What: CEMIcircles, the 50th anniversary festival of UNT College of Music’s Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia. The festival will showcase historic and recent works from CEMI alumni and research affiliates. 

When: Events are from Oct. 4 (Friday) through Oct. 6 (Sunday). The full schedule is available at http://cemi.music.unt.edu/cemicircles/schedule.

Where: Events will be held at UNT’s Music Building and Sky Theater, and the Perot Museum in Dallas. See full list below.

Cost: Tickets to Perot Museum’s Social Science event on Sound are available now at http://www.perotmuseum.org/events-and-programs/adult-programs/social-science/index.html. All events held at UNT are free.

More information: For background, directions and more information, visit http://cemi.music.unt.edu/cemicircles. For interviews with CEMI Director Andrew May, email Andrew.May@unt.edu.

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DENTON, Texas (UNT) – In 1963, UNT’s College of Music was one of the first in the country to start an electronic music program. Years later, it became the first in the U.S. to offer intermedia as part of its mission. This year, the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia celebrates its 50th anniversary with the CEMIcircles festival Oct. 4-6.

“This will be an artistic homecoming where faculty, students, and collaborators past and present come together and share their recent work,” said CEMI Director Andrew May. “It will be an opportunity to reflect on the many different people, ideas, and technologies that have shaped CEMI over the years.”

Faculty composer Merrill Ellis established the Electronic Music Center in 1963, one of the first studios of its kind in the U.S. In those early years, the center concentrated on compositions for magnetic tape and live performances using analog synthesizers. In the 1970s, UNT composers increasingly explored “mixed-media” projects — works that included dancers, actors or narrators, and more elaborate theatrical settings and visual projections. The Intermedia Theater was built in 1979, and by 1981, the center gained worldwide recognition by hosting the 7th annual International Computer Music Conference. In the 1990s, the studios were redesigned to offer more flexible and sophisticated computer workstations.

Today, CEMI students and faculty produce works that explore the frontiers of music and intermedia technology, including interactive computer music, immersive video and sound spatialization, physical computing and much more. The center continues to encourage innovative research and artistic work, May said. CEMI will again host the International Computer Music Conference in 2015.

“The people and the music in CEMI have always had a distinctive character, quite different from any of the studios on the East or West coasts – above all, a commitment to independent exploration, discovery and experimentation,” May said.

CEMIcircles schedule:

Friday, Oct. 4

11 a.m. in Voertman Hall in the Music Building– Music Now panel discussion featuring all living CEMI directors

2:30 p.m. in Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater in the Music Building– Concert 1, featuring:

• John Nichols III, Gates (Kedesh Naphtali)
• Sarah Ruth Alexander, Visions of an Insomniac
• Daniel Bernardo, Jabberwocky
• Greg Dixon, Four Studies for Bösendorfer CEUS and Two Hands
• Adam Scott Neal, C/K/P
• Kyong Mee Choi, Tender Spirit II
• Cindy McTee, Bricolage
• Joshua Harris, Crippled Waves (part 1)

7:30 p.m. at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas – Tickets to Social Science program: $15 in advance; ages 21+ only. Concert 2, featuring:

• Paul Thomas, Slapbox
• Chris Polcyn, Gamelan Gone Wild
• Scott Price, Crystalline Vapor
• Lucio Edilberto Cuéllar Camargo, Melting Planet
• Tom Clark, Angels of Bright Splendor
• Jon Christopher Nelson, Bebop in the Forest of Lonely Rhythms

Saturday, Oct. 5

11 a.m. at UNT Sky Theater, Environmental Sciences Building, 1704 W. Mulberry St.– Concert 3, featuring:

• Josh Simmons, and sometimes i can't shake the feeling that they are disconnected
• Jing Wang, Brahmanda
• Chien-Wen Cheng, Rain Reflection
• Émilie Payeur, All-Over
• João Pedro Oliveira, Bloomy Girls
• Philip Winsor, Showers of Flowers

12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the CEMI Studios in the Music Building – Installations open for viewing:

• Nicholas Kanozik and Taurin Barrera, Covenants Not to Compete Volumes I, II, and III
• Peter Leonard, FIREWATER

2:30 p.m. in Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater in the Music Building – Concert 4, featuring:

• Merrill Ellis, Mutations
• C.R. Kasprzyk, veiled
• Chapman Welch, Rara Avis
• Stephen Lucas, C.C.J.
• Panayiotis Kokoras, new electroacoustic work
• Dan Tramte, e u t h a n a s i a
• Butch Rovan, of the survival of images
• Joseph Lyszczarz, Pencil on Paper (11 x 17)

8 p.m. in Voertman Hall in the Music Building – Concert 5, featuring:

• Rodney Waschka II, CHATting Up
• Kevin Jones, Your Call...
• Sever Tipei, HB with G & E for piano and computer-generated sounds
• Joseph Klein, "die Brücke" from Zwei Parabeln nach Franz Kafka
• Elainie Lillios, The Rush of the Brook Stills the Mind
• Seth Shafer, Pulsar (Variant I)
• Ryan Fellhauer, Jen Hill, and Will King, new age // nuages: cloud bits

Sunday, Oct. 6

11 a.m. in Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater in the Music Building – Concert 6, featuring:

• Dave Gedosh, Architecture of a Dream
• Stephen David Beck, inChucK v3 for laptop ensemble
• Larry Austin, Suoni della Bellagio
• David Stout, Cory Metcalf, and Trio KAZE, Sketches from the Autopoietic Theatre

12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the CEMI Studios in the Music Building – Installations open for viewing:

• Nicholas Kanozik and Taurin Barrera, Covenants Not to Compete Volumes I, II, and III
• Peter Leonard, FIREWATER

2:30 p.m. in Voertman Hall in the Music Building – Concert 7, featuring:

• Eli Fieldsteel, Fractus III: Aerophoneme
• Brian Sears, Neon Rush
• Jon Fielder, Crossthreaded
• Arthur Gottschalk, Arecibo
• Robert Frank, Alone With My Thoughts
• Andrew May, A Room Full of Ghosts
• Benjamin Shirey, Inflections for Dröhnen Holtz

About the UNT College of Music

The UNT College of Music is one of the largest and most respected comprehensive music schools in the country. More than 1,600 music students attend UNT each year, participating in more than 50 widely varied ensembles and pursuing specialized studies in performance, composition, music education or music scholarship. UNT faculty members and students have made appearances on the world’s finest stages and have produced numerous recordings, many receiving Grammy awards and nominations. Distinguished UNT alumni can be found around the globe, in top music ensembles, opera companies, universities and schools.