Innovative composer takes particle physics duet to San Francisco
A renowned composer has been invited to perform one of his innovative pieces at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
Dr Alexis Kirke, a member of Plymouth University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research, will perform his acclaimed Cloud Chamber at the 26th Lepton-Photon Conference, the world’s premiere conference for the field of elementary particle physics. The conference is hosted by Stanford University.
It will be the first time the piece has been performed outside the UK, having premiered at the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth in 2011.
Dr Kirke, composer in residence at the University’s Marine Institute, said: “It’s extremely exciting to be giving a performance in the California Academy of Sciences for this conference. Cloud Chamber requires liquid nitrogen and laboratory grade ethanol, so without the support of a physics lab in the USA it would have been hard to make this a reality. I’m even excited about the rehearsal, which will be at SLAC - Stanford’s linear subatomic particle accelerator. At almost two miles in length it is the world’s longest building, and getting to visit it will be an opportunity in itself.”
Cloud Chamber is a duet for violin and subatomic particles, co-composed with Antonino Chiaramonte and Anna Troisi, with Eduardo Miranda.
While a musician performs live, the movement of particles in a chamber is monitored and then digitally transformed into music. The sound of the violin is also fed back to the chamber and moves the particle tracks using an electric field.
It is one of Dr Kirke’s many innovative works, and his other pieces include Open Outcry, an opera in which singers trade stocks using tunes and receive a fee based on how well they trade, and Many Worlds, a film which watches the audience as they watch it.
He also recently teamed up with Heaven 17 and Human League founder Martyn Ware for a project which transformed the career trends of David Bowie into new music.
This latest performance will take place on Friday 28 June at the California Academy of Sciences, in Golden Gate Park.
The violinist for the US premier is Alina Polonskaya, and the event is being sponsored by Plymouth University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. Cloud Chamber was commissioned by the Roland Levinsky Memory Fund and Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival 2011.
Plymouth University's musical and artistic innovation will be on display this month as part of the Arts Degree Showcase 2013. For more information, visit www.plymouth.ac.uk/artsdegreeshow.
