The Eastman Audio Research Studio (EARS) emerged from the Eastman Computer Music Center, founded by Allan Schindler in 1981, as a platform for research, experimentation and realization of new music and sound art at the Eastman School of Music. Eastman is delighted to announce that composer Dr. Mikel Kuehn ’93E (MA), ’95E (PhD) has been appointed as director of the program, starting in fall 2023 when he commences his tenure as Professor of Composition at Eastman. Coinciding with Kuehn’s appointment, EARS will be rebranded to the Electroacoustic Music Studios @ Eastman (EMuSE).
“I am thrilled to welcome Mikel Kuehn as a member of the Composition Department faculty and as the director of the electroacoustic music studio,” shares Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Chair of the Composition Department. “Mikel is not only a distinguished composer with an established international reputation, but an outstanding and experienced teacher, as well as a leading expert in technological applications in the field of music composition. His vision for EMuSE builds on the strong tradition of the studio as a creative space in which technology empowers new paths of expression for compositional and performative imagination. I look forward enthusiastically to this new phase of the studio under Mikel’s direction, and to his wonderful contributions as a teacher and creative artist.”
EMuSE concerts will feature new compositions by prominent guest artists and students alongside historical works. Additionally, Eastman performers will have the opportunity to learn about music technology for concert production, potentially unlocking a world of new repertoire.
“Building on the outstanding talents of Eastman students, EMuSE will foster musical expression occurring at the intersection of contemporary music composition, instrumental/vocal performance, and technology,” says Kuehn. “Areas of focus will include audio synthesis techniques, computer assisted composition, creative coding, digital signal processing, sound design, and spatialization.”
To learn more about the current EARS program, visit esm.rochester.edu/ears. The EMuSE website is coming soon.
Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content,
(585) 451-8492, lsageer@esm.rochester.edu
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About Mikel Kuehn:
The music of American composer Mikel Kuehn (b. 1967) has been described as having “sensuous phrases…producing an effect of high abstraction turning into decadence,” by New York Times critic Paul Griffiths. He has received awards and honorable recognition from ASCAP and BMI (student composer awards), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2000 and 2002 First Hearing Contests), Composers, Inc. (Lee Ettelson Award), the Copland House (Aaron Copland Award), the Destellos Foundation (Argentina), the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Eastman (Hanson and McCurdy Prizes), the Flute New Music Consortium, (first prize) the Guggenheim Foundation (2014 Fellowship), the League of Composers/ISCM Composers’ Competition (first prize), the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Contest, the Ohio Arts Council (six Individual Excellence Awards), and the Luigi Russolo Competition (Italy).
Kuehn’s works have been programmed on numerous concerts, conferences, and festivals internationally. His music has been commissioned by the Barlow Endowment, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Ensemble 21, Ensemble Dal Niente, Flexible Music, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, violist John Graham, clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, the Hoff-Barthelson Music School, cellist Craig Hultgren, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), guitarist Dan Lippel, pianist Marilyn Nonken, Quatuor Apollinaire (France), Perspectives of New Music, saxophonists Jean-Michel Goury and John Sampen, Selmer Paris, the Spektral Quartet, and the Thelema Trio (Belgium). He has been a resident composer at the Banff Centre (Canada), the Copland House, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA). In March of 2013, six of his works were presented at the Vienna Saxfest held at Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität (Vienna) and in July of 2009 three of his works were featured at World Saxophone Congress XV (Bangkok). In 2014 and 2017 he was guest composer at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music (Chengdu, China). Most recently, he was featured on the Music Crush Podcast.
From 1998 to 2023 Kuehn was Professor of Creative Arts Excellence at Bowling Green State University where he served as director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music and the Bowling Green New Music Festival from 2007-2010. He received degrees in composition from the Eastman School of Music (PhD, MA) and the University of North Texas (BM) and is author of the computer music application nGen. His research includes an upcoming book chapter on composing electroacoustic music with Ambisonics. His music can be heard on two New Focus Recordings portrait albums, Object/Shadow (2016) and Entanglements (2022). Other recordings of his works are available on ACA Digital, Centaur (CDCM series), Erol (France), ICMC (Ireland), MSR Classics, and Perspectives of New Music/Open Space. In Fall 2023, he joins the Eastman School of Music composition faculty where he will also direct the Electroacoustic Music Studios @ Eastman (EMuSE). Learn more by visiting his website.
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.