For immediate release:
Isabelle Deconinck
212-727-7662

A live performance of two seminal works by one of the world’s leading electronic music composers, Philippe Manoury

Philippe Manoury: Jupiter and En Echo

September 20, 2005—Electronic Music Foundation, in collaboration with New York University’s Music Technology program, presents live music by leading, contemporary French composer, Philippe Manoury. Renowned for his long-time association with IRCAM (Institute of Acoustic/Music Research and Coordination, Centre Pompidou, Paris), Manoury is considered one of the most gifted composers of his generation for his seamless integration of computer music techniques and instrumental/operatic traditions, an integration that moves beyond technological achievement and into the realm of art. Presented as part of NYU’s Interactive Arts Performance Series, the concert features Manoury’s classics, Jupiter for solo flute and real-time electronic system, and En Echo for soprano and interactive computer electronics. Performers include Elizabeth McNutt (flute), Juliana Snapper (voice), and Manoury’s long-time collaborator, Miller Puckette (live electronics), who has contributed to the genesis of both works, with Philippe Manoury overseeing the performance.

Both of Manoury’s works, Jupiter and En Echo, are some of the most sophisticated and compelling electronic compositions created in the late 80s and early 90s—a period during which IRCAM was actively developing innovative software and hardware for electronic music. Composed as part of Sonus ex Machina, a cycle of interactive pieces which also includes Pluton, Neptune and La Partition du Ciel et de l’Enfer, Jupiter (1987) explores Manoury’s long-time interest in using live electronics as an extension of the live instrument. Prerecorded passages in the solo instrumental parts are subsequently recognized by the computer, which in turn activates a complementary response. The enrichment provided by this technique allows for a new distribution of sound in space, parallel to the numerous transformations taking place in the solo part.

En Echo (1993) marks the culmination of Manoury’s eight-year tenure as a researcher at IRCAM. During that time, the composer collaborated with Puckette to work out techniques for synchronizing electronic music with live performers, while using the sonic quality of the instrument to control selected aspects of the overall sonority of the electronic part. En Echo is set to seven poems written by Emmanuel Hocquart in collaboration with Manoury, and centered in the recollections and erotic longing of Nabokov’s Lolita.

WHEN: Monday, October 17, 2005 at 8pm
WHERE: New York University’s Frederick Loewe Theater (35 West 4th St., NYC)
TICKETS: Admission is free.
For more information, visit www.emf.org or call 212-998-5422.

Biographies:
Born in France in 1952, Philippe Manoury studied piano with Pierre Sancan, musical analysis with Claude Ballif, composition with Gerard Conde and Max Deutsch, and computer music with Pierre Barbaud. In 1978, he began teaching during his residency in Brazil at the Universidade Nacionale do Estade de Sao Paulo. A major appointment followed at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Lyon (1986-96). Most significant is his long association with the world's leading center for computer music research, IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique), where he has worked as a Research Scientist since 1984, and as a Professor of Composition since 1993. For the European Year of Music, the Council of Europe commissioned Manoury to compose Aleph, which premiered in 1985. One of his most important works is the Sonus ex Machina series for solo instruments and real-time computer processing. Manoury has also composed three operas: 60eme Parallele, which premiered at the Theatre du Chatelet in March 1997; La Frontiere; and K…, commissioned and premiered by the Paris Opera and produced again by the Opera de la Bastille in April and May 2005.

Miller Puckette was the top scorer in the 1979-1980 William Lowell Putnam mathematics competition and was awarded Putnam and NSF fellowships to study mathematics at MIT and Harvard, where he finished his Ph.D. From 1979 through 1986 Puckette also studied computer music with Barry Vercoe at the MIT Media Lab. He then joined IRCAM in Paris, where he wrote the Max graphic programming language, which has become the lingua franca of live computer music. In 1994 Puckette joined UCSD where he is now professor of music and associate director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts. Since 1997 Puckette has also been part of the Global Visual Music project (with Mark Danks, Rand Steiger, and Vibeke Sorensen), which has been generously supported by a grant from the Intel Research Council.

Flutist Elizabeth McNutt has worked with such recognized figures as Pierre Boulez, Philippe Manoury, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa, and Joan Tower. Particularly drawn to the new sound worlds of electronic music, she collaborates intensively with composers and technologists to create groundbreaking works for flute and live interactive computer systems. McNutt has given solo recitals, often incorporating electronics, in Saint Louis, Birmingham, Chicago, San Diego, Providence, Frankfurt, and other U.S. and European cities. She has performed music for flute and electronics at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, the Berkeley Symphony, the National Flute Association Convention, June in Buffalo Festivals, International Computer Music Conferences, and SEAMUS National Conferences.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, soprano Juliana Snapper won the Blanche Thebom/Metropolitan Opera Council Award at 17 and went on to earn degrees in performance and critical studies in music from the Oberlin Conservatory and U.C. San Diego. Her performances and intermedia collaborations have been featured at SUSHI Performance and Visual Art (CA), The UCLA Armand Hammer museum (CA), the Participant Inc. gallery (NY), the NYC MIX Festival, the Istanbul Music Festival, The UK Fierce! Festival and Visions of Excess, Lubljana, Slovenia. Snapper performed the American premiere of Philippe Manoury's En Echo, with Miller Puckette at the New York Sounds French Festival, Stanford University, and The San Diego Museum of Art. She recently sang in a national tour of Eileen Myles'/Michael Webster's opera Hell, and toured the UK with The Judas Cradle, developed with artist Ron Athey, and premiered at Los Angeles’ RedCat Theater in 2005.

Electronic Music Foundation’s mission is to empower individual creativity in music worldwide by producing events of international interest, communicating the history and creative potential of electronic music to the public, encouraging worldwide community and cultural diversity, inspiring engagement with environmental issues, and fostering the development and exchange of new ideas at the crossroads of music and technology. EMF produces events, commissions new work, publishes and distributes materials, and maintains a global network of contacts and collaborators. For more information on Electronic Music Foundation, please visit: <http://www.emf.org>

This performance is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

For press inquiries, please contact:
Isabelle Deconinck
La PR - Press & Marketing for the Arts
212-727-7662 / isadeco@earthlink.net
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