Concerts

Concert I (Invited Ensemble)

CARCOARCO

Carcoarco

In the first musical concert, we welcome ISMIR2013 delegates with Brazilian music performed by the CARCOARCO ensemble. The Brazilian music has been widely acclaimed in the musical world scenery mainly through bossa nova, and dances such as samba and derived rhythms. These genres are a typical byproduct of the post-WWII urban culture, a period that witnessed an acceleration of the processes of urbanization and industrialization. Recently, it has been realized, however, that the richness of the Brazilian music is much larger than it was thought to be a few decades ago. Easier access to information and more exposure through the media have played a major role in this process. Besides the musical pearls cultivated in the cities, already familiar to most ears through the media and the phonographic industry, a hidden treasure awaited to be uncovered in rural Brazil. Five centuries of racial crossing between Portuguese settlers, African slaves and native Brazilians, became a melting pot where cultural values simmered to produce an exquisite musical meal seasoned with an assortment of rhythms, dances and instruments. The vast Brazilian musical diversity has remained untouched, in a way, as many of the country’s tropical forests. Today, public awareness and preservation are essential for this cultural heritage to remain alive.

The rabecas, Brazilian fiddles used in this concert, come from the streets, public plazas, rural and fishermen communities of distant regions in Brazil. These instruments, despite their decades long anonymity, begun more recently to climb into important stages in Brazil and the world. Along this history, many and different hands have helped them with a little push, from “authentic” rabeca players to new generations of musicians, like Siba, in Mestre Ambrósio, Antonio Nóbrega and José Gramani. With their personal baggage, these musicians have been creating a new Brazilian rabeca, which far away from its origins, is now treading new aesthetic grounds.

CARCOARCO visits the Brazilian popular music repertory, exploring a refined language most common to chamber music. Having cultural diversity as the basis for the musical creation, CARCOARCO makes use of instruments, musical genres and rhythms deep-rooted in the Brazilian music. The rare Brazilian rabecas and the several percussion instruments, such as pandeiro, zabumba, alfaia, congas and ceramic vases, well exemplify this aesthetic principle that combines research and musical outcome. All these instruments are in constant dialogue, in a much-elaborated discourse, in which the frontiers between classical and popular, tradition and modernity are constantly being trespassed. However, without losing the characteristic spontaneity of non-written and improvised music.

Concert Program

  1. Choro de Gafieira – Pixinguinha
  2. Folhas de Outono – Esdras Rodrigues
  3. Tem Carrêgo – Roberto Peres
  4. Carinhosa – José Gramani
  5. Dobradinho – José Gramani
  6. Ouvirudum – Fantasia sobre o Hino Nacional – Esdras Rodrigues
  7. Tico-tango no Fubá – Esdras Rodrigues
  8. Lento – José Gramani
  9. 03 de Outubro – Hermeto Pascoal
  10. Goldberg – Tema e Variação – J. S. Bach
  11. Manaíra – José Gramani

Musicians

Esdras Rodrigues owes much of his musical training, either in education or as a professional musician, to Campinas, where he obtained his Bachelor in violin at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and also worked for many years in the Campinas Symphony Orchestra. He studied violin with Luis de Tulio, Gualberto Estades (UNICAMP), Nathan Schwartzman (UNICAMP) and Paulo Bosisio (RJ) and received many prizes in chamber music competitions and as a soloist. He obtained a Master and Doctorate degree in Violin Performance at Boston University, where he studied with renowned violinists such as Yury Mazurkevich, Roman Totenberg and Bernard Zaslav. In the last ten years has been dedicated also to the music of Brazilian fiddles (rabecas), influenced by musician and researcher Jose Eduardo Gramani. He participates in several groups of classical and popular instrumental music, CARCOARCO, Trio Camaleon, and Quintal Brasileiro, among others. He was professor of chamber music at Santa Marcelina College of Sao Paulo from 1998 to 2003. Currently he teaches violin and chamber music at the Music Department of UNICAMP and is the Dean of Arts at UNICAMP.

Fabio Dos Santos obtained his Bachelor of Music from the University of Campinas – Unicamp (2003) with major in violin under the guidance of Esdras Rodrigues. He taught in the Festival de Música de Londrina (2004) and Festival Beltrão Francisco (PR). Since 1998, he is a member of the “Oficina de Cordas” orchestra. He has participated in several productions such as “Pra que Servem as Estrelas”, Micrantos Dance Company; “Tempo da Delicadeza” de Consiglia Latorre (2005); “Saudade: Video Cartas para Cuba” by Coraci Ruiz e Julio Matos (2005); “Era uma Vez?” directed by Alexandre Caetano (2006); “O que seria de nós sem as coisas que não existem?” with LUME Theatre Group. He was awarded by Campinas City with “Carlos Gomes” Medal for artistic merit.  In 2006, he obtained his Master degree in Music at UNICAMP under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Jose Roberto Zan. He works for almost eleven years with Professor Shinobu Saito, developing the Suzuki Method in Brazil. He keeps music activities as popular musician and scholar, presenting, arranging, composing and teaching in São Paulo and Campinas.

Mauro Braga Campos is a cellist graduated at UNICAMP under the guidance of Dimos Goudaroulis (Greece/USA). He is member of the “Oficina de Cordas” Orchestra, founded by the researcher Jose Gramani and now directed by Tibo Delor (France/U.S.) with whom he recorded the CDs “Retratos em vários compassos”, “Tempo de Delicadeza” and “Para Cordas Brasileiras”. He has participated in several orchestras and chamber groups such as “Orquestra Jovem de Campinas” (UNICAMP), “Orquestra Sinfônica de Piracicaba”, Trio “Mas Non Troppo”, CARCOARCO, among others. He has performed with the LUME Theatre Group in the production “O que seria de nós sem as coisas que não existem”, directed by Norberto Presta (Italy). He integrates the Theatre Cia. “ParaladosanjoS” with which he has participated in the following plots: “Crossroad”, “Contos Urbanos” and “ParaladiBom”; composer and interpreter of the soundtrack of “Euetheia, um Elogio a Loucura”. Along his education he attended to several master classes, among them: chamber music with pianist Maria Teresa Madeira, cellist Raiff Dantas, Baroque Music with Manfredo Kraemer (ARG), cellist Robert Suetholz (USA /BR), and with Baroque Music Trio “Musica Ad Rhenum” (Netherlands), and others.

“Magrão” Roberto Peres was born in Campinas, an autodidact musician who teaches percussion exploring different Brazilian rhythms. He began his career as a percussionist in 1979, since then he has performed extensively in the Campinas region, and numerous cities. Acted in concert and recordings with many groups, especially with: Conciglia Latorre and “Oficina de Cordas”, “Grupo Cuidado que Mancha”, “Grupo Mandinga”, “Orquestra Brasileira de Guitarras”, Raul de Souza, Proveta, Elba Ramalho, Nelson Gonçalves, “Big Band” of University of Campinas (Unicamp), “Grupo Aquarela Musical and Rafael dos Santos, Badi Assad, Arthur Maia, Levi Ramiro, Paisagens (Ivan Vilela), Trio Azeviche, Paulo Cesar Pinheiro. He researched with the artist Rosa Morena (Campinas) the development of unique ceramic instruments to be use in the vast repertoire of Brazilian popular music. Musicians such as Nana Vasconcelos, Robby Silva, Toninho Horta, Billy Higgins and Gary Peacock have already acclaimed this work. Currently integrates “Trio Azeviche” and CARCOARCO, with which made presentations in Brazil and abroad. He works as a luthier of percussion instruments, specializing in the constructions of Brazilian “tamborins”. He participated on several CD recordings such as Levi Ramiro (Bauru), and music groups such as “Batuque de Cordas” (Porto Alegre), “Bafafá” (Campinas), Paulo Freire (Campinas), “Quarteto de Cordas Vocais” (Campinas), Trio Azeviche (Campinas) e Grupo “Ultimo Tipo” (Campinas), and several soundtracks for television.

Concert II (Selected Works)

01 – Sen no Kioku (2013) – Ayako Sato

“Sen no Kioku” means the recollections of a line. The composer traveled to get in touch with a certain ”sen” (a line). This piece is the reminiscence of my private memories and a trace of my journey by the sound materials, which picked up daily noises on a destination. Noises were abstracted, or told some anecdotes.

Biography:

Ayako Sato, born in Japan, is currently a master’s student at the Graduate School of Music, Tokyo University of the Arts. She received her Master of Music from Senzoku Gakuen College of Music. Her electroacoustic works have been selected for performances at international conferences and festivals including CCMC (Japan, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013), FUTURA (France, 2012), WOCMAT (Taiwan, 2012), NYCEMF (USA, 2013), SMC (Sweden, 2013), ICMC (Australia, 2013) and ISSTC (Ireland, 2013). She was awarded the International Electroacoustic Music Young Composers Awards at WOCMAT (Taiwan, 2012), the honorary mention of CCMC (Japan, 2012) and the honorary mention of Destellos Competition (Argentine, 2013).

02 – Figer – Sever Tipei

figer(fr.), vb. to clot, coagulate, congeal. Realized with software for computer-assisted (algorithmic) composition and sound design, the work suggests a preoccupation with continuity and narrative in music. Four sections, three interludes, and a coda exploit three types of materials: points, lines, and chords or sound mass textures. They could either coalesce in a tale or prevail as an abstract game.

Biography:

Sever Tipei was born in Bucharest, Romania, and immigrated to the United States in 1972. He holds degrees in composition and piano performance from the University of Michigan and Bucharest Conservatory. Tipei has been teaching since 1978 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music where he also manages the Computer Music Project of the UIUC Experimental Music Studios. Most of his compositions were produced with software he designed: MP1 – a computer-assisted composition program first used in 1973, DIASS and DISCO – programs for sound synthesis, and M4CAVE – software for the visualization of music in an immersive virtual environment. More recently, Tipei and his collaborators have developed DISSCO, software that unifies computer-assisted (algorithmic) composition and (additive) sound synthesis into a seamless process. Between 1993 and 2003 Tipei was also a visiting scientist at Argonne National Laboratory where he worked on the sonification of complex scientific data. Tipei regards the computer as a collaborator whose skills and abilities complement those of the human artist. He sees the composition of music both as an experimental and a speculative endeavor that delivers a particular worldview.

03- Lignes et Pointes  – Antonio D’amato

Étude Pour La Décomposition en Deux Parties D’une Oeuvre de Joan Miró
“Lignes et Pointes” is an acousmatic piece in two parts, intended as an etude on simple elements, grouped in two basic categories. Long and slow elements are exclusively dominant in the first part, while impulsive sounds build up the second part. These elements are selected and extensively overlapped in order to develop an abstract study on basic elements of a music vocabulary. Synthesized and acoustically derived sounds are both used, but the focus here is mainly on the overall shape of each element. The work is inspired by a gouache included in the first set of “Constellations”.

Biography:

Antonio D’amato is intoxicated by music. In fact he graduated at conservatory in Piano, Harpsichord, Music for multimedia, Instrumental music teaching and Electronic music. He also studied composition for eight years, bassoon for three years, baroque organ and audio engineering. In 2010 he was “Ondes Martenot” student in Strasbourg and Paris. At university he was student in Media and Communication. At the moment his main interest is joining traditional composition procedures and the wide opportunities of computer-based music. Some of his instrumental works are published by Forton Music, U.K. His first electronic composition was selected for a performance during the ICMC 2012 Conference.

04 – Gesmi: Generative Electronic Statistical Modelling Instrument  – Arne Eigenfeldt

GESMI is a fully autonomous computationally creative system that generates style-specific electronic dance music based upon a machine-analysed corpus. The corpus consists of 24 break beat tracks that have been transcribed by human experts. Aspects of transcription include musical details, timbral descriptions, signal processing, and descriptions of overall musical form. This information is then compiled in a database, and machine-analysed to produce data for generative purposes. GESMI began producing complete break beat tracks in March 2013.

Biography:

Arne Eigenfeldt is a composer of live electroacoustic music, and a researcher into intelligent real-time music systems. His music has been performed around the world, and his collaborations range from Persian Tar masters to contemporary dance companies to musical robots. His research has been presented at conferences such as ICMC, NIME, ICCC, ISEA, ISMIR, and SMC. He is an associate professor of music and technology at Simon Fraser University, Canada, and is the co-director of the Metacreation research group, which aims to endow computers with creative behavior, http://www.metacreation.net/ 

05 – Elvis by Elvis – Ryan Groves & Thor Kell

ELVIS BY ELVIS is a piece for singer and computer. It asks questions about the source and control of music and about authenticity of performance. It also investigates abstractions of computer control structures and lack of control on the part of the performer. The human singer performs two songs by Elvis Costello. Based on the singer’s voice, the computer picks accompanying chords. The audio for these chords is generated using small segments of 16 songs by Elvis Presley. The result is a hazy, pointillistic accompaniment that forces the singer to alter their phrasing, which in turns alters the accompaniment, and so on…

Biographies:

Thor Kell is an MA student in the Input Devices and Musical Interaction Lab at McGill University. He has written music for violin & heartbeat sensor, collaborated on percussion pieces at NIME, and is the current maintainer of the Echo Nest Remix API. He likes interfaces that are both novel and specific, cats, and the Internet. Find him at tidepool.ca.

Ryan Groves is an MA student in the Distributed Digital Archives and Libraries Lab in the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. His interests are in machine learning algorithms for music, and computational musicology. He has composed and produced two popular music albums, and works as a software developer at a musical game company. When not coding, he plays piano, guitar, sings, and is attempting to learn the drums. Find him at ryangroves.com

06 – O Azeite, a Lua e o Rio – Ivan Simurra

Numa ilha rodeada de ouro, com água até o joelho
Welcome to this particular scenario! Using some Music Information Retrieval concepts and techniques, the formal structure of this work for Flute, Bb Clarinet/Bb Bass Clarinet and Violoncello, is based on the relationship between two particular audio descriptors which relate to the perception of sound intensity (loudness) and to the differences and similarities of the spectral behavior over time (spectral irregularity). This procedure aims to describe “jagged” and smooth spectra with loud and quiet sonorities, respectively.  A virtual environment in Pure Data (PD) software enabled to analyze some potential orchestral settings called “Sound Marks”. They were created through a sound database of several instrumental techniques. The formal structure of the work is built upon four Sound Marks: low spectral irregularity/low loudness; high spectral irregularity/low loudness; high spectral irregularity/high loudness and low spectral irregularity/high loudness.  Therefore, be my guest to appreciate the moonlight and the river, tasting whatever you want with this olive oil!

Biographies:

Ivan Eiji Simurra (Composer) composer, researcher, performs electronic manipulations in Pop Music (DJ). BA in Music Composition and Master in Creative Processes at IA/UNICAMP with the funding of FAPESP and CAPES-¬‐FAPESP, respectively. Currently, he develops his doctoral research in Creative Processes at IA/UNICAMP and NICS/UNICAMP, with the FAPESP funding. He teaches Harmony, Theory and Music Composition. Also he develops projects relating instrumental music composition, science, technology and musical analysis with computer assistance. Participated in several Festivals, Master Classes and Music Workshops His works are being performed in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and United States.

Gabriel Rimoldi (Flute) flutist, he studied Music at Federal University of Uberlândia and currently he is a Master’s Degree Candidate at the State University of Campinas. His current research relates to interactive models applied to music creation, sound synthesis and sound spatialization in electroacoustic music. He produces electroacoustic works, especially mixed and audiovisual. He participated in several Master Classes, Courses and Music Festivals in Brazil and abroad. Current, he directs the “Quartet Cerrado”, chamber music group dedicated to the research and performance of contemporary music. Recently it was released the CD “Brazilian Music for Flutes” with works by many contemporary Brazilian composers.

Mauricio Carneiro (Bb Clarinet/Bb Bass Clarinet) began his studies in 1981, participating in several orchestras, such as the Sinfônica Jovem Estadual and the Sinfônica Jovem Municipal de São Paulo. He awarded the Concurso Jovens Solistas in 1985. In 1986, he joined the Orquestra Sinfônica do Paraná. He is a regular participant in Master Classes and Music Festivals in Campos do Jordão, Tatuí, Curitiba and La Plata. He is a teacher assistant in Curitiba. In 1998 he did his postgraduate studies in Chamber Music at the EMBAP/PR. In 2008, he completed his Master Studies via Minter UFBa-EMBAP. He also integrates the “Clarino Quartet” since its inception.

William Teixeira (Violoncello) was born in Rio Claro/SP where began his studies at the cello. After he had lessons at Instituto Baccarelli with Prof. Eduardo Bello he moved to Instituto Fukuda and since then he belongs to the class of Dr. André Micheletti. He has performed with several Brazilian orchestras and nowadays is cellist for Orquestra Filarmônica de São Caetano do Sul. He has completed his Bachelor’s Degree at São Paulo State University (UNESP) and currently is a candidate for Master’s Degree at Campinas University (UNICAMP).