Beirut Art Center presents a talk by Oliver Schneller within the framework of Meet the Composer - an initiative of Joelle Khoury. Meet the Composer is a project that aims at acquainting the Lebanese public with contemporary composers, mainly Lebanese, living in Lebanon and abroad. As part of the project, various composers are invited to discuss their experience and share their music through listening/discussion sessions that are sometimes followed by miniature concerts.
Oliver Schneller Space as a Compositional Parameter. Working with Loudspeakers and Acousmatic Set-ups
In contemporary music there are countless examples of space being used as a part of a composition. Instruments are not just placed in front of the audience, but also around, behind and sometimes even above the listeners. Besides spatially positioned instruments the loudspeaker has become the essential building block in creating and shaping musical spaces. The loudspeaker orchestra, the "Acousmonium", is one of the most interesting models.
Within this context, Oliver Schneller will look at various works for instruments and loud speakers (including Stockhausen, Xenakis and Nono) that turn music into an experience of architectural space.
This event is supported by the Goethe Institut.
Born in Cologne, Germany in 1966, Oliver Schneller studied history, political science and musicology at the University of Bonn. In 1994, he moved to the USA, first studying composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston, then at Columbia University in New York as a student of Tristan Murail, where he received his doctoral degree in 2002, with a thesis on music and space. Throughout his studies, master classes with Salvatore Sciarrino, Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough, George Benjamin and Vinko Globokar provided important orientations. Among other things, Schneller has directed and expanded City University of New York’s Computer Music Studio, participated in the cursus annuel de composition et d'informatique at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou, taught composition and computer music at Columbia University, and founded and directed the "Tracing Migrations" Festival, featuring works by contemporary composers from Arab countries. His music has been performed at numerous international festivals including Festival Agora Paris, Musica Strasbourg, Wien Modern, Biennale Munich, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Among his awards are the Benjamin-Britten Fellowship, a stipend by the Senate of the City of Berlin, a fellowship from the Rome Prize of the German Academy Villa Massimo (2006-07), two Meet-The-Composer Awards (USA) and a prize from the Siemens Arts Foundation.
