Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music

Festival ARS Electronica

Linz, Austria/Sept 2 - 11, 2010

Ars Electronica made its debut on September 18, 1979. This festival of art, technology and society spotlighted the emerging Digital Revolution.For more than three decades now, this world-renowned event has provided an annual setting for artistic and scientific encounters with social and cultural phenomena that are the upshot of technological change. Symposia, exhibitions, performances and interventions carry these inquiries beyond the confines of conventional conference spaces and cultural venues and take them out into the public sphere and throughout the cityscape. In this process of pervading public spaces and staging festival activities in interesting and appropriate physical settings, Ars Electronica has consistently displayed extraordinary imaginativeness. From the harbor to the mines, from factories to outlying monasteries, unusual locations have repeatedly served as sites of performances and interventions, and have, in turn, been reinterpreted by them . . .
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John Cage

In a Landscape (1948)

Luciane Cardassi, piano                       ~ ~                    check out our video archive                                                     post your comments at PytheasTalk

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Americana as Muse: Questions & Answers with Michael Daugherty

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Visiting NYC for rehearsals, Michael Daugherty stopped by the Boosey & Hawkes office to talk with us about the premiere of his most recent work, Letters from Lincoln, and some insight into the inspiration behind his compositions.  Boosey & Hawkes: Tell us about your muse. Adams and Copland have certainly found inspiration in Americana but you've created quite a different niche as a "maverick icon maker," as the Guardian calls it. Where does this come from? Michael Daugherty: Well as a composer, I’m concerned about the technical issues, but also the emotional issues are very important to me.  So when I talk about icons or using icons like Abraham Lincoln or Route 66, those have emotional connotations which then give me an emotional benchmark as I’m composing; I think it gives a layer to the music that makes it interesting for a listener, whether they know what the icon is or not. B&H: About the imagery involved in so many of your works: do you often work with real pictures and visuals while you're composing? MD: Yeah, sure. When I was composing Letters from Lincoln I actually had images of Abraham Lincoln by my desk. I think images are really important to me because it is a way for me to become inspired emotionally about a piece. It is hard to explain how these images are translated into music, but it just provides a springboard for me to become creative . . .
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