Tomas Henriques: "The Meta-EVI and the Dual Slide Controller: New electronic instruments for new directions in music performance"

ABSTRACT:

The Meta-EVI and the Dual Slide Controller are two wind driven electronic instruments that were created to explore new performance techniques that allow the player of a monophonic brass/wind instrument to significantly widen his/her palette of musical expression.  This is made possible by optimizing and pushing the physical interaction that a musician can obtain with the interfaces he/she plays and by using and combining sensors that are primarily focused on gesture driven control of music parameters.

The Meta-EVI resulted from an extensive augmentation of the Steiner MIDIEVI, a brass style valve instrument while the Double Slide Controller is a totally new electronic music instrument that departs from the slide trombone as a model for its design. The former goes much beyond a mere simulation of its acoustic counterpart introducing innovative features such as two powerful and versatile sets of gesture driven interfaces actuated by the hands of the performer, as well as two independent slides, one for each arm of the musician.

ABOUT TOMAS HENRIQUES:

 Dr. Henriques' creative work and research activities are wide- ranging both in their scope and diversity. His compositions include pieces for acoustic instruments, both large and small formations, as well as music for electronic and mixed media, being regularly played in music festivals and concerts in the USA and Europe.

He obtained his Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo in 1997 having done research in the area of spatial motion of sound and real time interactive music.

From 2005 onwards he has focused his research on using sensor technologies to create innovative electronic instruments for music performance and composition. These new digital music controllers are performed by the composer and currently presented in conferences and concert venues both in North America and in Europe.

Dr. Henriques is a professor at Buffalo State College where he teaches music theory and composition. He taught at the New University of Lisbon in Portugal from 1996 till 2008 where he also established and directed the Computer Music Studios of the university. He is a member of CESEM, Center for Studies in Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, in Lisbon, where he regularly collaborates in international research projects.

In the Spring of 2009 he was a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, working in the area of real time interactive music composition and also developing new interfaces for real time speech synthesis.