Decipher This‪!‬ Ensemble Decipher

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to writing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies, and frequently performs live-electronics. Her music has been performed by Metropolis Ensemble, Experiments in Opera, Tigue, Dither, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, The Glass Farm Ensemble, to name a few. Awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Awards, and the 2014 Elliott Carter Rome Prize. Matthusen is currently Associate Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology.

Music: Lion’s Tale by Pauline Oliveros, performed by Toneburst Laptop and Electronic Arts Ensemble; of an implacable subtraction by Paula Matthusen, performed by Dana Jessen

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Co-hosts: Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Rob Cosgrove

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Decipher This! is produced by Joseph Bohigian; intro sounds by Eric Lemmon; outro music toy_3 by Eric Lemmon.

Mari Kimura is a violinist/composer and a leading figure in interactive computer music. Mari is world-renowned for Subharmonics—the production of pitches that sound up to an octave below the violin’s lowest string—and her dynamic performances and as an improviser. She received numerous awards including Guggenheim Fellowship, Fromm Award, a residency award at IRCAM, and the grant from Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Her 2017 solo album Voyage Apollonian features her works for MUGIC®. Mari is a Professor of Music at the “Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology” program at UC Irvine, where she developed MUGIC®.

Music: KISMET by Mari Kimura, performed by Mari Kimura and Ensemble Decipher

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Co-hosts: Chelsea Loew and Niloufar Nourbakhsh

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Decipher This! is produced by Joseph Bohigian; intro sounds by Eric Lemmon; outro music toy_3 by Eric Lemmon.

Jamie Leigh Sampson is a composer, bassoonist, author, and entrepreneur based in Western New York. She teaches music composition and entrepreneurship at the State University of New York at Fredonia and is the Co-Owner of the publishing entity ADJ•ective New Music. Sampson has written for University North Texas Bands, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as well as Amanda DeBoer Bartlett and the Ritual Action Reed Trio. Her compositions have been described as “impressionistic, enabling the listener to focus on the beauty, timbre, and nuance of the singing” and “transcendentally moving” by the Brooklyn Rail.

Music: Power Transfer by Jamie Leigh Sampson, performed by Martin Van Klompenberg; In the Next Next World by Jamie Leigh Sampson, text by Gillian Conoley, performed by Peter Tantsits, Jamie Leigh Sampson, and Tamzin Ferré Elliott

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Co-hosts: Taylor Long and Joseph Bohigian

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Contact us at decipherists@ensembledecipher.com.

Decipher This! is produced by Joseph Bohigian; intro sounds by Eric Lemmon; outro music toy_3 by Eric Lemmon.

Daria Semegen’s chamber, orchestral, vocal and electronic music with dance and film tends toward the experimental. Her first score for instruments and musique concrète tape is from 1965, followed by tour de force electronic music works she crafted with classic analog studio techniques. Her work was featured in articles, books and in E. Hinkle-Turner’s 1991 doctoral dissertation at Univ. of Illinois. In 1995 her music was the subject of an international seminar at King’s College, Univ. of London. Semegen was honored along with digital music trailblazers Jean-Claude Risset and John Chowning at an international electroacoustic music conference in 2015. Alt-music’s Forced Exposure called her electronic works “heterodyning stereo-heavy monsters as vital as any of the GRM/STEIM/SECAM Darmstadt output.” Critic DJ Spooky wrote, “the dynamic range of sounds is absolutely refreshing, flying in the face of what’s been going on in contemporary music culture.”

Music: Vignette by Daria Semegen, performed by Cathy Callis

Recording of Arc, by Daria Semegen

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Co-hosts: Joseph Bohigian and Niloufar Nourbakhsh

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Contact us at decipherists@ensembledecipher.com.

Decipher This! is produced by Joseph Bohigian; intro sounds by Eric Lemmon; outro music toy_3 by Eric Lemmon.

Paul Leary is an Associate Professor of Music & Technology at SUNY Oswego in Oswego, NY. After earning degrees in music composition at the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, Dr. Leary completed a PhD in composition from Duke University in 2012. Paul’s works often include hand built instruments that bring kinetic motion to his electronic works through sensors. Recent works have included a 9 foot wooden pendulum and a bike wheel rig that utilize magnetometers and accelerometers.

Music: Meditations composed and performed by Paul Leary; Perfume by Paul Leary, performed by Thomas Rosencranz; Hephaestus’ Fire composed and performed by Paul Leary

pauleary.com

Co-hosts: Chelsea Loew and Eric Lemmon

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ensembledecipher.com

Contact us at decipherists@ensembledecipher.com.

Decipher This! is produced by Joseph Bohigian; intro sounds by Eric Lemmon; outro music toy_3 by Eric Lemmon.

Praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times), Kamala Sankaram moves freely between the worlds of experimental music and contemporary opera. Recent commissions include works for the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and Creative Time, among others. Known for pushing the boundaries of opera, Kamala’s work has included several pieces fusing Indian classical music with the operatic form, the first virtual reality opera, several telematic operas, an opera with live data-mining of the audience, and most recently, a 10-hour opera for the trees of Prospect Park.

Music: all decisions will be made by consensus, music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, performed by Adrian Rosas, Hai-Ting Chinn, Joan La Barbara, Kamala Sankaram, Paul An, and Zachary James; “Ghosting” from Looking at You, music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, performed by Samuel McCoy, Jeff Hudgins, Ed RosenBerg, and Josh Sinton; “Bike” from Looking at You, music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel, performed by Samuel McCoy, Blythe Gaissert, Brandon Snook, Mila Henry, Jeff Hudgins, Ed RosenBerg, and Josh Sinton

Aqua Net & Funyuns podcast

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kamalasankaram.com

Co-hosts: Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Joseph Bohigian

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ensembledecipher.com

Contact us at decipherists@ensembledecipher.com.

Decipher This! is produced by Joseph Bohigian; intro sounds by Eric Lemmon; outro music toy_3 by Eric Lemmon.