Jean-Francois Charles

On Thursday, October 25th, the Cedar Rapids Opera Theater are presenting their 2018-19 Season Preview Party. I am thrilled to be working with them on an upcoming opera about Grant Wood: I'll let you know more about this work in the coming months. In the meantime, please come to the preview party: tenor Benjamin Kawsky is going to perform my song Flip the Page . In the opera, Grant Wood sings this tune while studying in Paris at the Julian Academy .

This summer, I had the pleasure of meeting my friends and colleagues from the Prisma group. The conference was held at Ircam , the Institute for Research and Coordination on Acoustics and Music. Örjan Sandred presented his string quartet, Jean Bresson shared his work beyond Open Music: o7 , Jacopo Baboni Schilingi presented his recent projects, asking why would there be no composer in a fashion store? . Andrea Agostini showed the developments in the bach assisted composition library for Max , before Hans Tutschku showed applications of the bach project, when linked to Max, the Kontakt sampler, and more software tools. There were also interesting presentations by Vincent Iampietro, Michele Tadini and Sami Naslin, as well as Giorgio Sancristoforo. I presented the Live Geometry durational performance , as well as how we used the Axoloti platform for New Musical Instruments . The presentation that generated the most vivid discussions was given by artist and developper Cyrille Henry...

Gentiana is a composition for double-bell trumpet augmented with cymbals, guitar, percussion, violin and cello. It was premièred by the Nebula Ensemble on June 22, 2018, during their summer festival. They just posted the video of the performance: Gentiana evokes characteristics of alpine flowering plants. The three sections of the piece are: Esprit , Vertige (from around 2:50), and Racines (starting around 5:25). In Racines , you might recognize a traditional song... Let me know if you get the quote! For more information, see my previous post showing the true digital synths for string instruments . The cymbals augmenting the trumpet's sound.

Cycling74 just released Max 8 , the new version of the graphical programming environment for music, video, and more generally interactivity with new media. I won't tell you about all of the new features (multi-channel objects and patch cords, etc.), you can read that on their web site. Rather, I'll celebrate with a picture I took when I attended the first Expo 74, in San Francisco, in 2009. Yes, at this time, cycling74 had offices in San Francisco! An interview with David Zicarelli Here are a couple of sentences from an interview with David Zicarelli , cycling74's CEO. I believe the interview took place in 2001. I find reading these sentences so enjoyable, I hope it will make you happy as well! Are you surprised at the affection that users hold for Max? In order to get anything out of the program, you have to get into it in a way that demands a certain level of commitment. In many situations in life, commitment and affection are found together. What version of Max i...

This Fall, I started teaching the third version of the course Digital Arts: an Introduction at the University of Iowa . Here are a couple of memories from the Spring 2018 edition of the Final Project presentation: See also the Digital Arts Creative Projects 2017 .

Tonight, the Nebula Ensemble with guest conductor Kornel Thomas are performing Gentiana , a new composition for trumpet, guitar, percussion, violin and cello. Concert is taking place at 7:30 p.m. at the Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Denver. True-digital synth for string instruments I adapted Andrew Bentley 's true-digital synth original design to string instruments: Violinist Arlo Adams and cellist Julia Emery trying out the instruments during yesterday's rehearsal: Program Notes Gentiana evokes characteristics of the alpine flowering plants used to produce herbal medicine or distilled beverages. During the three sections of the composition, Esprit , Vertige , and Racines , the musicians connect traditional techniques to the physical nature of their tools.

On Thursday, June 28, Françoise Kubler and Armand Angster are going to première Nattie's Air , a composition for mezzo-soprano, bass clarinet, and cymbal with live electronics. The cymbal is similar to the instrument I used to perform Absalon Crash during the NIME 2018 conference . The concert is part of a three day festival: Ensemble Accroche Note's Rencontres d'été in Strasbourg, France. A recital for soprano, clarinet, and electronics Here is the program of this exciting concert: Luigi Nono : La Fabbrica Illuminata for soprano and fixed media (1964) Luis Naon : Ultimos Movimientos for soprano, clarinet and electronics (2013) Jean-François Charles: Nattie’s Air for soprano, bass clarinet and electronics (2018) – world première François Bousch : Dualité Miroirs for soprano, clarinet and fixed media (2012) Philippe Manoury : Illud Etiam for soprano, clarinet and electronics (2013)