Carlos Guedes & Laetitia Morais: Music for Visuals. Visuals for Music

Live and Pre-recorded Music and Video

Sunday, Apr 1 @ 8pm

Past Event

This concert marks the beginning of the collaboration between composer Carlos Guedes (NYUAD), and video artist Laetitia Morais (Portugal), with saxophonist Emil Sein (NYUAD), flutist Cristina Ioan (NYUAD), and qanun player Mahsin Basalama from Zanzibar.

In a setting that combines music improvisation, instrumental interpretation, and real-time composition, this concert will feature several works in which live performance, live video, and live electronic music interact in eclectic ways drawing influences from minimalism, dance music, classical contemporary music, and noise, creating a rich and lush audiovisual environment.

This performance will feature the world premiere of “Three Insomnias — music for a dark room” by this creative collective. The electronic part of “Three Insomnias” was composed in 2001 by Carlos Guedes for ballet “Quarto Escuro,” a choreography by Isabel Barros for the Balleteatro, and a commission from Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture. The traumatic event of 9/11 happened during the rehearsals for this show, and this was a major shifting point for the music. The stark reality reminding us all of our impotence in avoiding this type of violence, brought all of a sudden a new meaning, and almost new function to the music being composed — it should be able to transport people to dreamy states and beautiful spaces in order to liberate them from the horrible reality being lived at the time. The audiovisual reincarnation of this music in Three Insomnias with the videos by Laetitia Morais and the live music counterpart intends to make the audience embark on a collective dream that transports them audiovisually and emotionally to new and beautiful places

The program for the evening covers:

1985.2 (2016) – 9’
Three Insomnias — Music for a dark room (2001/2018) – 45’

The Artists:

Laetitia Morais, live video
Cristina Ioan, flute
Emil Sein, Saxophones
Mahsin Basalama, qanun
Bruno Ribeiro: violin (recorded)
Carlos Guedes, live electronics

Biographies

Carlos Guedes has a multifaceted activity in composition and sound design, counting numerous commissioned projects for dance, theater, film, interactive installations, and conventional concert music presented internationally. Recent premieres include “becoming space” for trumpet, percussion, and live electronics (ICMC 2017, Shanghai), “On the resolution of regional tensions” for big band and live electronics (CMMR 2017, Matosinhos, Portugal), and “Phobia robotica” for a dysfunctional orchestra of robotic instruments (Serralves contemporary art museum, Porto, Portugal). Last October, he released album “SSS+Q+Carlos Guedes” with Susana Santos Silva (trumpet), Jorge Queijo (percussion, and João Menezes (live electronics). This album was the first commercial release recorded at the NYUAD music studios.

Carlos Guedes holds degrees in composition from ESMAE-IPP (B.A., Porto, Portugal), and NYU (M.A., Ph.D.). He is currently Associate Arts Professor of Music at NYU Abu Dhabi, where he was the head of the music program between 2013 and 2016, assuming a major role on its curriculum development and on the accreditation of the program by the UAE educational authorities.

His research interests lie in the creation of automatic music generation and interactive music systems to facilitate musical creation and expression by non-specialists. He was the co-founder of the Sound and Music Computing Group at INESC-TEC in 2007 in Portugal, and, more recently, the co-founder of the Sound and Music Cultures (MaSC) research group at NYUAD. His creative work and research can be further explored at www.carlosguedes.org.

Laetitia Morais – Visual Artist, professor and researcher. Mostly working through the language of drawing, film and installation, on the subject of events and situations that occur as rites of passage

Has shown in galleries and events such as Faticart Gallery, Rome; General Public, Berlin; CIAJG, Guimarães; Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto; Rewire, The Hague; Peacock Art Centre, Aberdeen; Serralves em Festa, Porto; West Germany, Berlin; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Störung, Barcelona; Casa das Mudas, Madeira; Bienal de Cerveira, Cerveira; Cynetart, Dresden; Kvitvechir, Kiev; EME, Palmela; Mózg, Bydgoszcz; Galeria Fábrica Features, Lisbon; Mota Museum, Ljubljana and EIF, New York.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and FLAD acknowledged her work with the Ernesto de Sousa 2011 Grant, for the presentation of her project Missing for ten years, at the Experimental Intermedia Foundation, in New York.
Villa Soledade was awarded with the best music video prize by the international film festival Curtas Vila do Conde 2016..

Cristina Ioan – Romanian flautist born in Ploiesti, Cristina Ioan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, having completed her master’s degree at the same institution in 2007. In 2004 she graduated from the National Music University in Bucharest with a degree in Music Interpretation and Pedagogy.

She complemented her musical studies with flute masterclasses and private classes taught by Robert Dick, Vicens Prats, Jorge Caryevschi, István Matuz, Ion Bogdan Stefanescu Michel Bellavance, Heidi Indermuehle and Demetrius Popp.
She was awarded various scholarships and programs such as “Meritus Scholar” during her student years in Bucharest, “Erasmus Student” (2004) and Doctoral Studies Scholarship from Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnología (Portugal, 2009).
She took part in several concerts and multidisciplinary projects, as a soloist and as a member of orchestras and chamber groups in Romania, France, Portugal and United Arab Emirates.

She also presented her work as a researcher and performer in Music Conferences; her latest participation being at the Conference for artistic research “Hands on Flute” in Portugal, 10-14 of April 2017.

Cristina Ioan is currently Adjunct Instructor in Flute at New York University Abu Dhabi.

Emil Sein, a native of Timisoara (Romania), is one of the most important Romanian artists of his generation. Clarinetist, saxophonist and knowledgeable of various wind instruments as tilinca, ocarina, didgeridoo, midi-controller over his international career. He studied and was much inspired by many famous teachers and performers as Aurelian O. Popa(clarinet), Constantin Bugeanu(orchestra conductor studies) and Daniel Kientz(saxophone).

Emil Sein has been consecutively awarded as one of the best performer at competitions such as: 1986 First Prize in the Contemporary music section Bucci Valentino Roma (Carnyx) ITALY 1990 State Prize of the Society of Romanian Composers RUMANIA 1990 Stipendpreis Festival of New Music in Darmstadt GERMANY 1992 Kranichsteinpreis New Music Festival in Darmstadt GERMANY 1995 ANMC Award in New York UNIVERSITY USA 1994-1999 Distinguished PERFORMER in residence New York UNIVERSITY 1998, 1999 International New Music A Ward New York University USA. As a soloist, member and founder of the Trio Contraste (1980-2002), has conducted performances such as: • George Enescu Romanian Festival 1998 • Festival of New Music Darmstadt Germany (1990-1992) • New Music Festival in Bogota – Colombia 1993 • Festival of New Music Huddersfield Great Britain (1993-1995-1996) • ANMC Italy Padova 1996 • Festival Series INMC Lincoln Center U.S. 1996-1998 • New Music Festival Bamberg Germany 2001 • Festival of New Music for Bayreuth Germany 2002 In addition to his position as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra “Banatul” Timisoara, Romania, he had the opportunity to perform together with famous conductors and musicians as: A. Khachaturian, G. Shostakovich, G. Rozhdestvensky, C. Bugeanu, S. Wislovski, I. Conta, C. Mandeal, H. Andreescu and soloists as I. Gitles, R. Ricci, M. Mincev, D. Bashchirov, R. Kerer, G. Kremer, V. Spivakov, J. Suk, D. Safran, N. Orlov, V. Tretyakov, R. Aldulescu.

Emil Sein has been invited to teach in many other institutions such as: 1990- Paris Intercontemporan 1994-Darmstadt, Germany- New Music for Composers Festival 1994-1999 Distinguished Performer in Residence New York University 1994-1999 Visiting Performer in Kingsborough Community College (City University of New York) 1995 Hong Kong New Music Techniques Masterclass 1995 China New music techniques Masterclass 1995-1996 Professor at the Academy “Ivo Pogorelich” Croatia 1995-1996 University of Huddersfield, UK Master of Music Interpretation 1995 East-West University of Chicago Music interpretation Masterclass 1996 University of Oldenburg New techniques of contemporary music Masterclass 1997 Achen, Germany Hochshule Master 1997 Taiwan New techniques of playing new music Masterclass 1997 Performer invited for teaching at Bergen College New Jersey 1998 Performer invited for teaching at Tulane University (New Orleans) 2005-2010 University of Malaga, Spain New techniques on clarinet, saxophone- Masterclass.

Mahsin Basalama is a Zanzibari musician, educator, and arts advocate. Having studied Percussion and Qanun in Zanzibar and Egypt, Mahsin now teaches music in his native Zanzibar and collaborates with other members of the arts community in East Africa, Europe, and North America on research and non-profit projects. Throughout his performing, education, and advocacy careers, Mahsin aims to exchange and collaborate with musicians from around the world in an environment that recognizes music’s ability to foster positive change and personal growth.