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Visiting Assistant Professor of Music
General Interests
My artistic practice is centered on the exploration of music technology and its potential to offer new modes of performativity and to redefine the relationships between composers, performers, and audiences. This interdisciplinary approach is often driven by inquiries into political access, participation, and mobilization. This theme is evident in my 2009 setting of Seamus Heaney’s meditation on intractable social and religious conflict The Cure at Troy and has continued through and beyond my 2015 oratorio The Impossible Will Take a Little While, which celebrates the contributions of unknown individuals to movements seeking societal change.
My recent work Politics I, a piece of participatory computer music, takes this a step further by integrating concerns about political structure into electronic music. It utilizes natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning techniques to synthesize music based on textual inputs from the audience, revealing the politics inherent in musical creation. To realize this project, I developed a new interactive sonification system and web-based application using SuperCollider, Processing, Ableton’s Live, and Python. The resulting piece makes audible the process by which aesthetic power is shared with the audience through sound synthesis and artistic sonification.
In this artistic trajectory, I am also interested in collaborating with performers who do more than merely interpret scores. For example, my recent work toy_5, explores interactive computer music applications where the performance interface is designed to be accessible to non-experts. Players of the piece contribute to a lush, playful musical texture, reflecting my political ideals of dialogue, interplay, and consensus as central to my aspirations for a better world. My upcoming work for the percussion duo lowpass, titled Reticulations, builds on this artistic interest by decentering my role as a composer through unstable and improvisatory nature of the system of glass, metal, and stone materials in concert with no-input mixing techniques.
Years at Knox: 2024 to present
Education
Ph.D., 2022, Music Composition & Theory, Stony Brook University
A.D., 2012, Viola Performance, University of Miami, Frost School of Music
M.M., 2011, Viola Performance, The New School, Mannes School of Music
B.M., 2009, Viola Performance, Steinhardt School
Teaching Interests
Music Composition, Digital Signal Processing, Computer Music Programming, Critical Perspectives on Musical Creation and Politics
Academic Awards and Honors
2021-2022 Stony Brook University Presidential Dissertation Completion Fellowship
2019-2020 Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship
2019-2020 Fulbright Open Study/Research Award to conduct thesis research at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Switzerland
2019-2020 Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) One-Year Research Grant (Declined)
Individual Arts Awards, Grants, and Residencies
2024 ASCAP Foundation Bard Howard Fund
2023-24 MIFA Victory Players Residency
2021 New Music for Strings Artist-in-Residence
2021 Westben Performer-Composer Residency
2020 Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Music Zürich Projektfonds
2018 Puffin Foundation Grant for The Impossible Will Take a Little While
2018 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Arts Engagement Grant for The Impossible Will Take a Little While
Collaborative Arts Awards and Grants
2024 Amphion Spring Grant Program, for Ensemble Decipher
2024 Alice M. Ditson Fund Organizational Support Program, for Ensemble Decipher
2024 New Music USA Organization Fund, for Ensemble Decipher
2024 MAP Fund, for Ensemble Decipher & Joey Bohigian
2023 Copland Fund Performance Program Award, for Ensemble Decipher
2023 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, for Ensemble Decipher
2023 Amphion Spring Grant Program, for Ensemble Decipher
2023 Alice M. Ditson Fund Organizational Support Program, for Ensemble Decipher
2023 Brooklyn Arts Council Local Arts Support, for Ensemble Decipher
Publications
2024 Lemmon, Eric. 2024. “Dissensus, Refusal, and Participatory Music: Negation and Rupture in Crowd in C”, in Post-Politics and the Aesthetic Imagination. (In Production at University of Minnesota Press)
2023 Lemmon, Eric. 2023. “Politics I: Digital Discourse.” In Proceedings of the 28th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2023). Norrköping, Sweden. https://doi.org/10.21785/icad2023.000
2023 Lemmon, Eric. 2023. “The Politics of Aesthetic Preference in Participatory Music.” Organised Sound, Vol 28, No. 1, 53-63.
2022 Lemmon, Eric, George Aumoithe, Margaret Schedel, Inderjeet Bilkhu, Haotong Zhu, and Litzy Escobar. 2022. “Mapping in the Emergency: Designing a Sonified Map of the Social Experience of Covid-19 in Suffolk County, New York.” In Proceedings of the 2022 Interactive Sonification Workshop. Universität Bremen: Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7552256.
2022 Lemmon, Eric. 2022. “Politics I.” In The Proceedings of the 2022 Web Audio Conference. Cannes, France: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6769995.
2019 Lemmon, Eric. 2019. “The Impact of Institutional Support on Artistic Research and Creation: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the RCA Mark-II.” In Proceedings of the 2019 International Computer Music Conference. New York City: Michigan Publishing Services.
2019 Lemmon, Eric C. 2019. "Telematic Music vs. Networked Music: Distinguishing Between Cybernetic Aspirations and Technological Music-Making." Journal of Network Music and Arts 1, 1.
Select Performances of Compositions
2024 The Nightwatcher on New England Public Media. The Nightwatcher at Holyoke Media (5/31 & 6/1) toy_5 on Ensemble Decipher Spring Fundraising Concert. Composers Now IMPACT Series.
2023 Politics I at ATMI 2023 Astraeus at ACMC 2023 Politics I at SEAMUS 2023 Politics I at the Performing Media Festival [PMF~] 2023 Astraeus at the South Bend Museum of Art
2022 toy_3 at the 2022 18th International Workshop on Computer Music and Audio Technology, Politics I at the Xenakis Networked Performance Marathon 2022, From elemental singularities to unified complexities: a microcosmic journey at 2022 NowNet Arts Conference, toy_3 at the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2022, Politics I at the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2022, Politics I at Web Audio Conference 2022, toy_3 at New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Politics I at Stony Brook University, toy_5 at South Bend Museum of Art, Politics I at The Peabody Institute, toy_5 at the Performing Media Festival [PMF~] 2022
2021 From elemental singularities to unified complexities: a microcosmic journey at Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich, IGNM Zürich Fast Forward Festival, toy_5 at SUNY Buffalo State College, toy_5 at Purchase College, toy_5 at Stony Brook University, toy_5 at International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference 2021, toy_5 at Australasian Computer Music Conference 2021, From elemental singularities to unified complexities: a microcosmic journey at Koncertkirken Blagardsplads, Copenhagen, New Music for Strings 2021, A Community Sonified at New Music Gathering 2021, From elemental singularities to unified complexities: a microcosmic journey at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium Kammermusiksalen, Aarhus, New Music for Strings
2021(Commissioned by New Music for Strings), Connections at the Westben Centre for Connection & Creativity through Music, toy_5 at Earth Day Art Model 2021, toy_5 at Penn State New Music Festival and Symposium, toy_5 at EarFest
2020 toy_5 at 2020 NowNet Arts Conference, Climate Exquis at EcoArtLab Interventions, toy_5 at 2020 Network Music Festival, toy_5 at 2020 New York City Electronic Music Festival (Commissioned by Ensemble Decipher)
2019 Sup, B at Staller Center for the Arts, toy_3 at Sonic Spring, String Quartet No. 2 at Staller Center for the Arts, toy_3 at Staller Center for the Arts (Commissioned by Ensemble Decipher), All This Talk of Saving Souls at Washington State University’s Festival of Contemporary Art Music, toy_7 at Staller Center for the Arts (Commissioned by Ensemble Decipher)
2018 Subsumption at Staller Center for the Arts, I-35 at Staller Center for the Arts, The Impossible Will Take a Little While at Harlem School of the Arts, The Herb Alpert Center, String Quartet No. 2 at Staller Center for the Arts, I-35 (Commissioned by the Chelsea Symphony), Migrations at Anita’s Way
2017 String Quartet No. 2 at Bruce’s Garden, String Quartet No. 2 at Muscota Marsh, String Quartet No. 2 at Inwood Greenmarsh, String Quartet No. 2 at Dyckman Farmhouse (Commissioned by Listen Closely NYC), All This Talk of Saving Souls at Staller Center for the Arts, Slip at Staller Center for the Arts, Meditations for Tibetan Singing Bowls at Staller Center for the Arts
2015 The Impossible Will Take a Little While at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, To Be of Use as part of Con Ed Exploring the Metropolis Residency’s Public Programming at Bloomingdale School of Music
2014 All This Talk of Saving Souls at SubCulture (6:30 & 8:30 Sets Produced by Circles & Lines) as part of 2014 International Double Reed Society (Commissioned by IDRS 2014 for Jacqueline LeClaire)
2013 Canis Major at Greenwich House School of Music, Canis Major at Tenri Cultural Institute (Commissioned by Cadillac Moon Ensemble)
2012 In and Around C at Gallery One Twenty Eight as part of the Nouveau Classical Project’s interactive art installation ‘In and Around C’, Love Songs at Vaudeville Park, Love Songs at Clarke Recital Hall, University of Miami
2011 The Mass of St. Sécaire at Vaudeville Park (Commissioned by Project 60/40), Closer for Solo Viola at Vaudeville Park, Prelude No. 26 at Vaudeville Park, Three Miniatures for Solo Horn and Electronics at University of Miami, Closer for Solo Viola at Goldmark Recital Hall, Mannes College of Music
2010 Little Respite for Flute and Piano at (le) Poisson Rouge, The Cure at Troy at FIGMENT Arts festival, Governor’s Island, String Quartet No. 1 at (le) Poisson Rouge, Prelude No. 26 at (le) Poisson Rouge
2009 Love Songs at Greenwich House School of Music, The Cure at Troy at (le) Poisson Rouge. Reviewed in The New York Times (9/3/09)
Workshops, Talks and Presentations
2023 “Cat’s Cradle”, Brooklyn Music School, New York City, New York, October 10, 2023.
2023 “Introduction to SuperCollider”, Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, April 1, 2023.
2023 “Politics I: Sonification of Participatory Political Activity Through an Interactive Multimodal System and Music Composition”, SEAMUS 2023, New York City, New York, April 7-8, 2023.
2022 “Politics I — Artist Talk”, ACMC’22: “Proximity”, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, August 31-September 1, 2022.
2022 “Dissensus, Refusal and Participatory Music: Negation and Rupture in Crowd in C”, Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology, Reid School of Music, The University of Edinburgh; Department of Music, University of Hong Kong, June 8-10, 2022.
2022 “Politics I: Natural Language Processing, Web 2.0 Architecture, and Participatory Musical Publics”, The Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, March 7, 2022.
2022 “Dissensus, Refusal and Participatory Music: Negation and Rupture in Crowd in C”, Rethinking Participatory Processes Through Music, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom, January 14-15, 2022.
2022 “Dissensus, Refusal and Participatory Music: Negation and Rupture in Crowd in C”, British Forum for Ethnomusicology and Royal Musical Association Research Students’ Conference, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom, January 6-8, 2022.
2021 “Ensemble Decipher’s SUNY Performance Arts Curation and Creation Tour”, Albany, New York, November 13, 2021.
2021 “Ensemble Decipher Artswego Residency: SUNY Oswego Introduction to Music Technology”, Oswego, New York, November 12, 2021.
2021 “Ensemble Decipher Artswego Residency: SUNY Oswego Advanced Electronic Music”, Oswego, New York, November 11, 2021.
2021 “Performance in Context with Ensemble Decipher”, Friends of Chamber Music, Albany, New York, November 10, 2021.
2021 “The Territory of Telematic and Networked Music: Dreams of the Singularity and Insurmountable Space”, NowNet Arts Conference 2021, Institute for Advanced Computational Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, November 4-7, 2021.
2021 “Dissensus, Refusal and Participatory Music: Negation and Rupture in Crowd in C”, ACMC’21: “Connections”, Australian Institute of Music Sydney, Sydney August 26-27, 2021.
2021 “The Art of Confinement: A multi-disciplinary event highlighting artistic creation under quarantine during the COVID-19 global pandemic”, Humanities Institute at Stony Brook, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, May 5, 2021.
2021 “Dissensus, Refusal and Participatory Music: Negation and Rupture in Crowd in C”, ACLA 2021 Annual Meeting: “Post-Politics and the Aesthetic Imagination”, Online, April 8-11, 2021.
2020 Hyperobject: Intersubject, Hochschule der Künste Bern Eco Art Lab, «Climate & the City», Bern & Zürich, Switzerland, August 24-29, 2020.
2020 “Sonification during the COVID-19 Pandemic as Music and Representation”, Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik: Musicovid Research Network, Online, May 19, 2020.
2019 “Telematic Music vs. Networked Music: A Delineation of a Cybernetic Social Practice and a Musical Technology”, NowNet Arts Conference 2019, Institute for Advanced Computational Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, November 7-9, 2019.
2019 “The Impact of Institutional Support on Artistic Research and Creation: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the RCA Mark-II”, International Computer Music Conference 2019, New York University, New York, June 16-23, 2019.
2019 “The Territory of Telematic Music: Cybernetic Dreams and Insurmountable Space”, Interface 2019 – (Un)bound: Interdisciplinary Dialogues, Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture, Carleton University, Ottawa, May 3-4, 2019.
2019 “The Territory of Telematic Music: Cybernetic Dreams and Insurmountable Space”, University of Toronto Musicology Graduate Conference, University of Toronto, Toronto, March 15-17, 2019.
2018 “The Impact of Institutional Support on Artistic Research and Creation: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the RCA Mark-II”, Stony Brook
University Composers Forum Colloquium Series, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, May 1, 20182018 “The Impact of Institutional Support on Artistic Research and Creation: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the RCA Mark-II”, National Student Electronic Music Event, University of North Texas, Denton, March 10, 2018.
2017 “Representation as Resistance: How an Activist Orchestra Redresses the Push-out of Black Practitioners from Classical Music”, Stony Brook University History Graduate Student Association Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference: “Connections, Exchanges, and Transgressions”, Department of History, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, April 14, 2017.
2017 “Representation as Resistance: How an Activist Orchestra Redresses the Push-out of Black Practitioners from Classical Music”, Harvard University Graduate Music Forum Conference: “Black Lives Matter: Music, Race, and Justice”, Department of Music, Harvard University, Cambridge, February 3, 2017.
2016 “Production and Development of Large-Scale Projects from Scratch: The Impossible Will Take a Little While”, University of Miami Composers Forum, University of Miami, Miami, November 18, 2016.
2015 “Performance and Discussion of Excerpts from The Impossible Will Take a Little While”, ConEd Exploring the Metropolis Public Programming, The Bloomingdale School of Music, New York, April 12, 2015.
2015 “Producing and Composing for Winds at IDRS 2014”, Music and Performing Artist Department Winds and Brass Program Seminar, New York University, New York, March 11, 2015.
2014 “Out There—Young Composing in the 21st Century”, University of Miami Composers Forum, University of Miami, Miami, April 18, 2014.
https://www.knox.edu/academics/faculty/lemmon-eric
Printed on Thursday, December 26, 2024