CalArts New Millennium Brass performs Nick Didkovsky March 30, 2008

CalArts New Millennium Brass performs Nick Didkovsky's "Slim in Beaten
Dreamers" at Disney Hall, Sunday, March 30, 7:30pm

The CalArts New Millennium Brass (Stephanie Richards and Philippe Brunet,
trumpets; Jody Hurt, horn; Ian Carroll, trombone; Lukas Storm, tuba; Robert
LaDue, drums) performs Nick Didkovsky's _Slim in Beaten Dreamers in Walt
Disney Concert Hall on Sunday, March 30, 7:30pm (note early start).

The rest of the program includes the USC Thornton Wind Ensemble and the CSUN
Wind Ensemble performing Mendelssohn's Overture for Band, Percy Grainger's
Colonial Song, Leonard Bernstein's Three Dance Episodes from On The Town,
and John Corigliano's Circus Maximus.

Top ticket price is only $20.

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Program Notes for

Nick Didkovsky: Slim in Beaten Dreamers (2000)

During the period that Slim in Beaten Dreamers was composed (1998­2000),
Phil Burk and I developed the computer music toolkit Java Music
Specification Language. JMSL is the successor to Hierarchical Music
Specification Language (Burk, Polansky, Rosenboom) which the composer had
been using since 1989. Unlike HMSL, which ran only on the Mac and Amiga
computers, JMSL runs on any computer with Java, including Java-enabled Web
browsers.

Some of the raw material found in the first ten movements of this work was
created using the composer¹s own software written in HMSL, as JMSL was still
under development at that time. With the development of JMSL¹s music
notation package JScore, the composer¹s migration off the HMSL/Amiga
technologies was completed. The last five movements of this piece were
composed using JMSL. Composing Slim in Beaten Dreamers had profound effects
on developing JMSL, contributing many new design ideas. In fact it is the
first composition for live ensemble created in JMSL, representing the maiden
voyage of a new creative music technology.

Slim In Beaten Dreamers was commissioned for Meridian Arts Ensemble by The
Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust with support from Harvestworks. It is
available on Meridian Arts Ensemble¹s CD ³Brink² (Channel Classics).

‹Nick Didkovsky, Aug 12, 2002, NYC

Nick Didkovsky is a guitarist, composer, and software programmer. In 1983,
he founded the avant-rock septet Doctor Nerve. He currently resides in New
York City, where he composes, creates music software, and teaches computer
music composition. He is the principal author of the computer music language
Java Music Specification Language (www.algomusic.com) and uses it to teach
at New York University and Columbia University. He is director of
bioinformatics for the GENSAT project at The Rockefeller University.

Didkovsky¹s work with Doctor Nerve (www.doctornerve.org) joins the furious
energy of rock with intricate composition, some of which finds its origins
in rich software systems of his own design. His non-didactic approach to
combining human and machine creativity is his unique fingerprint in a
musical world that pushes the boundaries of rock music, algorithmic
composition, and contemporary music.

Didkovsky has also composed music for Bang On A Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts
Ensemble, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, California EAR Unit, CalArts New
Century Players, Either/Or, ARTE Quartett, Downtown Ensemble, and others.
His works are available on CD and online; recent releases include ³Ice Cream
Time² for ARTE Sax Quartett, Tom Dimuzio, and Didkovsky (New World Records
80667); ³Tube Mouth Bow String, music for electric guitar, computer, live
electronics, and string quartet² (Pogus Productions 21042-2); and ³Swim
This‹Gerry Hemingway, Michael Lytle, and Nick Didkovsky², released on his
own Punos Music label.

With Phil Burk, Didkovsky created JMSL (Java Music Specification Language),
a language for computer music composition written in the Java programming
language. JMSL was premiered at Circuits: The Governor¹s Conference on Arts
and Technology, in Palisades, NY in March, 1998. In 2003, Minnesota Public
Radio commissioned a JMSL version of Henry Cowell and Leon Theremin¹s
historical electronic music instrument, the Rhythmicon (1930), which can be
performed at www.musicmavericks.org/rhythmicon. Didkovsky recently premiered
a new composition for four tabletop electric guitarists following a
real-time score generated by JMSL, at the Music in the Global Village
conference in Budapest, which featured Keith Rowe, Hans Tammen, Erhard Hirt,
and Didkovsky.

His online interactive musical works are available at www.punosmusic.com.
Pieces include Music for Hot Spots where the user is instructed to ³Put on
your headphones, turn on your laptop¹s mic, and listen. Music for Hotspots
dramatically alters the sound of your environment.²

Official Website: http://www.laphil.com/tickets/performance_detail.cfm?id=3164