Fake It ‘Til You Make It: The Virtual Orchestra in New Electronic Music

This paper describes a variety of audio technologies under the neologism “the virtual orchestra,” their relationship with neoliberal capitalism, and four electronic music works that utilise these technologies to highlight this relationship. The virtual orchestra comprises digital technologies that emulate orchestral performances, ranging from the ersatz sounds of General MIDI in the 1990s (often used in computer game soundtracks), to orchestral sample libraries, which can be virtually indiscernible from a well-recorded orchestral performance. It is suggested that the virtual orchestra emerged as part of a cultural movement that privileges individualism and control, and that this has precedence in the structure and hierarchies of the symphony orchestra. The four works discussed—by Lana Del Rey, Oneohtrix Point Never, Elysia Crampton, and Steven Warwick—utilise virtual orchestras in unconventional and ambivalent ways that refer to the lived experiences and effects of this condition

Virtual Conductor for String Quartet Practice

This paper presents a system that emulates an ensemble conductor for string quartets. This application has been developed as a support tool for individual and group practice, so that users of any age range can use it to further hone their skills, both for regular musicians and students alike. The virtual conductor designed can offer similar indications to those given by a real ensemble conductor to potential users regarding beat times, dynamics, etc. The application developed allows the user to rehearse his/her performance without the need of having an actual conductor present, and also gives access to additional tools to further support the learning/practice process, such as a tuner or a melody evaluator. The system developed also allows for both solo practice and group practice. A set of tests were conducted to check the usefulness of the application as a practice support tool. A group of musicians from the Chamber Orchestra of Malaga including an ensemble conductor tested the system, and reported to have found it a very useful tool within an educational environment and that it helps to address the lack of this kind of educational tools in a self-learning environment.This work has been funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under Project No. TIN2010-21089-C03- 02 and Project No. IPT-2011-0885-430000 and by the Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio under Project No. TSI-090100-2011-25

Conducting a virtual ensemble with a kinect device

This paper presents a gesture-based interaction technique for the implementation of an orchestra conductor and a virtual ensemble, using a 3D camera-based sensor to capture user’s gestures. In particular, a human-computer interface has been developed to recognize conducting gestures using a Microsoft Kinect device. The system allows the conductor to control both the tempo in the piece played as well as the dynamics of each instrument set independently. In order to modify the tempo in the playback, a time-frequency processing-based algorithmis used. Finally, an experiment was conducted to assess user’s opinion of the system as well as experimentally confirm if the features in the system were effectively improving user experience or not.This work has been funded by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under Project No. TIN2010-21089-C03-02 and Project No. IPT-2011-0885-430000 and by the Junta de Andalucia under Project No. P11-TIC-7154. The work has been done at Universidad de Malaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucia Tech

Distributing Leadership

{Excerpt} The prevailing view of leadership is that it is concentrated or focused. In organizations, this makes it an input to business processes and performance—dependent on the attributes, behaviors, experience, knowledge, skills, and potential of the individuals chosen to impact these. The theory of distributed leadership thinks it best considered as an outcome. Leadership is defined by what one does, not who one is. Leadership at all levels matters and must be drawn from, not just be added to, individuals and groups in organizations

Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus, November 18, 2013

This is the concert program of the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus performance on Monday, November 18, 2018 at 8:00 p.m., at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. Works performed were Dona nobis pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gloria by Francis Poulenc, and Psalm 90 by Charles Ives. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Leading and following with a virtual trainer

This paper describes experiments with a virtual fitness trainer capable of mutually coordinated interaction. The virtual human co-exercises along with the user, leading as well as following in tempo, to motivate the user and to influence the speed with which the user performs the exercises. In a series of three experiments (20 participants in total) we attempted to influence the users' performance by manipulating the (timing of the) exercise behavior of the virtual trainer. The results show that it is possible to do this implicitly, using only micro adjustments to its bodily behavior. As such, the system is a rst step in the direction of mutually coordinated bodily interaction for virtual humans

Internet Marketing in Cultural Industries: from movie to arts

Marketing skills have been developed by firms of several cultural industries for more than three decades. From movie companies to performing arts, from museums to art fairs, every stakeholder has adopted and is going to implement innovative communication strategies. Digital advertising and e-fundraising might represent the boundaries of the present and the future of cultural promotion. First of all we will explore the impact of Information and Communication Technologies in the Cultural (creative) industries, particularly referring to the benefits of visibility and improvements in communication strategies. Then we will give evidence of the impact of ICT in the movie industry, whose budget are mainly conspicuous and today targeted to the Digital Movie, above all the USA Digital Movie. Performing arts seem to be theatrical arts not subject to digital transformation, neither in contents nor in media. Italian Symphony Orchestras do really show a meaningful trend in ICT and digital marketing development. The final research’s goal is to produce a sort of classification of innovative marketing activities in the creative market, based on homogeneous elements.marketing, internet, digital, movie, orchestra

Requiem for a Generation, April 2, 2012

This is the concert program of the Requiem for a Generation performance on Monday, April 2, 2012 at 8:00 p.m., at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. The works performed were The Bells, op. 35 by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Symphony No. 11 in G minor, The Year 1905, op. 103 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Boston University Chamber Orchestra

This is the concert program of the Boston University Chamber Orchestra performance on Thursday, March 2, 2000 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Quinn's Day by Heather, Josselyn-Cranson, Dawn on the Beach by Henry E. Lihn, Ballet for Orchestra by Ronald G. Vigue, Stasimon by Panagiotis Liaropoulos, and Stratifications by Ethan Wickman. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Off the edge

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.Work which takes from elsewhere forms an important thread in European art music. There is a long tradition of music which variously borrows, thieves, pastiches, plagiarises, ironically ‘retakes’, hoaxes, impersonates and appropriates. The music I have written for Off the edge, while seeking to honour and add to this thread, also attempts to zoom in upon and make explicit the idea of an ultimate and irreversible composerly self-annihilation, a kind of one-way exit-gate from the world of authored musical works itself made of pieces of music, which so much of this tradition, I feel, points towards. (Of my nine pieces, it is perhaps Time to go—only, with its ‘à la suicide note’ texts and its music that seems to slide in from far beyond the frame that is ‘composer Luke Stoneham’, which manages to get closest to this.) I have chosen the title Off the edge, because all of my music tries to capture a sense of nocturnal peripheral vision: be content with catching glimpses of the composer Luke Stoneham, because as soon as you turn to look at him face-on, he disappears