UNews - violinist

5 Questions with Dr. Arlan Schultz

trevor.kenney — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:26:25 +0000

Dr. Arlan Schultz is an assistant professor of music, composition and theory and the head of the composition area within the Department of Music in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Schultz's music has been broadcast on Radio Canada, in France on CBC's sister network, and has been heard at performances in Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Austria and Hungary. He has also been commissioned by the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the McGill Concert Choir, the Stuttgart Wind Quintet with Canadian pianist Louise Besette, Hungarian violinist János Négyesy, Canadian pianist Sandra Brown, Ensemble Resonance, Calgary and New Works Calgary, among others.

In addition to his creative work, Schultz is active in several areas of research related to the field of composition. He is implementing software algorithms for real-time audio spatialization in live performance, and designing symbolic computational algorithms for computer-assisted composition and audio synthesis. As well, he is developing tools for electroacoustic composition in the form of audio-spatialization software and unique audio-sample databases.

Dr. Arlan Schultz uses technologies such as real-time spacialization techniques in his studies.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

At a young age, I was fascinated with the structure of music and the techniques involved in its composition. Although I was a pianist, the act of performance was somehow unsatisfying and I found myself increasingly involved in performative situations where improvisation and creativity were required. This engagement with creative music making is what directly led to my desire for more in-depth study of how music was put together.

Along this path, I discovered that, in addition to the traditional tools offered to a composer by historical (and newer) models for realizing a musical composition, there were significant technologies which could enhance the composer's expressive palette – such technologies include real-time spatialization techniques; interactive and computer mediated performance techniques; symbolic computational models; algorithmic composition; and new real-time techniques for audio synthesis.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

My current research is engaged with creating music and configuring it for transmission to an audience. When I consider the relevance of my research to the world at large (beyond the academic walls), I ask myself, "What role does music play in my daily life?"

Music is ubiquitous, but is it all meaningful? I view my research as a means for differentiating levels of meaning and for creating an aesthetic experience that goes beyond the background noise of daily living.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I have been fortunate to receive many grants and awards for my creative work, among them our current ACDI Grant from the Canada Council. However, the most important honour I have received in my career has been the great privilege of working with world-class performers on the production and performance of my work.

My wife, soprano Martha Renner, is a frequent collaborator on my vocal music and my more recent work has involved the inclusion of ritual Tibetan music. The Monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery in South West India have honoured me by allowing the recording of their ritual music for study and inclusion in my creative work.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

To be a concert-music composer is to be a teacher – students are central to the survival of concert-music and to the continued advancement of, and experimentation with, musical discourse. The art of composition has always been passed on through apprenticeship models of teaching and my students play a central role in my creative life. My students have been actively involved with my musical productions and have been able to benefit from utilizing new technologies and hearing new ways to organize sound.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

I would invest in those forms of endeavour that keep us more fully human. Many have said that art fulfills this criterion, but in my view artistic endeavor informed by and combined with scientific research is among the most exciting fields for future research.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the December 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Campus Kudos

trevor.kenney — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:13:16 +0000

Nick Wade (Art) has been invited to show and speak about his work, The Ruin 2005, at a conference dedicated to Eve Sedgwick. Called Spanking and Poetry at the Graduate Centre, CUNY NY on Feb. 25, part of the conference is dedicated to innovative uses of language in many disciplines, including visual art.

Mary Kavanagh (Art) and Michael Campbell (Art) both had work purchased by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts in its recent round of new acquisitions. Kavanagh's work, Tarnish: Silver Drawings (2005), is a process piece resulting in a large textile. Campbell's work, Tranquility Base (2006), is a video/audio/sculptural installation.

The winners for the annual student writing competition, Plays and Prose, supported by U of L alumnus Terry Whitehead, were announced recently. James Wade captured the Play Right Prize for his play Muse Control. Marian Godfrey won first prize in the prose competition for Takeoff, while second prize went to Henry Heavy Shield for The Art of Fasting. The third prize was awarded to Dave Bryant for Out of Sight on Barstool Row. This is the second consecutive year that Heavy Shield has earned a prize for his writing.

Mary-Anne McTrowe (Art) was asked by recent Art Now speaker Brian Goeltzenleuchter, to create work to be featured on his Contraposto Home Decor website for Winter 2010, based on items in his product line. She chose to knit cozies for three of the candles offered for sale on the site: Roman Ruins, The Kiss, and Totem.

Daniel Wong (Art Gallery) and Mary-Anne McTrowe (Art), as The Cedar Tavern Singers AKA Les Phonorealistes, travel to San Diego in March to participate in a group exhibition entitled Family Matters at Sushi Center for Urban Arts, which runs from Mar. 4 to Apr. 24. In addition to their installation, they are also presenting a musical performance.

Tido Janssen (Music) was recently elected president of the Alberta String Association (ASA). The ASA is a non-profit, charitable organization that supports and develops programs serving a network of string professionals, string students, and string-interested parties that advocate quality string playing and string education in Alberta.

Dr. Shelley Scott's (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) book, Nightwood Theatre, A Woman's Work is Always Done, has just been published by Athabasca ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Press.

Lisa Doolittle (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) was named Ms. November (Dance Historian of the Month) in Dance Collection Danse, the national dance archive and publishing organization based in Toronto.

Denton Fredrickson (Art) and John Granzow (Psychology – grad assistant) have their collaboration, Instruments of Removal, appearing in the first issues of the new online publication Boulder Pavement.

Deanna Oye (Music) performed on a concert of international musicians at the Hospitalkirche in Schwaebisch Hall, Germany. She and violinist Jasmine Lin (Chicago Chamber Players) performed Edvard Grieg's 3rd Sonata for Violin and Piano in December.

Campus Kudos

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:35:24 +0000

Campus Kudos

Lisa Doolittle (Theatre & Dramatic Arts), with Anne Flynn from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, is presenting the paper "Assimilating and Accommodating: Bodies and Dancing, Canada's Choreography of Multicultural Nationhood in the 20th century" at the British Association of Canadian Studies international conference "Being, Becoming and Belonging: Multiculturalism, Diversity and Social Inclusion in Modern Canada" at Oxford ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, UK, Mar. 28-30.

Mary-Anne McTrowe (Art) has received an Alberta Creative Development Initiative grant to produce work for a solo exhibition in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's contemporary space, the LAB. The exhibition opens in October 2009.

Richard Epp (Theatre & Dramatic Arts) appears in Theatre Calgary's production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde, Mar. 3-22.

Jim Steacy (kinesiology student) and Heather Steacy (music student) brought home three gold medals from the Canada West track championship meet in Regina recently. Jim Steacy won both the men's weight throw and shot put, giving him eight career Canada West gold medals. Heather Steacy won her third consecutive Canada West women's weight throw gold medal. Both athletes were named top athletes of the meet and Jim Steacy was also named top male track athlete for the year.

Dr. Arlan Schultz (Music) has received a Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunity from the U of L Research Office to support his development of tools for electroacoustic composition in the form of audio spatialization software and unique audio-sample databases. Schultz recently returned from Paris, France where he was studying and designing audio spatialization algorithms and studying advanced MAX/MSP programming techniques at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in the Centre Georges Pompidou. During this spring/summer, he has been awarded a research residency and has been appointed a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CIRCA) in La Jolla, California. He has also received a Canada Arts Council grant for the composition of two new works of interactive acoustic/computer music. One is a commission from New Works Calgary's "Rubbing Stone" Ensemble for soprano, chamber orchestra, real-time audio spatialization and computer processed audio, which will be premiered in 2010.

Ryan Pottruff (education student) and Dustin Moore (pre-management studies) of the Pronghorns men's hockey team, won silver medals while representing Canada at the 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, China.

Deanna Oye (Music) performs a solo piano recital at Lakehead ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ on Mar. 17, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations for Lakehead's Department of Music. She was a graduate of their B.Mus.(Honours) program during its first decade.

Trio Amaranth (Peter Visentin, violin; Tido Janssen, cello; and Deanna Oye, piano) performed at Convocation Hall at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta on Feb. 27.
Dana Inkster (New Media) has been invited to be a discussant in the "The Role of the Employer and Legal Implications For Foreign Workers" plenary, Mar. 19 at the 11th National Metropolis Conference in Calgary. She will speak about her 2007 documentary "24 Days In Brooks" as well as her current projects in development, "Los Invisibles" and "Ladies of the Saturday Night". In March, she also speaks on the Collaborative Research in Ethnicity, Social Care and Health program in Faculty of Nursing, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, where she will use her film 24 Days in Brooks as a case study for the use of documentary film as a facilitation tool in intercultural exchange.

Peter Visentin (Music) presented "Violinist's Cool Move" to music majors at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta recently. The presentation explores his research with biomechanics researchers to gain insight into the art and science of playing the violin.

Lani Maestro (Art) is among 50 artists from around the world to participate in the Sharjah Biennial 9, this spring.

Ed Wasiak (Education/Music) was elected president of the Canadian Music Educators' Association (CMEA). CMEA provides leadership for music education in Canada and is also the national affiliate to the International Society for Music Education. Wasiak's term as president runs from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2011.

Dr. Rolf Boon's (Music) composition "First Light" has been selected for publication in the Canadian National Conservatory of Music's Northern Lights Level 5 piano syllabus. Several of Rolf's works are also under consideration for publication for their Grade 6 and 7 piano repertoire.

UNews - violinist

5 Questions with Dr. Arlan Schultz

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