The Music Department at SUNY New Paltz, in collaboration with The Dorsky presented Electro-Acoustic works written and produced by students.
On Tuesday, Oct. 18, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., students and faculty came to The Dorsky to hear the different works presented in a unique multi-channel surround installation at the Alice and Horace Chandler Gallery. The music included students of John B. Hedge and Bob Lukomski’s music classes.
Lukomski introduced each student’s work at the concert. He described Electro-Acoustic Music as sounds produced by electronic means on a computer. In this particular performance, according to Lukomski, students took vocal sounds that people made and stretched and manipulated them into something of their own.
Lukomski said he was a little bit uneasy when he heard the performance was to be held six weeks into his first semester teaching the course.
“I was really uptight,” Lukomski said. “It is my first semester teaching here and I was blown away by the quality of work that my students produced in just six weeks.”
The concert gave the audience free reign to walk around and enjoy the artwork of the exhibit while listening to the students’ pieces. Although there was no correlation between the artworks of the exhibits and the music, Lukomski described the artwork as “wallpaper” to what the viewer was listening to.
“The works were not necessarily directly connected with the artwork, however there is definitely tension between an audio and a visual component,” he said.
Tony Catalano, fifth-year creative writing major, had his own take on the performance.
“It was intense and discomforting at times in a good way,” Catalano said. “I would really describe it as fascinating.”
Ed Lundergan, the director of the Concert Choir Chamber at SUNY New Paltz said he was glad to see students getting their work out.
“Some were very provocative, some told a story and others were more atmospheric,” said Lundergan.
The Dorsky curator Carole Cowen and former curator Brian Wallace want to keep presenting different music programs this semester and those to follow.
Lukomski said he was very proud of his students and hopes to be able to do this again.