Wednesday, August 21, 2013
SOMERVILLE LOU COHEN FREE CONCERT - August 24, 2013
Lou Cohen: Music | CD Release Party
Symphony 8
an algorithmic electronic composition by Lou Cohen
Shape09
an algorithmic electronic composition by Lou Cohen
Grizzler
performs a new composition by Lou Cohen: grizzles
as well as something else
In addition, we will take some extra time between sets to chat about Lou, and his music.
Our thoughts go to Lou and his family as he faces the final stages of cancer.
________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, August 24, 2013 (special 3 pm start time)
Third Life Studios
33 Union Square
Somerville, MA
(Almost at the heart of Union Square, on the segment of
Somerville Ave. coming into Union Square from Porter Square)
For directions and parking:
http://www.thirdlifestudio.com/directions.html
Doors open at 2:45. Music at around 3:00 p.m.
free admission
________________________________________________________________________________
Lou Cohen, born 1937, has composed music since age 11. He studied mathematics at MIT, and has studied music privately. Composition teachers include John Cage, Ernst Levy and Alan Kemler. He studied harpsichord and early music performance practice with John Gibbons. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Readings that have influenced him a great deal: Joseph Schillinger's The Mathematical Basis of the Arts and The Schillinger System of Musical Composition; and Iannis Xenakis's Formalized Music.
In the early 1960s Cohen promoted new music in the Boston area by producing concerts in collaboration with Christian Wolff, in which the New York School was heavily represented. For a long time afterwards while working as a software engineer and product development consultant he composed in isolation. In April 2004 he produced his first concert in more than 40 years, in collaboration with the electro-acoustic group ONDA.
Since then he has appeared as a laptop improviser in numerous concerts in the Greater Boston area. The laptop software created by Cohen responds to movements of wiimote game controllers, and uses Csound to create sounds. Over the years he has performed with many fine musicians, including John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Christian Wolff, Ken Ueno, Tim Feeney, James Coleman, Lou Bunk, Joshua Jefferson, Andrew Eisenberg, Vic Rawlings, David Tudor, Jack Wright, Katt Hernandez, Forbes Graham, Paul Hoskin, Andrea Pensado and many others.
His collaborations with video artist Bebe Beard, and his own computer animations have been shown in many galleries and film festivals around the world.
Cohen's compositions from 1960 to 1990 were written for a range of instrumental ensembles, and generally algorithmically employed 12-tone and serial techniques. A few of these pieces used open score and chance processes as well.
Starting around 1990, Cohen switched to composing using computer-generated sounds and software-computed structures. The programmable synthesizer Csound has been the primary tool for this work along with software of his own design. Most of these pieces were composed by means of algorithmic and stochastic processes, with emphasis on granular synthesis.
________________________________________________________________________________
More information available on the web: www.opensound.org
Symphony 8
an algorithmic electronic composition by Lou Cohen
Shape09
an algorithmic electronic composition by Lou Cohen
Grizzler
performs a new composition by Lou Cohen: grizzles
as well as something else
In addition, we will take some extra time between sets to chat about Lou, and his music.
Our thoughts go to Lou and his family as he faces the final stages of cancer.
________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, August 24, 2013 (special 3 pm start time)
Third Life Studios
33 Union Square
Somerville, MA
(Almost at the heart of Union Square, on the segment of
Somerville Ave. coming into Union Square from Porter Square)
For directions and parking:
http://www.thirdlifestudio.com/directions.html
Doors open at 2:45. Music at around 3:00 p.m.
free admission
________________________________________________________________________________
Lou Cohen, born 1937, has composed music since age 11. He studied mathematics at MIT, and has studied music privately. Composition teachers include John Cage, Ernst Levy and Alan Kemler. He studied harpsichord and early music performance practice with John Gibbons. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Readings that have influenced him a great deal: Joseph Schillinger's The Mathematical Basis of the Arts and The Schillinger System of Musical Composition; and Iannis Xenakis's Formalized Music.
In the early 1960s Cohen promoted new music in the Boston area by producing concerts in collaboration with Christian Wolff, in which the New York School was heavily represented. For a long time afterwards while working as a software engineer and product development consultant he composed in isolation. In April 2004 he produced his first concert in more than 40 years, in collaboration with the electro-acoustic group ONDA.
Since then he has appeared as a laptop improviser in numerous concerts in the Greater Boston area. The laptop software created by Cohen responds to movements of wiimote game controllers, and uses Csound to create sounds. Over the years he has performed with many fine musicians, including John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Christian Wolff, Ken Ueno, Tim Feeney, James Coleman, Lou Bunk, Joshua Jefferson, Andrew Eisenberg, Vic Rawlings, David Tudor, Jack Wright, Katt Hernandez, Forbes Graham, Paul Hoskin, Andrea Pensado and many others.
His collaborations with video artist Bebe Beard, and his own computer animations have been shown in many galleries and film festivals around the world.
Cohen's compositions from 1960 to 1990 were written for a range of instrumental ensembles, and generally algorithmically employed 12-tone and serial techniques. A few of these pieces used open score and chance processes as well.
Starting around 1990, Cohen switched to composing using computer-generated sounds and software-computed structures. The programmable synthesizer Csound has been the primary tool for this work along with software of his own design. Most of these pieces were composed by means of algorithmic and stochastic processes, with emphasis on granular synthesis.
________________________________________________________________________________
More information available on the web: www.opensound.org
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