The French-American Connection

Sonic Generator Concert

Georgia Tech’s chamber music ensemble-in-residence, Sonic Generator, presents their opening concert of the season at the Georgia Tech Alumni House at 190 North Avenue on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 8 p.m.  The concert, which is free and open to the public, features compositions by Philip Glass, Pierre Jodlowski, Steve Reich, François Sarhan, Edgard Varèse, and John Zorn.

Sonic Generator's first concert of the 2009-2010 season, sponsored in part by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, explores the connections between French and American musicians in their explorations of technology.  The concert opens with Density 21.5 for unaccompanied flute by Edgard Varèse.  A composer who lived in both Paris and the United States, Varèse spent much of his career exploring ideas for sound organization which have influenced electroacoustic music ever since.  John Zorn, a downtown New York musician, ponders the music of French impressionist Claude Debussy in his chamber work Orphée for flute, viola, harp, keyboard, percussion & live electronics (realized by Georgia Tech student Andrew Colella).  Philip Glass's pioneering work in American minimalism betrays the influence of his studies with the famous Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger, as evidenced by Metamorphosis IV (arranged for cello and tape by Joan Jeanrenaud with visuals by Georgia Tech student Thomas Barnwell).

The program also includes music by a younger generation of French composers in François Sarhan’s Pirouette, cacahouète (for violin, bass clarinet, percussion & pre-recorded voice) and Pierre Jodlowski’s Collapsed (for soprano saxophone, percussion & electronics).  The concert ends with the Pulitzer-Prize winning work Double Sextet by American maverick Steve Reich.  (This performance of Double Sextet is made possible by special permission of eighth blackbird.)

Sonic Generator, Georgia Tech’s chamber music ensemble-in-residence, explores the ways in which technology can transform how we create, perform, and listen to music. The ensemble, comprised of some of the top classical musicians in Atlanta, works closely with Georgia Tech faculty in the GVU Center and the Center for Music Technology to present concerts that bring cutting-edge technologies to the world of contemporary classical music.

Sonic Generator is sponsored by the GVU Center, which seeks to advance the state of the art of the interaction between people, computing machines, and information. The concert series is organized in collaboration with the Center for Music Technology and the Music Department in the College of Architecture.  These entities champion advancements in creativity, expression, and human-computer interaction through research and education at Georgia Tech.