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Program

Hannah A. Barnes: clouded winding paths (2025, Canadian premiere)

For violin and electronics. Duration: ca. 12'
Performer(s): Jennifer Gersten (violin), Hannah A. Barnes (electronics)

“Caminante, no hay caminos, hay que caminar.” — inscription anonyme sur un monastère espagnol
“In my beginning is my end... In my end is my beginning.” — T.S. Eliot, “East Coker”

The paths one takes are rarely, if ever, clear and straightforward. clouded winding paths reflects upon the above mantra, which has guided me for several years, as well upon as the circumstances surrounding the composition of the piece and the physical recovery of both myself (before the composition) and my collaborator, Jennifer Gersten. After an injury necessitated a drastic change in how Jennifer played the violin (taking up an improvisation practice with the violin on her lap), creating uncertainty around performance possibilities, I was eager to continue this collaborative project, finding a connection between her situation and my own years of chronic scoliosis-related back pain as a young woman.

Before intensive physical therapy, which led to significant and lasting positive change, I had to adapt and limit certain activities for years as a teenager and young adult. In clouded winding paths, I took an adaptive approach to violin writing, which led to certain discoveries in our collaboration that I would not have found otherwise—wispy harmonic sounds that come from inserting a knitting needle between the strings; or different approaches to overpressure or molto sul tasto bowing that are only possible with the violin positioned horizontally; and so on. As Jennifer was able to return to playing in the “traditional” position, in the finished piece, these adaptive materials are present in the electronics, which augment or contrast with what takes place in the live violin.

clouded winding paths, which pays homage to Luigi Nono, was composed for and is dedicated to Jennifer Gersten. It is a cousin to my piece for electric guitar, Negative Capability (2020).
— HAB

Matteo Tomasetti & Consuelo Donati: Ife (2024, North American premiere)

For live electronics, spatial sound, live visuals, and interactive gestures. Duration: ca. 30'
Performer(s): Matteo Tomasetti [ShapeDaze] (electronics), Consuelo Donati (multimedia)

Ife explores a subterranean world hidden from view, where mycelium spreads its filaments and creates invisible connections. In this dimension, pulses and melodies travel through silent networks, revealing structures that take shape through sound and light. The mycelium expands, vibrates, and responds to the performer's gestures, transforming the space into a living, ever-evolving organism. Ife tries to fuse the biological and the digital, inviting the audience to perceive what usually remains hidden: the intricate web of relationships that sustains and unites the underground world.

Kasey Pocius: On the Edge (2024)

For T-Stick, Fixed Media and Real-Time Audio/Video Synthesis. Duration: 14'
Performer(s): Kasey Pocius (T-Stick)

On the Edge is an audiovisual work for video, T-Stick and surround sound. This audiovisual work explores sounds and images of objects often on the edges of perception our perceptions, as well as processing and results from edge cases in musical algorithms and technology.

The piece consists of four interlayered vignettes, exploring the behaviour and textural qualities of various edge and peak detection algorithms to create the fixed media. These files are then used for the corpus for the granular synthesis controlled by the T-Stick. The gestural data from the T-Stick is sent from Max to Ossia, where it is used to manipulate the treatment of the video clips in real-time.

Gaël Moriceau: Turbulences Harmoniques (2024)

For T-Stick sopranino. Duration: 6'
Performer(s): Gaël Moriceau (T-Stick sopranino)

Composed for T-Stick Sopranino and FM synthesis, Harmonic Turbulences unfolds as a continuously evolving synthetic soundscape, inspired by the contrasts between calm and stormy weather. The sonic textures undergo constant transformation, shifting from delicate nuances to powerful gusts, creating a dynamic and immersive auditory experience.

Biographies

Hannah A. Barnes (she/her)

Hannah A. Barnes (b. 1997) is a Montréal-based composer and conductor. Her work centres on crafting structured yet dynamic, multi-faceted musical worlds characterized by mercurial, off-kilter, and seemingly incompatible materials. These works straddle tension and expression for both performers and listeners. Barnes' main concerns are (re)defining Modernism in the twenty-first century, investigating manifestations of complexity and polyphony, and addressing questions of syntax and semantics within a non-narrative musical language that encompasses both harmonic and noise-based materials. Having been described by a performer as composing “alien music,” she embraces the strange, unpredictable and mysterious in art of all kinds.
Currently a DMus student at McGill University, recent and upcoming works include a string quartet with mezzo-soprano for Quatuor Memoire, a large ensemble piece for McGill’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, and a double-bell brass trio for members of Ensemble Musikfabrik.

Jennifer Gersten (she/her)

Jennifer Wei Gersten is a violinist and writer from New York City. A former tenured section violinist in Helsingborg Symfoniorkester (Sweden), she instigates avant-garde and improvised music projects in the US and Scandinavia. As a freelance journalist, Jennifer has contributed feature reporting, essays, and music criticism to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, Gramophone, and The Washington Post, among other publications. Jennifer is a Fulbright and American Scandinavian Foundation grantee for both journalism and performance research.

Jennifer has performed with such groups as TAK Ensemble (US), SEM Ensemble (US), Ensemble Temporum (Norway), Norwegian Radio Broadcasting Orchestra, and Stavanger Symfoniorkester; she has also been co-concertmaster of the Tanglewood and Lucerne fellowship orchestras. Jennifer is an improviser with constellations in Oslo and New York, principally with bassist Maggie Cox as Goal Weight. She holds a DMA from Stony Brook and a BA in English from Yale.

Matteo Tomasetti

Matteo Tomasetti (he/him) is an Italian sound artist and live performer creating immersive musical experiences where gesture-based interfaces and spatial audio play a central role. With a background in electronic music and audiovisual composition, and a Ph.D. in Music Technology from the University of Trento, his artistic practice spans acousmatic and electroacoustic music, techno, ambient and IDM productions, experimental electronics, as well as sound art and multimedia and interactive installations. His works have been performed at venues and festivals worldwide, including Ars Electronica, Venice Biennale, Gaudeamus Festival, ICMC, NIME, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Videocittà Festival, Live Cinema Festival, and many others. Under the alias ShapeDaze, he performs IDM and experimental music, blending influences from ambient, acousmatic, glitch/noise, and techno/rave. Matteo is also the co-founder of the BitNet01 collective, which organizes electronic music and digital art festivals across Italy and Europe.

Consuelo Donati

Consuelo Donati (she/her) is an Italian multimedia artist whose transdisciplinary practice spans audiovisual performance, interaction design, immersive installation, and scenography. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and a Master’s in Multimedia Arts and Interaction Design from the Rome University of Fine Arts (RUFA). Her work explores the intersections between the physical and digital realms, often focusing on interactivity and the relationship between body and technology. She has taken part in several artistic residencies across Italy, including Centrale Fies, Lavanderia a Vapore, Spazio 500, Garage Lab, and Fabbrica Urbana. She is the co-founder of BitNet01, a collective that curates festivals throughout Europe dedicated to audiovisual performances, immersive installations, and digital art. She is also co-founder of Clon_E, an art collective created in Bologna with multimedia artist Silvia Parolini, devoted to hybrid and interactive artistic research.

Kasey Pocius

Kasey Pocius is a gender-fluid intermedia artist and researcher based in Montreal, teaching at Concordia and active with CIRMMT, IDMIL, LePARC, and GRMS. They create electroacoustic and audiovisual works that explore interactive electronics, spatial sound and collaborative improvisation, with pieces programmed globally from DIY spaces to Harvard.

Gaël Moriceau

Gaël Moriceau is a Masters student in Music composition and sound creation at Université de Montréal (UdeM). After working for several years in mechanical engineering, Gaël decided to change career in 2019. He then studied sound design and electroacoustic music composition at UdeM where he completed a bachelor’s degree in digital music in 2022. His compositions aim at immersing listeners in unknown abstract spaces. He uses both field recording and computer-generated material as well as spatialization techniques to create unique sound objects and textures. Gaël’s research consists in developing playing techniques for Digital Musical Instruments (DMI) such as the T-Stick and composing electroacoustic pieces for small DMI ensembles. The objective is to expand DMI’s repertoire, develop their use among composers and performers thus ensuring their perennity.