ACADEMIA
Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana to Make Beautiful Music with Wii Motes, Keyboards and More in Debut Concert April 14 at LSU
Imagine an orchestra performance that has all the sounds and soaring notes of an entire band section alongside sounds so unfamiliar that you cannot believe they are found in nature. Now imagine the performance composed, conducted and played using ordinary office laptop computers.
This is the musical performance guests at the debut of the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana will enjoy. The LOLs, as they are also known, will perform Wednesday, April 14, at 8 p.m. in the Claude L. Shaver Theatre within the LSU Music & Dramatic Arts Building on Dalrymple Drive. Tickets to this event are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
“Laptops and computational science are giving musicians a new paradigm for creating music,” said Stephen David Beck, Derryl & Helen Haymon Professor of Music in the LSU School of Music and LOL director. “The laptop orchestra is not meant to replace real orchestras. Rather, it uses the metaphor of the orchestra as a new way of teaching, creating and performing computer music. The LOL provides new avenues in which students can compose, interact and experiment with sound, merging technology with the artistic process.”
The Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana is a joint effort between the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts and LSU Center for Computation & Technology, where Beck is interim director and leads the Cultural Computing research focus area.
Currently, seven students enrolled in Beck’s music graduate seminar comprise the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana, which is the first such orchestra in the southern United States.
“We hope in the future, we can expand the number of performers, so that we can have as many as 25 laptops playing in the orchestra at once,” Beck said.
The students create pieces to play on regular size laptop computers, each equipped with speakers and sound equipment. Some of the pieces are played in groups with students on different laptops, and others involve music conductions with a Nintendo “Wii Mote” controller or a software program to change and enhance the musical notes. The Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana students will conduct group pieces and will showcase some individual performances during the April 14 concert.
“The LSU Laptop Orchestra provides us with a portal to the future – fueled by imagination and transformed through possibility,” said Laurence Kaptain, dean of the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts. “This is another example of LSU faculty talent inspiring our students to learn through unique interdisciplinary collaborations that establish the enabling mechanisms for wider public access to culture and the arts.”
For more information on the concert or to purchase tickets, contact the Shaver Theatre Box Office at 225-578-3527 or visit www.cmda.lsu.edu.
This is the musical performance guests at the debut of the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana will enjoy. The LOLs, as they are also known, will perform Wednesday, April 14, at 8 p.m. in the Claude L. Shaver Theatre within the LSU Music & Dramatic Arts Building on Dalrymple Drive. Tickets to this event are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
“Laptops and computational science are giving musicians a new paradigm for creating music,” said Stephen David Beck, Derryl & Helen Haymon Professor of Music in the LSU School of Music and LOL director. “The laptop orchestra is not meant to replace real orchestras. Rather, it uses the metaphor of the orchestra as a new way of teaching, creating and performing computer music. The LOL provides new avenues in which students can compose, interact and experiment with sound, merging technology with the artistic process.”
The Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana is a joint effort between the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts and LSU Center for Computation & Technology, where Beck is interim director and leads the Cultural Computing research focus area.
Currently, seven students enrolled in Beck’s music graduate seminar comprise the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana, which is the first such orchestra in the southern United States.
“We hope in the future, we can expand the number of performers, so that we can have as many as 25 laptops playing in the orchestra at once,” Beck said.
The students create pieces to play on regular size laptop computers, each equipped with speakers and sound equipment. Some of the pieces are played in groups with students on different laptops, and others involve music conductions with a Nintendo “Wii Mote” controller or a software program to change and enhance the musical notes. The Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana students will conduct group pieces and will showcase some individual performances during the April 14 concert.
“The LSU Laptop Orchestra provides us with a portal to the future – fueled by imagination and transformed through possibility,” said Laurence Kaptain, dean of the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts. “This is another example of LSU faculty talent inspiring our students to learn through unique interdisciplinary collaborations that establish the enabling mechanisms for wider public access to culture and the arts.”
For more information on the concert or to purchase tickets, contact the Shaver Theatre Box Office at 225-578-3527 or visit www.cmda.lsu.edu.
