arts, he explores the social and cultural meanings of technology while using art and creation as critical methods. Within the field’s sound and music, Gauthier explores perception and technologies with pieces inspired by his background in acoustics, signal processing, virtual acoustics, and sound technology. Gauthier published more than 60 scientific communications and created more than 40 art pieces. His research is supported by Fonds Recherche Québec, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council–Canada, MITACS, and industrial partners.

Simon Le Boggit is a multimedia artist living and working in Lincolnshire, U.K. Focusing on the distillation of meaning from chaos, Le Boggit’s works include evocative textured walls of sound and the generation of chaotic algorithmic musical compositions capable of creating moments of “apparent intentionality” where any melody, harmony, and syncopation is a product of chance and the human compulsion to identify patterns. His works have been performed and exhibited worldwide, including Birmingham, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Athens, Barcelona, Moscow, Seoul, Vancouver, New York, and Blacksburg.

Ryne Siesky’s work as a composer explores the intersections of art and music, bringing focus to the idiosyncrasies of music creation and sonic processes. Environmentalism, aestheticism, psychology, and social justice are at the forefront of Siesky’s influences. His music has been performed by Hypercube, Switch~ Ensemble, Invicta Sax Quartet, Robert Black, Lindsay Garritson, and Laura Silva, among others. His music has also been featured at several festivals such as the Diffrazioni Firenze Multimedia Festival, Festival DME, Ecos Urbanos, Atemporanea Festival, Charlotte New Music Festival, N_SEME, and the Society of Composers, Inc. Recently, his work for 8.1 channel fixed media, ...grind…, was selected for presentation at the 2020 SEAMUS National Conference and the 2020 International New Music Festival at USF. Siesky is currently working on a doctor of musical arts in composition at the University of Miami, Frost School of Music.

Active as a composer and sound designer, Roxanne Turcotte has built her aesthetics around a cinema-like art of integration. Turcotte also creates and performs music for television, cinema, radio, the stage, the internet, and circus arts, in addition to creating sound, music, and visual installations. She sits on composition juries and regularly performs composition training sessions and workshops. Turcotte has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ). She has 10 recordings, a few publications, numerous concerts with various music ensembles, and multiple tours and concerts in Canada, U.S., and Europe under her belt.