Highlights of 2018, looking ahead to 2019

I don't seem to be able to keep up with writing about events as they happen, so here is a post looking back at the past year, with a few previews for 2019:

My 2018 began and ended at the Estalagem da Ponta do Sol Residency for Contemporary Music and Electronics, as we have decided to move the yearly residency from January to December, with a visit to Madeira-ITI in nearby Funchal.

It also marked my move - after five years at Goldsmiths, University of London - to Stanford University, where I am now teaching Composition and performing research at CCRMA. I am very grateful for all of the support I received for my research and creative work at Goldsmiths, and definitely plan to keep exchanging ideas and collaborating with my fabulous former colleagues working in interactive creative technology there, especially Freida Abtan, Rebecca Fiebrink, Mick Grierson, and Atau Tanaka. 

I had an enchanting springtime in London before my departure, including two concerts with Riot Ensemble and one last electronics workshop and concert at Goldsmiths featuring Ewa Justka and Heather Roche (thanks to the Goldsmiths Public Engagement initiative, the Henriksen Foundation, and Weisslich). Some of this work is set for a UK CD release (stay posted for updates on this in the next few weeks), and I will be back in London in 2019 for a première by the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican on 2 November in their Life Rewired series, as part of an event focussing on the work of Ada Lovelace in relation to Artificial Intelligence. There will be some UK reprises of earlier work as well, including performances by the Explore Ensemble of Tracer la lune d'un doigt - featuring the 'Piano Machine' - in their Augmented Instruments tour, 19-23 June in Oxford, Leeds and London.

Autumn was marked by two premières of new works with electronics: one in the Moving Sounds Festival in NYC, with the Argento Ensemble (conducted by Michel Galante), and the other by Tiptoe Company in the Transit Festival in Leuven (with my sincere thanks to both of these festivals as well as the Austrian Cultural Forum, Q-02, and Champsdaction for their support) - both have been wonderful collaborations for me, beginning with residencies with both ensembles, and continuing in future projects.

I am also enjoying my new musical life in the Bay Area. I was delighted to be a featured composer in the Grains of Sound festival in October, and am looking forward to joining them again in February for a performance of menus morceaux par un autre moi réunis. Also this coming February, Earplay Ensemble will perform Hommage à Purcell. The first time I came to San Francisco was for their performance of Trio d'après Schoenberg five years ago, so it will be a very special occasion for me to perform electronics with them again, now that we are neighbors.

Also planned for 2019 so far are residencies at the Universidad Austral de Chile, MIT (with Dinosaur Annex) and at the Scientific Delirium Madness project at Djerassi.

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Wishing you all a peaceful and joyful 2019!