David Behrman – Liveliness and Focus in Present Day Music Making

David Behrman will present detailed information and
thoughts towards new approaches and techniques that
enhance current-day music making, including the combination
of acoustic sound with computer sound, the use of sensors,
wireless interfaces, software etc.
Recently, various artists have created innovative scores in
which “deceptively simple” instructions have been deployed
to give liveliness and focus to music performances (scores
that share a similar approach towards sound, music and
composition with works developed by the Sonic Arts Union a.o.
as far back as the Nineteen Sixties), music and multimedia
performances that lie somewhere between fixed compositions and improvisations; works that now and then
originated as reflections of current conditions and possibilities
David Behrman has been active as a composer and artist since the 1960s. Over the years he has made sound and multimedia installations for gallery spaces as well as compositions for performance in concerts. My Dear Siegfried, Leapday Night, On the Other Ocean, Interspecies Smalltalk and Long Throw are among Behrman’s works for soloists and small ensembles.
 Behrman’s sound and multimedia installations have been exhibited in various galleries and museums. Among the installations are Cloud Music (1977, a collaboration with Robert Watts and Bob Diamond); Sound Fountain (1982, a collaboration with Paul DeMarinis, Algorithme et Kalimba (1986, a collaboration with George Lewis); Pen Light (2002), and View Finder (2005). Together with Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, Behrman founded the Sonic Arts Union in 1966. He has had a long association with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as composer and performer and has created music for several of the Company’s repertory pieces. Behrman has received grants from the NEA, NYSCA, NYFA, the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, the D.A.A.D., the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Henry Cowell Foundation. He has been a member of the faculty at the Avery Graduate Program in the Arts at Bard College since 1998. Audio recordings of his works are on the XI and Lovely Music labels; videos can be viewed at Roulette.org and ubu.com. (http://dbehrman.net)