February 2024 Newsletter

Alumni News
		Alex Berko Joins Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps This year, Alex Berko joined the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps as part of a year-long residency, and has been fully immersed in artistic and community programming throughout Louisville. This past fall, the LO played two works of his: Spiegel Grove (conducted by Teddy Abrams) and Be (conducted by John Devlin). In the spring, the orchestra will premiere two new works: a short, bluegrass-inspired piece for their tour of Kentucky and a longer work for Artefact Ensemble and the LO. He has also been working on a community project that engages 1st graders and senior citizens from Jeffersontown, KY.In other news, two albums that contain Alex’s music have been nominated for 2024 GRAMMY© awards! Conspirare’s “House of Belonging” which contains Sacred Place and You Through Me and The Crossing’s “Carols After a Plague” which features Exodus are both nominated for Best Choral Performance. Final voting is happening now, and the award ceremony will be held in L.A. on February 4, 2024.
Student News

		Daniel Cui and Pablo M. Tuetli in Thailand Daniel Cui’s Outliers and Pablo M. Tuetli’s Brisa de ópalo were premiered on December 2023 during the INTACT music festival in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of the International Composition Institute of Thailand program. Both compositions, written for different mixed ensembles with electronics were performed by Tacet(i) Ensemble at the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center on December 21^st.

		Kian Ravaei Release and February Performances Kian Ravaei released the recording of his piece Latif, performed by cellist Yoshika Masuda and pianist Sean Tang-Wang. Latif is available for streaming and download on all music platforms.Ravaei’s recent performances include the premiere of Navazi, which was performed by viola duo Tallā Rouge at Dumbarton Oaks on January 21 and 22. On February 11, the TEMPO Ensemble will perform Unstoppable at California State University, Northridge.

		Pivotuner 2.5 released with cross-track tuning and better DAW support Dmitri Volkov released an update for Pivotuner, which is software for achieving pure intonation and microtonal modulation with virtual instruments. This update enables Pivotuner to control the tuning of instruments on multiple tracks, and also adds support for more DAWs, including Bitwig and FL Studio. These features are handled by newly-added support for the MTS-ESP protocol. The update also has some slight interface improvements and bug fixes. More information can be found on Dmitri’s website here.

		Sam Parnin receives 2024 ISJAC USF Owen Prize for Jazz Composition Sam Parnin‘s work Auburn was selected as winner of the 2024 International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers/University of South Florida Owen Prize in Jazz Composition. The composition will be premiered at the International Jazz Composers Symposium at Vanderbilt University on May 18^th at the SONIC Awards Concert.

Faculty News
		John Gibson Performances of In Summer Rain and Air Traffic John Gibson’s 8-channel fixed-media piece, In Summer Rain, has continued to receive performances: at Musicacoustica Hangzhou in China, the Third Practice Festival at the University of Richmond, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, and the CIME Electroacoustic Music Days in Rethymno, Greece, where it was a finalist in the Prix CIME 2023 competition. Air Traffic, his piece for trumpet and electronics, will be performed in March at the Electronic Music Midwest festival, held this year at Lewis University, just outside of Chicago.