by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
If you have the desire to hear unique musical performances, Kansas City Kansas Community College is the place to be this weekend as it is the host of the 2017 Electronic Music Midwest Festival.
More than 60 composers and guest artists will be on the KCKCC main campus Thursday, Friday and Saturday to present their compositions in the field of new and experimental electronic and electro-acoustic music.
The KCKCC audio engineering department will be setting up an 8.1 channel surround sound system in the performing arts center for a truly immersive experience. In addition, KCKCC students will be assisting with the running of the event. Some of the compositions presented are for prerecorded sounds, others feature live performers interacting with computer generated sounds, and some feature video content as well.
Concerts are about one hour long and will be:
• 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21 – Featuring music from the University of Central Missouri Music Technology Program
• 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22
• 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23
All of the concerts are free and open to the public. Classes are welcome. However, walking into the concerts after they have started, and leaving while they are in progress is discouraged because it is disruptive to the performers and audience.
The 2017 EMM Guest Artist is the SPLICE Ensemble. The ensemble is a piano, trumpet and percussion trio that focuses on creating a canon of the most important works composed for instruments and electronics. Through master classes, concerts, seminars and lectures, among other avenues, the ensemble works with both composers and performs on their practice techniques as well as integrating electronics into a traditional performance.
The EMM Festival first started in 2000 at KCKCC under the name “Kansas City Electronic Music Festival.” In 2001, the name changed to Electronic Music at Lewis – 2001” and the host was Lewis University.
As a result of a consortium formed in 2002 between KCKCC, Lewis University and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the EMM Festival as it is known today was officially born and KCKCC has continued to serve as host ever since. Since the festival started, more than 500 new electroacoustic compositions have been programmed and performed.
For more information about the EMM Festival, visit the event’s website atemmfestival.org or contact Ian Corbett, coordinator of the audio engineering program and professor of music technology and audio recording at Kansas City Kansas Community College at [email protected].