Abstract: In this talk, Patricia will discuss a physical-computing system designed to excite the strings of the piano through mechanical means according to user input, which may take various forms, ranging from midi input to sensors and sonic data derived from performance through Music Information Retrieval (MIR) techniques. Examples using first prototype of this system, presented in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival in November 2017, will be shown, in addition to the projected design and implementation of future versions, including some detailing of the software environments and hardware which they will employ. These developments will be contextualised by related examples in Patricia's interactive instrument design practice in order to highlight some of the problematics which this system addresses in the area of interactive electronics in composed and improvised musical settings, and the needs of artists in these communities, ranging from specialised performers and composers of contemporary music to amateur musicians.
Bio: Patricia Alessandrini is a composer/sound artist creating multimedia and interactive work which actively engages with the concert music repertoire, and notions of representation, interpretation, perception and memory, often in the context of social and political issues. She was invited as Composer-in-residence of the Soundscape Festival for 2010, as an ICElab composer with the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2012-13, and was in residency with the Ensemble InterContemporain at the Gaîté lyrique in 2015-6. Her works have been performed by ensembles including Accroche Note, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Aleph, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble Itinéraire, and Ensemble Recherche, in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and over 15 European countries, in festivals such as Archipel, Darmstadt, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Electric Spring, Heidelberger Frühling, Mostly Mozart, Musica Strasbourg, and Salzburg Biennale. She performs live electronics with artists such as Heather Roche and Seth Woods. She was awarded first prize in the Sond’Arte Composition Competition for Chamber Music with Electronics in 2009, and a Förderpreis from the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt in 2012. She studied composition with electronics at the Conservatorio di Bologna and Ircam, holds a diploma in composition from the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, a PhD from Princeton University, and a second PhD from the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC). She has taught Computer-assisted composition in the alto perfezionamento programme of the Accademia Musicale Pescarese, was Lecturer in Composition with Technology at the University of Bangor, and is currently a Lecturer in Sonic Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London.
