Faculty
Dr. Adam Vidiksis
Director
Adam Vidiksis is a composer, conductor, percussionist, improviser, and technologist based in Philadelphia whose music often explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing”, “dramatic”, “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable”, “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes), and have noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His work is frequently commissioned and performed throughout North America, Europe, and China in recitals, festivals, and major academic conferences. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis recently served as composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for its 2017-2018 season. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology and composition at Temple University, a founding member of the performance and composition faculty at the SPLICE Institute, a Resident Artist at the Renegade Theater company, and a founding member of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, a group dedicated to promoting improvisation in the performing arts. He is the percussionist in SPLICE Ensemble, conductor of the Temple Composers Orchestra and Ensemble N_JP, and director of the Boyer Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). [www.vidiksis.com]
Dr. David Pasbrig
Recording
In demand as both producer and engineer, David Pasbrig has been the recording engineer for the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University since 1998 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Music Technology and Director of the Boyer Recording Studio in 2011. Former students are working in radio, television, and the audio industry around the world. He records regularly for radio, television and CD, and in addition to the BCM&D label, his work can be found on the Naxos, Centaur, Albany, and Parma labels. He has worked with a diverse range of groups such as the Anne Sophie Mutter foundation (Germany), composer Michael Kamen, the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, jazz trumpeter Terell Stafford, and many others. As pianist, Pasbrig is equally in demand as soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue and adjudicator. He has played in Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, Seoul Performing Arts Center (Korea), The Kennedy Center, and many others. New York Times columnist Rena Fruchter calls him a brilliant and versatile artist, and says he has a rare ability to reach across into the audience. As a pedagague he recently gave 10 days of masterclasses and lectures in Northeastern China for the Forren School of Music in Beijing, and has served on the adjudicating committee for the Fulbright Scholarship.
Dr. Elainie Lillios
Composition and Production
Acclaimed as one of the “contemporary masters of the medium” by MIT Press’s Computer Music Journal, electroacoustic composer Elainie Lillios creates works that reflect her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion and anecdote. Her compositions include stereo, multi channel, and Ambisonic fixed media works, instrument(s) with live interactive electronics, collaborative experimental audio/visual animations, and installations.
Her work has been recognized internationally and nationally through awards including a 2013-14 Fulbright Award, First Prize in the Concours Internationale de Bourges, Areon Flutes International Composition Competition, Electroacoustic Piano International Competition, and Medea Electronique “Saxotronics” Competition, and Second Prize in the Destellos International Electroacoustic Competition. She has also received awards from the Concurso Internacional de Música Electroacústica de São Paulo, Concorso Internazionale Russolo, Pierre Schaeffer Competition, and La Muse en Circuit. She has received grants/commissions from INA/GRM, Rèseaux, International Computer Music Association, La Muse en Circuit, NAISA, ASCAP/SEAMUS, LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, Sonic Arts Research Centre, Ohio Arts Council, and National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts. She has been a special guest at the Groupe de Recherche Musicales, Rien à Voir, festival l’espace du son, June in Buffalo, and at other locations in the United States and abroad.
Dr. christopher biggs
Composition and Production
Christopher Biggs is a composer and multimedia artist residing in Kalamazoo, MI, where he is Associate Professor of Music Composition and Technology at Western Michigan University. Biggs’ recent projects focus on integrating live instrumental performance with interactive audiovisual media. In addition to collaborating with artists in other disciplines on projects, he treats all of his works as collaborations with performing artist by working with the performers during the creative process and considering their specific skills and preferences.
Biggs’ music has been presented across the United States and Europe, as well as in Latin America and Asia. His music is regularly performed on conferences and festivals, including the International Computer Music Conference, SEAMUS Conference, Visiones Sonoras, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, Root Signals, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Toronto International Electroacoustic Music Symposium, Bowling Green New Music Festival, and Society for Composers Inc.
His music is available on Ravello Records, Irritable Hedgehog, SEAMUS CD Series, PARMA Recordings, Electroacoustico Records, and Thinking outLOUD Records. Biggs has written music for various ensembles, including Ensemble Dal Niente, the Western Brass Quintet, the Prism Saxophone Quartet, SPLICE Ensemble, Keith Kirchoff, Pangea Piano Project, Kari Johnson, Samuel Wells, Western Michigan University Symphonic Band, and the Truman State University Wind Ensemble.
Keith Kirchoff
SPLICE Ensemble, Composition and Production
Keith Kirchoff is a pianist, composer, conductor, concert curator, and teacher. Described as a “virtuosic tour de force” whose playing is “energetic, precise, (and) sensitive,” he works towards promoting under- recognized composers and educating audiences of the importance of new and experimental music. An active lecturer who has presented in countries throughout the world, his recital programs focus on the integration of computers and modern electronics into a traditional classical performance space.
Kirchoff has played in many of the United States’ largest cities including New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Austin, as well as major cities throughout Italy, New Zealand, Australia, England, Canada, Belgium, Mexico, China, and The Netherlands. He has appeared with orchestras throughout the U.S. performing a wide range of concerti, including the Boston premier of Charles Ives’ Emerson Concerto and the world premier of Matthew McConnell’s Concerto for Toy Piano, as well as more traditional concerti by Tschaikowsky and Chopin. He has also been a featured soloist in many music festivals including the Festival de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Festival Internacional de Müsica Contemporánea, the Society for Electro- Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), the Oregon Festival of American Music, and the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC).
The winner of the 2006 Steinway Society Piano Competition and the 2005 John Cage Award, Kirchoff was named the 2011 "Distinguished Scholar" by the Seabee Memorial Scholarship Association. He has also received composing grants from MetLife Meet the Composer and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
Sam Wells
SPLICE Ensemble, Composition and Production
Sam Wells is a composer, performer, and music technologist based in New York City. As an advocate for new and exciting music, he actively commissions and performs contemporary works.
Sam has performed throughout the North America, as well as in China and France. He has also been a guest artist/composer at universities throughout North America, including Western Michigan University, Western University of Ontario, and Northern Arizona University. He is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund for New Music award, and his work, stringstrung, is the winner of the 2016 Miami International Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He has performed electroacoustic works for trumpet and presented his own music at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, N_SEME, and SEAMUS festivals. Sam and his music have also been featured by the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and Fulcrum Point Discoveries. Sam is a member of Arcus Collective, Kludge, and SPLICE Ensemble. Sam has performed with Contemporaneous, the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra.
Sam has degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University. He is currently on faculty at SPLICE Institute and Molloy College.
Sandra James
Analog Synthesis
Sandra James teaches music technology and is in charge of labs, smart classrooms and computers at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University. Before Temple, she worked in the commercial software industry as a developer and analyst. Sandra has a Masters in Sonic Arts from University of Rome, Tor Vergata, a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from Temple University, and a Certificate in painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She studied Latin Percussion at Philadelphia’s Latin American Music Association (AMLA), and has studied privately in Cuba and Panamá. Sandra uses a combination of analog sound synthesis and computer AV synthesis for her installations, fixed media pieces and performances. She enjoys building analog synthesizers and modules, and performs locally at Modular On The Spot (MOTS) concerts. Sandra has presented pieces created in Csound, Flash, pd, POVRay, Blender and Max / MSP. She co-authored and presented a paper on custom MIDI and OSC control at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and the joint College Music Society/ATMI annual meeting in Minnesota entitled “Digitizing Panamanian Mejorana Music: New Instruments for Composers.”