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Neil Rolnick Photo by Chloe Band |
Kathleen Supové Photo by Robin Holland |
Neil Rolnick, one of the pioneers of the use of computer in performance, will perform new solo work, including WakeUp – An Everly Brothers Mash-up. He’ll also be joined by long-time collaborator, pianist Kathleen Supové, in the West Coast premiere of his new piece Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand, a half-hour kaleidoscopic romp through the possibilities of live processing of the piano.
Composer Neil Rolnick pioneered in the use of computers in musical performance, beginning in the late 1970s. Based in New York City since 2002, his music has been receiving increasingly wide recognition and numerous performances both in the US and abroad. Rolnick has often included unexpected and unusual combinations of materials and media in his music. He has performed his music around the world, exploring forms as diverse as digital sampling, interactive multimedia, and acoustic vocal, chamber and orchestral works. Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s he was responsible for the development of the first integrated electronic arts graduate and undergraduate programs in the US, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s iEAR Studios, in Troy, NY.
Though much of Rolnick’s work connects music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of “experimental” music, his music has always been highly melodic and accessible. Whether working with electronic sounds, acoustic ensembles, or combinations of the two, his music has been characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging,” and as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.”
In 2012 Rolnick was commissioned to write Gardening At Gropius House for The Juilliard School’s 2012 Beyond the Machine Festival. In 2010 and 2011 Rolnick worked on MONO, an evening long meditation on the senses, to be premiered in 2015. Scenes from the work were previewed in 2011 at EMPAC in Troy, NY. In 2010 Rolnick was awarded the Hoefer Prize from the San Francisco Conservatory, which included a commission and an artist residency. Rolnick also received a 2010 NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a 2011 Fromm Foundation Commission, and a 2013 NY State Council on the Arts Music Commission. From 2010 to 2012 Rolnick was awarded two residencies at the MacDowell Colony, and residencies the Ucross Foundation and the Djerassi Foundation. In January 2013 Innova Recordings released his 17th CD, Gardening At Gropius House.
Kathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists, known for continually redefining what a pianist/keyboardist/performance artist is, in today’s world. Ms. Supové presents solo concerts entitled THE EXPLODING PIANO. where she has performed and premiered works by countless established as well as emerging composers.
Upcoming projects include new/complete PIANO MINIATURES by Mohammed Fairouz, DIGITAL DEBUSSY, the piano works/ghost pieces of Morton Subotnick, and performances throughout the UK of URBAN BIRDS by Arlene Sierra, as part of Britain’s New Music Biennial. In June 2013, she and Sideband, The Princeton Laptop Orchestra performed and gave a GOOGLE TALK at their headquarters in Chelsea, NYC. In March 2014, she premiered Randall Woolf’s Kickboxing Concerto, BATTERY in NYC, followed immediately by a guest artist residency at this year’s SEAMUS Conference at Wesleyan University. Summer 2014 projects include recording pieces for 3 different CD projects, including one with Starkland, and performing “Parallel Dreams”, a collaboration with composer Joan La Barbara and the design/video team of Aleksandar and Marija Kostic, on Governors Island.
In May, 2012, Supové received the John Cage Award from ASCAP for “the artistry and passion with which she performs, commissions, records, and champions the music of our time.” Ms. Supové is a Yamaha Artist. Her latest solo CD is THE EXPLODING PIANO. For more info, visit www.supove.com or follow Exploding Piano (Facebook) or @supove (Twitter).
Neil Rolnick: Dynamic RAM & Concert Grand.mp4 from Neil Rolnick on Vimeo.
Neil Rolnick: A Robert Johnson Sampler from Neil Rolnick on Vimeo.