UNIVERSITY students in Huddersfield are to take part in a unique concert.
They will be ‘playing’ in the first-of-its-kind laptop concert via the internet on April 16.
The performances, which will bring together seven universities across two continents, will use audio and video links over the internet to perform an unprecedented joint performance.
And Huddersfield University will be one of the two UK universities to participate in this event, together with Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The laptop musicians in the USA and the UK will be directed by Roger Dannenberg, an associate research professor of computer science, music and art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Orchestras who will be playing laptop computers at Carnegie Mellon University will be joined by six other universities in a performance by the Federation of Laptop Orchestras (FLO) which will be part of a concert at the first Symposium on Laptop Ensembles and Orchestras (SLEO) at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
The symposium between April 15 and 17 will offer workshops for those wishing to learn about mobile and laptop ensembles as well as peer-reviewed papers and panels to discuss the state-of-the-art and best practices of this exciting new genre of music performance and music technology.
The live performances will be streamed online.
Information will also be available before the performances on the SLEO website, http://sleo2012.acct.lsu.edu/.
Orchestras in each location will be able to hear and respond to their counterparts’ pieces occurring simultaneously across both sides of the Atlantic.
Prof Dannenberg said: “The speed of light is a limitation for us so I will not be able to control the beat but I can give cues for the orchestras to play with different textures or sounds.”
He went on to say that acoustic soloists at each location will provide contrast to the electronic sounds generated by the laptops which are played through external speaker systems for the live audiences.
Prof Dannenberg added: “We have found it’s a great way for students to become involved in electronic music.”
The software that makes the joint performances possible is being developed by about 30 students enrolled in Prof Dannenberg’s Computer Music Systems and Information Processing course.
Laptop computers, smartphones and tablet computers provide computer music researchers with an opportunity to explore new ways of generating and manipulating musical sounds.
