Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: 6th UC Electroacoustic Music Festival returns with three digital concerts
From April 14 to 16, a complete overview of the electroacoustic music currently being created in South America will be offered. There will be works by national composers and also from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Man, sitting, arms in the air. Next to it is a table with an Apple notebook. Behind it is a screen with blue graphics.
photo_camera Composer Rodrigo Cádiz will be in charge of the festival.
After being postponed last year due to the health emergency, the Electroacoustic Music Festival of the Catholic University returns to the scene . The sixth edition of this free event will be held in streaming, due to the pandemic. There will be three digital concerts that will be broadcast on Musica.uc.cl and YouTube at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday 14, Thursday 15 and Friday 16 April.
“The meetings, festivals and cycles in its multiple musical languages related to the written tradition also characterize the UC Institute of Music today. Academic commissions actively participate, who carry out a selection process for programs or works, which then give rise, for example, to the Electroacoustic Music Festival ” , highlights Gerardo Salazar, deputy director of the UC Institute of Music.
The festival is directed by the composer Rodrigo Cádiz, professor at the UC Institute of Music.
“In this music the focus is not so much on the melodies or the rhythms, but on the sound itself. Anyone with a computer or a cell phone and a good pair of headphones or speakers will be able to experience this sonic universe. The invitation is to experience music in a different way, and get to know the work of true ring craftsmen, where creators pay attention to the smallest details of the listening experience ” , indicates Rodrigo Cádiz.
21 compositions were selected that account for the wide variety of aesthetics of electroacoustic music that is being composed today in South America. They are works created between 2015 and the current year, by national composers and also from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela.
At the end of June, the Catholic University will hold the International Computer Music Conference, in virtual format, with dozens of guests from North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
“In this version we can see a consolidation at the Latin American level of the festival, and that translates into a variety of aesthetics, which adds to the fact that more than half of the composers had never been presented at the festival. A renovation is taking place, and that is very valuable, ” says Cádiz.
Each day will exhibit a balance between acoustic works, that is, that were thought to be broadcast through a speaker system, and mixed music, that is, works thought for a concert, with instrumentalists and computer or electronics on stage.
The festival will digitally bring together submissions by UC musicians with international composers.
Absolute premieres
Among the material, new accusmatic works by the Chileans Miguel Farías (1983), Javier Majluf (1977), and Emilio Adasme (1994), and by the composers Luis Martínez (1986), from Bolivia and Alexis Perepelycia (1979), stand out. from Argentina.
The youngest composer to be selected is from Chile: Ricardo Monsalve (1995), who will also have an absolute premiere: Polluted Texture # 2. In this work, he articulates a series of noise variations that develop into a long-lasting texture. The world premiere of Estudio en clave, by Tomás Koljatic (1981), an algorithmic composition study based on processes of accumulation and rarefaction of textures generated from a brief sample of keys, will also be offered.
There will also be premieres in Chile. Kinetic Images by Sandra González (1971) and Piedras by Pedro Bas (1966) arrive from Argentina. The latter was created for a choreography that portrays the history of the city of Tandil, which is located on a 2,200 million-old geological formation.
In the field of mixed music, Cristian Morales-Ossio (1967) stands out with the work for baritone saxophone and electronics in real time Formas de convergencia; Guillermo Eisner (1980) with Esquinas, for flute, electroacoustic and video. Meanwhile, Rodrigo Cádiz (1972) presents Sibila, whose interpretation is performed using a GameTrack, a very popular interface in laptop orchestras. The sound material is made based on physical models of whistles and bowls in the Faust programming language. This recording was recorded on a unique date: October 18, 2019, at the Ai-Maako Festival.
The 6th Electroacoustic Music Festival will also offer a preview of a great musical event that will be hosted by Chile for the first time.
Guillermo Eisner will present Esquinas, for flute, electroacoustic and video.
“A selection of the best works of the festival will be included in the International Computer Music Conference, or ICMC, which is the most important event in the world that brings together people who make music by computer” , Cádiz advances.
This edition of the ICMC is organized by the Catholic University and will take place at the end of July, in virtual format, with dozens of guests from North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
“It will be the first time that it will be held in South America, and the second that it will be held in Latin America. It lasts a whole week and consists of presentations of the latest research in computational music. There will be four concerts a day, and rooms to listen to acoustic music and to see audiovisual works. It also includes discussion panels on different topics, lectures and workshops ” , Rodrigo Cádiz closes.