by Emily Graber, interdisciplinary musician, technologist, artist, and researcher
Emily Graber discusses the artistic motivations, research, and technological designs behind her playful interactive works Shadow Piano, Follow Me, and EAR Stretch Conductor, which are on display at Studio 300.
Dr. Emily Graber is an interdisciplinary musician and researcher whose work bridges performance, technology, and listener experience. From 2021 to 2023, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris, where her project EAR Stretch explored embodied interactions with conductor control interfaces to enhance the enjoyment of contemporary classical music. She has also investigated music therapy strategies for hearing rehabilitation as a postdoctoral researcher in Toronto and creates music and sound installations presented internationally at venues including IRCAM, the University of Oslo, Banff, and ACM Multimedia. Emily earned her PhD in music technology at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), following degrees in violin performance and interdisciplinary physics at the University of Michigan.
by Droki Ouro, composer, technologist, and researcher
Composer and technologist Droki Ouro presents Remonstrance One, a performance workshop exploring the creative possibilities of the no-input mixer, an instrument that generates sound from its own internal feedback. He will explain the basic principles behind the technique, demonstrate approaches to performance and sound shaping, and invite participants to experiment with the mixer themselves.
Dr. Droki Ouro is a composer framing pictorial properties found in visual art, whose music has been described as “beautifully haunting” (Robert Avalon Competition), “patiently evocative” (George Lewis), and “unsettling, [yet] interesting” (Joshua Weatherspoon, Cycling ’74). Droki is currently Associate Professor and Director of Music Technology at Johnson University. Droki holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master of Music in Composition from Ohio University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music
by Kerry L. Hagan, composer, technologist, and researcher
A couple of my recent works, including mitosis, employ raw binary streams (1s and 0s) as the basis for sound synthesis. It was only after my student, Owen Cushing’s, independent study on 1-bit synthesis that I recognized a broader historical context for this approach. However, unlike the 8-bit and chiptune lineage often associated with 1-bit sound, my work stems from ongoing interests in textural composition and generative algorithms. Rather than surveying my broader computer music practice, this talk focuses on the specific trajectory that led to mitosis and how those ideas are evolving in the Higgs whatever, my duo with Miller Puckette, as we further develop approaches to 1-bit synthesis.
Dr. Kerry L. Hagan is a composer and researcher working in both acoustic and computer media. Her work endeavors to achieve aesthetic and philosophical aims while taking inspiration from mathematical and natural processes. In this way, each work combines art with science and technology from various domains. Kerry performs regularly with Miller Puckette as the "Higgs whatever," and with John Bowers in the Bowers-Hagan Duo. The three together are the HPB Trio. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and President of the International Computer Music Association.
by Scott Whiddon and Brian Powers
In this informed but informal conversation, Transylvania professor Scott Whiddon and Brian Powers (digital content creator; Marketing Director, McBrayer LLC, and podcast creator/American Esoterica) will discuss the creative and technical choices in developing a short music video -- drawing on animation technology, found materials, deep research into historic music communities (in this case, music made in the early-mid 1980s via SST and other outsider/independent rosters), and more. This conversation will highlight how to make the most of challenging economics when making art, how to divide a dense and difficult project into smaller pieces for completion, and -- perhaps -- a bit about how making art is core to survival in a difficult political and social moment.
by Droki Ouro, composer, technologist, and researcher
Composer and technologist Droki Ouro demonstrates how the MakeNoise ReSynthesizer can be integrated with no-input mixer techniques to create new textures and performance possibilities. Through explanation, live performance, and audience participation, attendees will discover how these tools interact and how they can function as instruments for experimental synthesis and improvisation.
Dr. Droki Ouro is a composer framing pictorial properties found in visual art, whose music has been described as “beautifully haunting” (Robert Avalon Competition), “patiently evocative” (George Lewis), and “unsettling, [yet] interesting” (Joshua Weatherspoon, Cycling ’74). Droki is currently Associate Professor and Director of Music Technology at Johnson University. Droki holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master of Music in Composition from Ohio University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music
by Emily Graber, interdisciplinary musician, technologist, artist, and researcher
Graber’s work explores the meeting points of embodiment, sound, and technology. From the camera-responsive Shadow Piano, which transforms motion into resonance across a suspended keyboard, to the audiovisual intimacy of Follow Me, and the interactive Ear Stretch Conductor Interface, which reimagines conducting as a tactile, sound-shaping act, each piece invites audiences into an expanded sensory dialogue. These works share a fascination with the ways gesture, perception, and listening extend beyond conventional performance, offering playful yet profound reorientations of how we experience music.
Jack Girard’s drawings, collages, sound works, and sculptures interplay between personal and societal narratives. In artworks spanning roughly 1975 to present, Girard constructs intricate visuals bound together in ways that are at times confusing, funny, alluring, and maybe even a little abrupt, edging against taboo.
With a masterful hand, honed through decades of prolific creation and continuous inspection, Girard employs a diverse range of techniques to create works that are both intellectually and visually stimulating. A Transylvania University professor for over four decades, his deep engagement with students and the academic world shaped his artistic vision.
by artists and composers from around the world
Works by digital artists and composers from around the world chosen for the Studio 300 Digital Art and Music Festival are streamed and accessible to internet users around the world from the Studio 300 website. (Link to be posted closer to start of festival)
electroacoustic music in 8-channel surround audio
mitosis is a fixed-media electroacoustic composition that employs 1-bit synthesizers in conjunction with cellular automata (CA) to generate sound. The CA drive the sonic output, producing a diverse range of textures—from noisy and buzzy to sharp clicks—varying between sustained tones and rhythmic pulses aligned with each generational update of the automata. In some cases, pitch variation occurs with each generation. These sonic behaviors were analyzed and categorized, and the synthesizers were orchestrated to form a series of explosive gestures layered over a pulsed, rhythmic foundation.
Kerry is a composer and researcher working in both acoustic and computer media. Her work endeavors to achieve aesthetic and philosophical aims while taking inspiration from mathematical and natural processes. In this way, each work combines art with science and technology from various domains. Kerry performs regularly with Miller Puckette as the "Higgs whatever," and with John Bowers in the Bowers-Hagan Duo. The three together are the HPB Trio. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and President of the International Computer Music Association.
video and electroacoustic music in stereo
untangle my tongue is for fixed media in collaboration with poet Alix Anne Shaw. The title is taken from Alix’s poem inspired by recorded sounds. It directly references the fact that there is text which is altered, distorted, and overlapped. However, a deeper statement is being made about the current pace of our lives. I myself am a culprit of this technology and social media-driven lifestyle. Yet, when I went on walks to record sounds for this piece, I was forced to slow down and simply listen. In 2019, the piece was reimagined with a new video component by media artist Mare Hirsch.
Robert McClure’s music has been featured at festivals worldwide and has previously held positions at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Soochow University in Suzhou, China. He serves as Associate Professor of Composition/Theory at Ohio University. Mare Hirsch’s work investigates the ways technology and art can expand opportunities for creative expression, connect data to creative practice, and foster opportunities for inclusive discourse on the social, political, scientific, and philosophic. Hirsch is currently an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA.
electroacoustic music in stereo
Shards is made of broken off bits and pieces from another work of mine, Flow. While Flow is about continuity, steady progression, and inevitable destination, Shards concerns itself with the constant reshuffling and kaleidoscopic reorganization of a small amount of available material.
Composer and saxophonist Richard Power’s music explores the dialogue between tradition and innovation, the continuum between composition and improvisation, and new types of formal and temporal expression through sound. He writes for both acoustic instruments and electronically generated sounds, and while much of his music is precisely notated, other scores encourage collaborative invention through structured improvisations. A native of Austin, Texas, he currently lives in Danville, Kentucky.
interactive music for facial tracking interface and guitar
Riley Ham, guitar
Perlin Paradise takes its name from the Perlin noise algorithm, one of the most common methods of creating procedurally generated terrain. The composition of the piece was inspired by the strange and uncanny beauty of technology meant to replicate the natural world. It also features a custom-developed instrument that uses facial tracking via machine learning to turn the performer’s facial expression into musical expression. This allows the performer to accompany themselves while playing another instrument through the opening of their mouth, tilt of their head, and raising of their brows.
Riley Ham is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who enjoys using and creating computer software to push the limits of creative expression. Her work often explores the intersection between synthesized sounds and the natural world. She is currently double majoring in Music Technology and Computer Science at Transylvania University, with plans to attend graduate school in the future.
electroacoustic music for saxophone
Matthew Polashek, soprano saxophone
Intercessions is a musical tribute dedicated to the spirit of the late jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter. His recent passing inspired this electro-acoustic composition, which serves as both a musical meditation and a prayer. This spiritual intercession features Matthew Polashek improvising in response to an electronic accompaniment composed by Timothy Polashek, created through digital and analog synthesis using his Moog synthesizers. Matthew and Timothy Polashek gave the world premiere performance of Intercessions in New York this summer at the international 2025 New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.
Matthew Polashek is a saxophonist and audio engineer living in Lexington, Kentucky. His work focuses on the development of a fusion of modern jazz and contemporary art music composition techniques. He holds an MFA in Music Composition from The Vermont College of Fine Arts, an M.A. in Teaching Music from the City University of New York, and a B.A. in Jazz Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, where he studied saxophone with John Salerno. He also performs and teaches saxophone, flute, and clarinet in a multitude of genres, including serving as saxophone instructor and jazz ensemble director at Transylvania University. He has performed and recorded with internationally renowned artists including David Liebman and Brian Lynch.
Timothy Polashek produces works in a variety of styles, including vocal, instrumental, interactive, electro-acoustic, multimedia, and text/sound music and poetry. He authored The Word Rhythm Dictionary: A Resource for Writers, Rappers, Poets, and Lyricists. Prior to earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from Columbia University, Polashek earned a M.A. in Electro-Acoustic Music from Dartmouth College, and a B.A. with honors in Music from Grinnell College. He is the Music Technology Studies Coordinator, a Professor of Music, and the Digital Arts and Media Program Director at Transylvania University.
electroacoustic music in 8-channel surround audio
Approximately five hundred billion plastic cups are used each year, of which roughly six billion end up in landfills. Grind attempts to symbolize the faulty business and political ideologies that ultimately contribute to a lack of environmental sustainability through the destructive morphology of a single sound source: a plastic Keurig coffee pod hitting the floor.
Droki Ouro is a composer framing pictorial properties found in visual art, whose music has been described as “beautifully haunting” (Robert Avalon Competition), “patiently evocative” (George Lewis), and “unsettling, [yet] interesting” (Joshua Weatherspoon, Cycling ’74). Droki is currently Associate Professor and Director of Music Technology at Johnson University. Droki holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Master of Music in Composition from Ohio University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music
animation and electroacoustic music in 7.1-channel surround audio
Toccata, meaning “to touch,” explores sound as a physical experience. Using samples from a 2020 project with the Euclid Quartet, the piece emphasizes gestures created by different ways of touching instruments. These sounds were enhanced and recomposed to transform the concert hall into a resonant instrument. In turn, the animation cycles through evolving forms—wood, metal, and uncanny objects—suggesting human-made materiality, building and breaking down in a mysterious, immersive sonic-visual journey. -Ryan Olivier (Work Concept and Music); Mark Sniadecki (Visual Concept and Animations)
Ryan Olivier, Associate Professor of Music at Indiana University South Bend, is a composer and multimedia artist who creates new media works for the concert hall. Mark Sniadecki, Assistant Professor of Integrated New Media Studies at IU South Bend, is a digital artist with academic training in New Media, English, and Studio Art, and has previously taught at the University of Alabama.
interactive music and video for violin
Cecilia Suhr, violin
Self-Censorship is a multimedia audio-visual performance representing disenfranchised and oppressed voices. It combines a loosely improvised violin performance with live processing and fixed media featuring a bamboo flute. The live violin music interacts with the visual elements in real time, creating a dynamic auditory and visual landscape. This piece not only depicts the push to silence minorities, women, and other marginalized groups, but also reflects on the broader intersections of sound, music, and artistic expression.
Cecilia Suhr is an award-winning intermedia artist, multimedia composer, researcher, and multi-instrumentalist (violin, cello, voice, piano, bamboo flute), as well as a painter. Her honors include the Pauline Oliveros Award (IAWM), MacArthur DML Grant, American Prize Honorable Mention, medals from the Cambridge Music Competition and Global Music Awards, and many more. Numerous festivals and conferences have featured her work. She holds a full professorship at Miami University Regionals and has authored books published by Peter Lang and MIT Press. For more info, visit www.ceciliasuhr.com
electroacoustic music for violin
Emily Graber, violin
Violin Phase, by Steve Reich, was written in 1967 for violin and pre-recorded tape, or four violins. The texture is created by the gradual phasing of a single phrase that loops continuously throughout the piece. By the end, three violins (or tapes) sustain the phased incarnations of the phrase, while the fourth violin highlights the resultant melodies.
Emily Graber is an interdisciplinary musician and researcher whose work bridges performance, technology, and listener experience. From 2021 to 2023, she was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris, where her project EAR Stretch explored embodied interactions with conductor control interfaces to enhance the enjoyment of contemporary classical music. She has also investigated music therapy strategies for hearing rehabilitation as a postdoctoral researcher in Toronto and creates music and sound installations presented internationally at venues including IRCAM, the University of Oslo, Banff, and ACM Multimedia. Emily earned her PhD in music technology at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), following degrees in violin performance and interdisciplinary physics at the University of Michigan.
electroacoustic music in 8-channel surround audio
The Beautiful is about the current cultural decay and collapse of the idealistic image of America. I have always been an avid fan of technology, but I find the downsides of it to be particularly troubling as of late. The addiction to technology is overwhelming our brains and our society, leaving us isolated and vulnerable to propaganda.
Addison Bird is a composer, performer, and music educator whose primary focus is electronic music. Addison holds two music degrees from the University of Akron and a master’s degree in electro-acoustic composition from the University of Kentucky. Addison works as the assistant to the renowned composer Stephen Trask and has taught for the University of Kentucky and the Lexington Philharmonic.
electroacoustic music in 8-channel surround audio
As I approached writing my nineteenth Inharmonic Fantasy, I thought it would be the right moment to go back to something I have done before, but not for a long time: 19-tone equal temperament. This is an old idea, going back to the Middle Ages, but people have not done it because there are no musical instruments that can play it accurately. The computer, however, has no such restrictions, and it can play whatever you tell it to. I have studied the harmonic resources of 19-tone temperament, and they are daunting. While there are only 19 3-note chords in the 12-tone scale, there are 51 in 19-tone. There are 43 4-note chords and 66 5-note chords in the 12-tone scale, but there are 204 and 612 in 19-tone. After my research, I found a number of coherent ways of exploiting these sounds, which is what I have used. The inharmonic partials are created by frequency shifting by a ratio of, naturally, 19/24. The work was composed in August, 2024, and the sounds were generated by the Csound program.
Hubert Howe was educated at Princeton University, where he studied with J. K. Randall, Godfrey Winham and Milton Babbitt. He was one of the first researchers in computer music, and Professor of Music at Queens College, where he taught from 1967 until 2011. He also taught at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1994. He is currently Director of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and he was Executive Director of the New York Composers Circle from 2013 to 2024. Recordings of his music have been released by Capstone Records, Ravello Records, Ablaze Records and Centaur Records.
interactive music for laptop orchestra, saxophone, violins, and piano
Cynthia Beams, Lillie Binford-Andrews, Trexler Cook, Romell W. Dunlap, Jenna Nydam, Winn Pipes, Sam Rhodes, Andrew Riley, Taylor Stewart, Ella Terry, Keegan Watts, Sam Werner-Wilson, Ani Womble, Kamil Zavala Sherby, and Kamil Pędziwiatr, laptops; Nick Martin, saxophone; Dan Qiao, and Vera Wei-Jung Hsu, violins; Kinga Wójcik, piano
This is a laptop ensemble piece for four or more laptop performers and acoustic instrumentalists. The laptop performers use live coding in RTcmix to generate bird sounds in real time while the instrumentalists perform.
UofL Electro-Acoustic Ensemble is a student-based ensemble established in 2024. It provides students with the opportunity to perform electro-acoustic and digitally influenced music using laptops, tablets, various sensors, controllers, synths, and electronic instruments, along with acoustic instruments. Music performances also include live synth jams, live coding jams, and installation activities held by the ensemble. It is a type of ensemble that not only helps students familiarize themselves with rapidly evolving music technology, but also learn how to improvise and create art using different media.
electroacoustic music in eight-channel surround audio
“Merry meet, merry part.” At the end of a 4-year relationship, I started to think about why people meet if we'll eventually separate and what the true happiness or the final destination of everyone is. I found no answer. However, this piece is somehow the record of my thinking during that period. This piece was inspired by the book Night on the Galactic Railroad by Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa. In my imagination, the Milky Way is full of steam trains. They meet, run together, and separate eventually. None of them knows where the destination is, they just keep running toward somewhere.
Yunze Mu is a composer, sound artist and music programmer based in Louisville, Kentucky. He currently teaching at University of Louisville, School of Music as Assistant Professor. He received a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) in Composition at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where he studies computer music with Mara Helmuth, and works on his web-based music application, Web RTcmix. Mu holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China. His music, papers, AI-based installation and VR installations have been shown and performed at numerous events and conferences, such as NIME, ICMC, SEAMUS, NYC Electronic Music Festival, and venues in China, Poland, France, United States, and Korea.
animation and electroacoustic music in stereo
Water Dust is a piece that delves into the symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of water and dust. It draws inspiration from the contrasts and connections between these elements, which symbolize a range of dualities such as purity and impurity, change and stagnation, as well as emotion and reason. This work challenges the conventional boundaries between art and science, nature and culture, and order and chaos. It invites the audience to immerse themselves in a fluid and organic soundscape and visual experience.
Composer Patrick Chin Ting CHAN grew up in Hong Kong and came to the United States in 2003. He has been featured in events including Ars Electronica, IRCAM's ManiFeste, ISCM World Music Days, UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers, and Venice Art Biennale, among others. He has worked with ensembles such as City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Ensemble intercontemporain (France), Ensemble Metamorphosis (Serbia), eighth blackbird (U.S.), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Mivos Quartet (U.S.), and New York New Music Ensemble, with performances in more than thirty countries.
interactive music for iPads
Sommer Abrahim, Katie Axon, Gus Dickman, Sam Garvin, Sam Hatfield, Aidan Hinton, Sophia Krohn, JD Montgomery, Zack Rader, Caroline Seaward, Madalyn Stump, and Ellie Thornsbury, iPads
TITE Rope Jam No. 2 is a collaborative composition and interactive music system developed by the Transylvania Interactive Technology (TITE) Ensemble, students from Professor Timothy Polashek’s Interactive Music and Multimedia class. Before the performance, each performer records and prepares their own sounds, which are then loaded into customized iPad interfaces. In performance, gestures on the iPads—tapping, sliding, and swiping—are transmitted to responsive sound-generating algorithms that stretch, fragment, shift, and layer those sounds in real time. The result is a dynamic, touch-based electroacoustic instrument that brings composition and performance together through technology. The TITE Ensemble earned national recognition when it was invited to perform this work at the SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States) National Conference in March 2025.
