Topic: Music in Virtual Space
Abstract:
Peter Hamlin of the Music Department will premiere and discuss his new piece of electronic music called Music of the Spheres, a piece designed for virtual reality. He will be joined by music faculty colleague Matthew Taylor and senior joint Music/Computer Science major Fiona Sullivan, both of whom will improvise with the VR music environment.
Virtual reality offers intriguing possibilities for electronic music. It offers the possibility of creating fanciful virtual performance spaces, bringing its audience into those spaces to observe the music as well as interact with it or help create it. Hardware and software tools are becoming more available as well, and the natural collaborative nature of vr suggests exciting teaching possibilities. I’m just starting to explore it and am very excited about the new possibilities for my own work.
Biography:
Peter Hamlin teaches theory, electronic music, and composition at Middlebury. He is an active composer who has written numerous works for orchestra, band, choir, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, solo voice, music theater, and electronic media. He received his BA in music at Middlebury in 1973 where he studied composition with George Todd. He was a radio producer/host at KPBS-FM in San Diego from 1974-1980, and from 1980-1990 hosted a classical music program on KUNI-FM in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He also served as fine arts host on Iowa Public Television. He received an MM degree in composition at the University of Northern Iowa in 1989, studying there with Peter Michaelides. His PhD is from the Eastman School of Music where he studied composition with Joseph Schwantner and Samuel Adler. He taught at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, from 1992 to 2004, and was appointed to the Middlebury faculty in 2004.
Here’s a recent student project, a collaborative composition/production by senior Middlebury music majors Jack Tipper and Mike McCann.
Watch the world premiere of Soul Mate and One Woman One Man from the song cycle by Peter Hamlin. Susanne Peck, soprano and Cynthia Huard, piano. Performed March 13, 2011.
This is one of several of Professor Hamlin’s pieces being premiered this year. On April 10 at 3:00 pm the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensembles will perform Meditation on Elzick’s Farewell and Singing Bowl. On April 22 at 8:00 pm, the College Orchestra performance will include a piece by Professor Hamlin, as well as premieres by Noah Silverstein ’11 and Nicholas Tkach ’11.