is a composer/media artist and performer on the faculty of the Department of Music at Brown University, where he co-directs MEME (Multimedia & Electronic Music Experiments @ Brown) and the Ph.D. program in Computer Music and Multimedia. Prior to joining Brown he directed CEMI, the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia, at the University of North Texas, and was a compositeur en recherche with the Real-Time Systems Team at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. Rovan worked at Opcode Systems before leaving for Paris, serving as Product Manager for MAX, OMS and MIDI hardware.
Category Archives: Performers
Kevin Patton (guitar, electronics)—Signature Artist
is a musician, scholar, and technologist active in the fields of experimental music and multimedia theatre whose work explores the intersection of technology and performance. The design of new musical instruments as well as interfaces and computer systems for analysis, improvisation, and projection is at the center of his practice. Patton is also a frequent collaborator in installation, network art, and performance art projects. His work has been recognized for his collaboration with visual artist Maria del Carmen Montoya with the prestigious 2009 Rhizome commission for the piece, I Sky You, an installation that combines chemically synthesized light, video tracking, and sound design.
Andy McWain (piano, keyboards)—Signature Artist
is Assistant Chair of the Music Department, and a full-time lecturer in jazz studies, jazz piano, and theory. As an improvising pianist/keyboardist he has performed and/or recorded with such artists as Joe Giardullo, Karl Berger, Assif Tsahar, Tiger Okoshi, Santi Debriano, Brian Melvin, Daniel Levin, Tatsuya Nakatani, John Dirac, Jorrit Dijkstra, Albey Balgochian, Laurence Cook, Dino Govoni, Luther Gray, Jim Robitaille, Brooke Sofferman, Bruno Raberg, Reuben Radding, Dennis Warren’s Full Metal Revolutionary Jazz Ensemble, the Artie Shaw Orchestra (led by Dick Johnson), and the Zen Bastards, among others.
Ulrich Maiss (cello, electronics)—Signature Artist
lives in Reiffenhausen, Germany. Musicians and artists he works with include Lou Reed, Zülfü Livaneli, Al Di Meola, Robert Wilson, Joseph “Butch” Rovan, Lynn Miles and Theodor Franck. He appears on albums by Metallica, Element Of Crime, Alexander Veljanov, Vinx and ChillFactor 5 to name but a few. Well known as a performer of contemporary European chamber music, he has also performed with various rock and folk acts throughout Northern Europe, Greece and Turkey. His solo projects in the field of experimental music led him to Japan, the U.S. and Canada.
Mariana Gariazzo (flutes)
Mariana Gariazzo serves as President of the Chicago Flute Club and chairs the National Flute Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Current performance projects consist of presenting her new CD at national and international venues and inspiring generations of flutists to optimize performance through nutrition. As an advocate for low flutes, she actively collaborates with composers in commissioning, recording and performing new music for C, alto and bass flutes. Her debut CD, Revelations, was released by MSR Classic Records in 2021. Her research focuses on new music by Latin American composers and she has served as a guest artist and speaker on the subject at prominent venues and conferences in Europe, Asia, Latin and North America. In solo and orchestral settings, she has performed in South America, Europe and the United States with such ensembles as the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Oak Ridge Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra at Yale, New Music New Haven, Neither Music, the National Youth Orchestra of Peru, the Academic Orchestra at Colon Theater, the National University of Cuyo Symphony, and the National Orchestra of Argentina. She has been invited to present and perform at the Texas Music Association Conference, the Puerto Rico Flute Symposium, World Flutes Festival (Argentina), International Flute Festival of Lima (Peru), International Low Flutes Festival (USA, Japan) and multiple times at the National Flute Association Convention in Albuquerque, Charlotte, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Chicago, Washington DC, San Diego, Minneapolis, Orlando, Salt Lake City, and Dallas.
Eric km Clark (violin)—Signature Artist
is an accomplished violinist, composer, and improviser presenting many different styles of new music throughout the world, with the majority of his shows taking place in Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York City. He has worked with many of the world’s most innovative artists and ensembles, including the late James Tenney, Jurg Frey, Michael Gordon, Richard Foreman, Guy Maddin, Wadada Leo Smith, Christian Kesten, Michael Pisaro, and Butch Morris. Mr. Clark is a member of the genre setting new music ensemble The California E.A.R. Unit (LA), the Dog Star Orchestra (LA), neithernor (TOR), and the Kadima String Quartet (LA). His playing has been released on Innova, New World, Tonehole Music, Sundialtech and Tzadik (Spring 2012). His compositions have been released on Henceforth Records and CQB.
David Bithell (trumpet, electronics)—Signature Artist
is devoted to the exploration of the intersection between experimental music and theater. His use of live performance, video, staging, music technology, and improvisation create abstract narratives that balance between the tragic and comic. He has performed his compositions throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in a variety of settings. As a trumpet player specializing in contemporary and improvised musics he has devoted himself to the exploration of new possibilities for that instrument. He is the trumpet player and co-organizer for the sfSoundGroup (a West Coast experimental music collective) and has played with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, and the La Jolla Symphony.
Jeff Morris (curator, electronics)
is a composer, performer, and director of the PerfTech program at Texas A&M University (USA). He plays the laptop—building custom instruments and performance situations that allow audiences to consider the impact of techno-mediation on the human experience: presence, authenticity, and the passing of time. Often, this involves novel sounds, ways of moving on stage to play an instrument, and ways of building musical performances. He uses live performance to ask, “What does it mean to be human in the twenty-first century?”
He studied composition with Butch Rovan at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia and studied improvisation with Butch Morris. He has presented works in the Milano Triennale museum, Onassis Cultural Center (Athens), Austin Museum of Art (Texas), Flea Theater (New York City), InterArts Center (Lund University, Sweden), and the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum (Texas). Jeff also writes about ideas explored in his work, in international conferences like the International Computer Music Conference, International Society of Improvised Music conference, and Computer Art Congress, and in publications by Leonardo and IGI Global. Jeff also build and curates Weblogmusic, as well as several student performances and installations on campus and abroad.