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Electronic Music Workshop: Explorations in improvisation

Concert details

Performers

Electronic Music Workshop (EMW) is an eclectic ensemble that features a rotating instrumentation and combination of acoustic and electronic instruments. EMW is an improvisation-based ensemble, often co-composing pieces as a group based on their collective interests. EMW also interprets poetry or visual art through music and performs non-traditional scores written by contemporary composers. EMW seeks to foster communication, creativity, and confidence through exploring experimental means of music-making.

Performer Bios

Carter Crosby is a composer, theorist, and multimedia artist currently based in East Lansing, Michigan. Crosby is excited about interdisciplinary work within and beyond the arts, working with writers, visual artists, and programmers. It is also a core tenet of their composing as an individual, frequently producing their own video for installations, creating graphic scores, or utilizing programs like Max/MSP to create dynamic electronic effects for live performance. Crosby has had works selected for performance at national festivals such as Electronic Music Midwest, SoundSCAPE composition-performance exchange, Walden Creative Musicians Retreat, and REDNOTE composition workshop. Crosby is currently pursuing a master's degree in music composition from MSU where they serve as an academic achievement graduate assistant in music technology and a STEAMpower fellow. This semester, they are leading the Electronic Music Workshop, an eclectic improvisation ensemble exploring a variety of styles and methods of music-making.

Eric Hall graduated from MSU in 1986 with a degree in music performance. After a decades-long odyssey, he returned to study music composition as a life-long education student. His primary instrument is bassoon, but for the EMW, he prefers the sonic flexibility of a semi-modular synthesizer. 

Jeremy Makkonen is a Michigan-based composer and flutist. Makkonen’s music explores elements of the mystical, the macabre, and the surreal to create an evocative and engaging musical language. Makkonen has recently collaborated with and has had his music performed and read by the musicians of the Jasper String Quartet, the NorthStar Duo, HUB New Music, the Khemia Ensemble, Musique 21, and the percussionist Simone Beneventi. He has also attended and participated in the 2021 highSCORE Festival, the 2022 Composers Retreat with Dr. Chen Yi, and the 2022 Connecticut Summerfest. Makkonen was a winner of the 2019 and 2022 Honors Composition Competition at MSU in the category of chamber music, a finalist in The Valley Winds International Composition Competition in 2021, and the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards Competition in 2022. Makkonen has bachelor of music degrees in composition and flute performance from MSU, and is currently pursuing master of music degrees in composition, flute performance, and music theory.

Jonah Weber is currently a senior in the music composition program at MSU. In addition to composing, he loves playing French horn in ensembles and hopes to continue to do perform in some capacity in the future. In EMW, depending on his mood, Jonah plays horn, trumpet, stylophone and piano. Playing in EMW is slightly outside of his typical comfort zone, but he is greatly enjoying it so far and believes improvising is a great skill for him to learn.

Spencer Gravel is a composer and percussionist originally from Ypsilanti, Michigan. As a composer, he is enamored by music's unique ability to work in a totally abstract space and create a sense of narrative and drama. As a result, his music often revolves around the exploration of form and the pursuit of new ways of relating materials to each other.

In EMW, Gravel performs on a variety of percussion instruments including found objects, turning brake pads and kitchen utensils into tools for musical expression.

Christopher Kaminski writes music that focuses on weaving heavy metal, rock, jazz, minimalist, and improvised music together on the concert stage. His music has been performed at the Penn State New Music Festival and Symposium, fresh inc festival, Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, Connecticut Summerfest, the Iowa Great Lakes Music Festival, and various universities. For EMW, Kaminski plays electric clarinet and electric guitar with various guitar pedals. In 2021, he ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to finish and record a heavy metal opera about a cult that worships quesadillas, called The Church of Quesadeity. Kaminski also wrote an original soundtrack for Rank: Warmaster, a recently-released sci-fi video game for PC. Kaminski received two master’s degrees in composition and music theory at MSU. In addition, he is also an active clarinetist, improviser, theorist, and educator.