Serving the San Francisco Bay Area New Music Community

                 
CCRMA
660 Lomita Dr.
Stanford CA 94305  

The Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) is a multi-disciplinary facility where composers and researchers work together using computer-based technology both as an artistic medium and as a research tool.

Pronouncing "CCRMA":
CCRMA is an acronym for the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics it is pronounced "karma" (the first "c" is silent).

Areas of ongoing interest:
Composition, Applications Hardware, Applications Software, Synthesis Techniques and Algorithms, Physical Modeling, Music and Mobile Devices, Sensors, Real-Time Controllers, Signal Processing, Digital Recording and Editing, Psychoacoustics and Musical Acoustics, Perceptual Audio Coding, Music Information Retrieval, Audio Networking, Auditory Display of Multidimensional Data (Data Sonification), and Real-Time Applications.

The CCRMA community:
Administrative and technical staff, faculty, research associates, graduate research assistants, graduate and undergraduate students, visiting scholars, visiting researchers and composers, and industrial associates. Departments actively represented at CCRMA include Music, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Art, Drama, and Psychology.

Center activities:
Academic courses, seminars, small interest group meetings, summer workshops and colloquia. Concerts of computer music are presented several times each year, including exchange concerts with area computer music centers. In-house technical reports and recordings are available, and public demonstrations of ongoing work at CCRMA are held periodically.

Research results:
Are published and presented at professional meetings, international conferences and in established journals including the Computer Music Journal, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, and various transactions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Compositions are presented in new music festivals and radio broadcasts throughout the world and have been recorded on cassette, LP, and compact disk.

CCRMA affiliation:
The Center for Computer Assisted Research in the Humanities (CCARH), also located at Stanford. CCARH conducts research on constructing computer databases for music, and on creating programs that allow researchers to access, analyze, print, and electronically perform the music. This focus is complementary to research at CCRMA in several ways.

Support for CCRMA:
The late Doreen B. Townsend, Walter Hewlett, the California Arts Council, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Science Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation (for artists-in-residence), the System Development Foundation, Apple Computer, ATR Human Information Processing Research Labs, Aureal Semiconductor, Bio Control, Crystal Semiconductor, Digidesign, Dynacord, E-mu, Fast Mathematical Algorithms and Hardware, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Hewlett Packard, IBM Computer Music Center, Interval Research, ITRI CCL Taiwan, Kind of Loud Technologies, Korg, Matsushita, Media Vision, McDSP, NEC, NeXT Computer, Nokia Group, NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Opcode Systems, Philips Semiconductors, Rockwell International, Roland, Sony, Symbolics, Texas Instruments, Universal Audio/Kind of Loud Technologies, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Yamaha, Young Chang R&D Institute, Zeta Music Partners, and private gifts.
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/

Upcoming Events:
Monday, April 29 2024 7:30 PM
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
Galan Trio: Kinesis

CCRMA presents Galan Trio performing works for piano, violin, cello, and electronics.

Galan Trio’s “Kinesis,” a survey on the music of contemporary American composers in an original, multifaceted concert program. The project draws from a collaboration between Galan Trio and professors of composition from selected US Universities, and from the notion of “Kinesis.” Kinesis is an undirected movement of a cell, organism, or part, in response to an external stimulus. In Greek, Kinesis means movement, motion. Motion is a fundamental characteristic of all living beings; motion is what all musicians worldwide have desired during the last couple of years; motion alludes to continuity and it’s a promise for the future of “Kinesis” itself.

The first edition of the project featured the work of five composers who contributed one original work for piano trio reflecting on the period of the pandemic. Galan Trio counts four editions by now in East Coast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and South Central regions and works by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis, Martin Gendelman, Matthew Greenbaum, David Martynuik, Ken Steen, Alex Lubet, Navid Bargrizan, Larry Alan Smith and Richard Lavenda among others. The April 2024 edition in California features the work of Robert Denham, David Carter, Christopher Dobrian, Kevin Zhang, Pamela Madsen, Joao Pedro Oliveira, Deborah Kavasch, Ines Thibaut, Cindy Cox and Patricia Alessandrini.

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CCRMA Stage

FREE and Open to the Public

Livestream: ccrma.stanford.edu/live

Face coverings are recommended. We encourage you to continue wearing masks for the comfort of our audience members, artists, and staff.

Directions, parking, accessibility: ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions

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Known for the passionate and energetic spirit of their performances, the Athens-based Galan Trio is active both in Greece and internationally. Focused mainly on presenting new compositions, Galan Trio creates original programs, the most recent being Kinesis. For this project, the trio commissioned five distinguished composers from the United States to compose on this theme, a collaboration that led to their first tour in October 2021. Since then, Galan Trio presented Kinesis in more than 20 US universities and many more have been scheduled until fall 2025.

Galan Trio’s discography counts 4 albums by now; Switch (Akanthos Int. LTD), Ararat (Melism Records), Kinesis (Neuma Records) and De Chirico (Phasma Music). In 2017, they released their debut album Switch, a musical blend of cultures with works composed for and dedicated to Galan Trio by Thomas Bramel (U.S.A.), David Haladjian (Armenia), Vincent Kennedy (Ireland), Vasco Pereira (Portugal), Harald Weiss (Germany), and Nikos Xanthoulis (Greece). The album presentation took place in Athens at Megaron Concert Hall. Switch received critical acclaim and was broadcasted on the radio in Greece, Switzerland, the United States, Portugal, Germany and Armenia.

In July 2016, the ensemble travelled to Gulangyu, China, the so-called “Piano Island”, for the series of concerts “Greek Inspirations in China”, the first festival in China that featured Greek music. Collaborations with other accomplished composers and musicians include the mezzo-soprano Alexandra Gravas, the flutist Jessica Quinones, and the composers Dirk Brosse, Igor Vorobyov, Yorgos Vassilandonakis, Paul Richards, Arthur Aharonian, Martin Gendelman, Philip Blackburn, and Richard Lavenda among others. In 2019, Galan Trio composed and recorded the original soundtrack for the documentary Y1: Silence of the deep directed by Philippos Vardakas. Schott Editions published Secret Dancing by Harald Weiss with a dedication to the Trio. Recently, the Trio presented their work in the USA, Spain, Italy, Armenia, the Netherlands and in Greece as the prestigious Athens & Epidaurus Festival, the Komitas Festival, the fourth online festival of the Greek National Opera, the Onassis Foundation’s Open Day and the Megaron Concert Hall series Music Portraits. In December 2021, Galan Trio premiered their project Ararat at the Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Galan Trio’s future plans include a new project in collaboration with the flutist Rita D’Arcangelo and the Three Esential Elements organization, the release of their new album Kinesis Vol. 2 (Neuma Records) and the fifth Kinesis project in California.

http://www.galantrio.com/


Jay Haide Vuillaume Cello Provided by Ifshin Violins in El Cerrito, CA
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Thursday, May 16 2024 4:00 PM
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
CCRMA Open House Concert

The first day of our Open House ends with a concerts featuring works by current CCRMAlites.

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CCRMA Stage

FREE and Open to the Public

Livestream: ccrma.stanford.edu/live

Face coverings are recommended. We encourage you to continue wearing masks for the comfort of our audience members, artists, and staff.

Directions, parking, accessibility: ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions

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Program TBA
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Thursday, May 16 2024 7:30 PM
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
CCRMA presents a solo show by Caroline Davis playing saxophone and electronics.

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CCRMA Stage

FREE and Open to the Public

Livestream: ccrma.stanford.edu/live

Face coverings are recommended. We encourage you to continue wearing masks for the comfort of our audience members, artists, and staff.

Directions, parking, accessibility: ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions

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Alive with nurturing visions of simple sonic offerings to morph our present situation, Caroline Davis’ main reason for playing music is to connect with others, beckoning new vistas among curious listeners. Her musical journey began in Singapore, in a humid climate, hearing sounds underwater that she would recreate by singing to her German shepherd dogs, who treated her as their own. Her family moved to the United States, Atlanta, Georgia, around age 6, where she encountered R&B and gospel music rife with horns that called her to choose the saxophone 6 years later.

Today, Caroline’s music covers a wide range of styles, owed to this shifting environment. As a leader, she has released seven albums: Live Work & Play (2012), Doors: Chicago Storylines (2015), Heart Tonic (2018), Alula (2019), Anthems (2019), Portals: Mourning (2021), and Alula: Captivity (2023). Her active projects include jazz-leaning Portals, experimental R&B outfit My Tree, and protest band Alula. She has won Downbeat’s Critic’s Poll Rising Star Alto-Saxophonist (2018) and has been included in numerous Reader and Critics Polls. Her work has garnered much praise from NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wire, DownBeat, and many international publications.

Davis is active as both a side-person and a leader in a diverse set of expressions. Davis has shared the stage with Lee Konitz, Rajna Swaminathan, Michelle Boulé, Angelica Sanchez, John Zorn, Bari Kim, The Femme Jam, Matt Mitchell, Terry Riley, Miles Okazaki, and Billy Kaye.

Outside of these performance relationships, she has been involved with the following mentorship communities: IAJE’s Sisters in Jazz, the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program, and Mutual Mentorship for Musicians. Grants and residencies supporting a grateful Caroline include: Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Chamber Music America, New York Foundation for the Arts, Jerome Hill, Civitella, BringAbout Residency, The Jazz Gallery, and MacDowell. Some of her compositional practice integrates music with cognitive science, influenced by her Ph.D in Music Cognition.

Caroline’s awards and recognitions are plentiful. She has been involved with various mentorship communities: IAJE’s Sisters in Jazz (2006), the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program (2011), and Jen Shyu/Sara Serpa’s Mutual Mentorship Program (2020). Davis was the recipient of CMA's Performance Plus Grant (2021), NYFA's City Artist Corps Grant (2021), Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019-2020); and she has participated in several residency programs, including fellow-in-residence at The Jazz Gallery (2022) and composer-in-residence at MacDowell (2019). Some of her compositional practice integrates music with cognitive science influenced by her Ph.D in Music Cognition. As a teaching artist, Caroline brings her unique knowledge of music and psychology to her teaching. She offers a yearly Jazz & Gender course at The New School, co-taught with Sarah Elizabeth Charles, and private lessons at Manhattan School of Music, and has been invited to institutions of all levels as a guest educator.

Caroline is an advocate for social justice in the realms of gender (This Is a Movement) and in the movement for carceral justice (Justice for Keith Lamar). She is organizing community events as “Community Conversations on Art & Justice for Incarcerated People”, showcasing the intersectionality between liberation and art of all forms.

www.carolinedavis.org
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Friday, May 17 2024 7:30 PM
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
John Chowning & Friends

The second day of our Open House ends with a special 50th Anniversary concert curated by John Chowning.

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CCRMA Stage

FREE and Open to the Public

Livestream: ccrma.stanford.edu/live

Face coverings are recommended. We encourage you to continue wearing masks for the comfort of our audience members, artists, and staff.

Directions, parking, accessibility: ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions

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Program TBA
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Thursday, May 23 2024 7:30 PM
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano: Phase Changes

CCRMA's own Fernando Lopez-Lezcano returns to the Stage for a live performance with his modular synthesizers and other bleeps-and-blops-making devices.

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CCRMA Stage

FREE and Open to the Public

Livestream: ccrma.stanford.edu/live

Face coverings are recommended. We encourage you to continue wearing masks for the comfort of our audience members, artists, and staff.

Directions, parking, accessibility: ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions

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Fernando Lopez-Lezcano was given a choice of instruments when he was a kid and liked the piano best. His dad was an engineer and philosopher, his mother loved biology, music and the arts. He studied both music and engineering, and thrives on a balanced diet of art and technology. He throws computers, software algorithms, engineering and sound into a blender and serves the result with ice in tall glasses, and over many speakers. He can hack Linux for a living, and likes to pretend he can still play the piano. He built El Dinosaurio from scratch 40+ years ago, and it still sings its modular songs. He also loves to distill music from pure software.

ccrma.stanford.edu/~nando
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Monday, May 27 2024 7:30 PM
Streaming and in-person:Click for stream  
Guillermo Galindo: Nexo Organico/Organic Nexus

Guillermo Galindo presents a live score to a black and white post-apocalyptic animation film that shows a nuanced dialogue between classical taxonomic systems rooted in European codices and contemporary biogenetic sciences and corporations. The latter, often linked to extractivism and genetic modification for commodification, face tension within this artistic exploration. The piece reflects a post-human symbiotic mutant world inhabited with entities that are part fish part animal, part human and part plant.

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CCRMA Stage

FREE and Open to the Public

Livestream: ccrma.stanford.edu/live

Face coverings are recommended. We encourage you to continue wearing masks for the comfort of our audience members, artists, and staff.

Directions, parking, accessibility: ccrma.stanford.edu/about/directions

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Guillermo Galindo is a post-Mexican experimental composer, artist, and performer whose expansive body of work transcends traditional artistic boundaries, delving into the intersections of music, visual arts, politics, humanitarian issues, spirituality, and social awareness. His creative repertoire encompasses a diverse array of mediums, including acoustic compositions, electro-acoustic music, film, visual arts, performance art, and immersive installations.

Galindo's artistic endeavors have garnered international acclaim, with his works being featured in prominent venues and exhibitions worldwide. One of Galindo's notable collaborations was with renowned photographer Richard Misrach on the Border Cantos series, which featured Misrach's evocative photographs of the U.S./Mexico border alongside Galindo's sonic devices and graphic musical scores created from objects left behind by immigrants and border patrol agents. This project shed light on the complexities of immigration and border politics, sparking critical discourse on these pressing issues.

Galindo's commitment to addressing socio-political concerns extends to his commissioned works, such as Remote Control for the Kronos Quartet Fifty for the Future project. This audience-interactive string quartet brings awareness to the dehumanizing effects of violence and the militarization of virtual reality, showcasing Galindo's dedication to using art as a catalyst for social change.

In response to the Pacific Standard Time biennale's Visual Voyages exhibit, Galindo created the Sonic Botany series, exploring the dangers of commodifying natural resources and the corporate appropriation of genetic code from flora and fauna. This ethno-futurist project challenges perceptions of nature and human intervention, prompting reflection on humanity's relationship with the environment.

Galindo's ongoing exploration of environmental themes has led to new projects like Sonic Biogenesis, Genomics and Mutant Jungles, which envisions a post-human world inhabited by mutant beings. Collaborations with artists like Cristobal Martinez on Let Us Speak Frog further delve into the urgency of addressing climate change and environmental decay.

Beyond his artistic pursuits, Galindo shares his expertise as a teacher at the California College of Arts and has been recognized as a Mohr Visiting Artist at Stanford University and a Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Rollins Cornell Arts Museum. His contributions to the arts have earned him prestigious accolades, including the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Grant.

In summary, Guillermo Galindo's groundbreaking work transcends artistic boundaries, challenging perceptions and provoking thought on pressing social and environmental issues. Through his innovative compositions and interdisciplinary collaborations, Galindo continues to push the boundaries of art and activism, leaving a lasting impact on the contemporary cultural landscape.

www.galindog.com


Photo by Zen Cohen
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News:
05/20/2017

July 10-14
CCRMA Summer Workshop
Stanford University, CA
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/workshops/eae-2017

Electronic Arts Ensemble is designed for musicians, visual artists, programmers, designers, writers, dancers, actors, or artists of any discipline to collaboratively develop improvisatory performances using custom digital toolkits. 
 
The workshop will address topics including:
performance practices, with a focus on improvisation
music performance software (Max/MSP, Max4Live, Ableton Live, etc.)
video performance software (Jitter, Premiere Pro, After Effects, etc.)
hardware and sensors (Arduino, Kinect, MIDI controllers, etc.)
networked performance (OSC, JackTrip, etc.)


The schedule includes lectures, demos, discussions, and lab time. At the core of the workshop, daily group improvisations using customized toolkits will enable participants to develop a novel approach to their individual artistic practice. Participants are encouraged to experiment with the technology presented during the demos, and to engage with their peers in synergetic creation. The multidisciplinary ensemble will stage a public performance on the last day of the workshop.
 
Participants should either have an established artistic discipline, or have experience with programming and digital media. Both would be ideal, but not required. It is recommended that participants bring their own laptops and instruments, cameras, projectors, or other electronic gear.

About the instructors
 
Alex Chechile is an artist and composer whose work develops in parallel with research in neuroscience, psychoacoustics, and the biomechanics of hearing. His electroacoustic compositions and installations bring transparency to otherwise invisible processes in biology and technology. His work has been shown across the United States, Europe, and Asia. His projects have been supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Harvestworks (NYC), Issue Project Room (NYC), the Experimental Television Center (NY), the Deep Listening Institute (NY), and the American Embassy. His work has been presented at MoMA, The 2011 New York Electronic Arts Festival, and SIGGRAPH San Diego. Alex performs in the SideLObe chamber laptop ensemble with Ge Wang, was a founding member of Pauline Oliveros' Tintinnabulate ensemble, collaborated with Mercury Rev, and opened for Primus. Chechile is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), and holds an MFA in Electronic Art from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a BA in Music from Tufts University.
 
Constantin Basica is a Romanian composer living in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose current work explores perceptual illusions in the context of audiovisual performance. His compositions include pieces for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra, and opera. In recent years, he has been composing multimedia works for acoustic instruments, electronics, and video, which have been performed in Europe and in the United States by artists such as Séverine Ballon, Tony Arnold, Elision Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Liminar, JACK Quartet, and Spektral Quartet. Constantin is the Alice Wilber Chapman graduate fellow at Stanford University, where he is working toward a D.M.A. in Composition. He received an M.A. degree in Multimedia Composition from the University of Music and Theater Hamburg, Germany, and two B.A. degrees in Composition and Conducting from the National University of Music Bucharest, Romania. As a teaching assistant at Stanford University, Constantin received the Chair’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2015. He was also one of the lecturers at the 2016 Sound and Music Computing Conference and Summer School in Hamburg, Germany.