Event Info:

Michael J. Schumacher: Room Pieces Troy 2010

Room Pieces Troy 2010 continues Michael Schumacher's site specific, multi-channel, extended duration sound installations. The installation is characterized by a wide variety of acoustic phenomena, including field recordings, recordings of musical instruments, sound "objects," spoken words, and computer generated tones, and employs various strategies for the articulation of these sounds, with particular use made of numerical sequences.

Each manifestation of Room Pieces takes on a unique identity based on the space in which it is installed. EMPAC's immense size, acoustics, incredible variety of background sounds, and the 100-plus speaker sound system provide a rich and challenging environment. The result is an ever-changing soundscape that is both pleasurable and unpredictable.

Curator: Micah Silver

Audio Systems Programmer: Jeff Svatek

FREE + Open to the public

Michael J. Schumacher:

Michael J. Schumacher is a composer, performer, and installation artist based in New York City.

Working predominantly with electronic and digital media, he creates sound environments that evolve over long time periods. He imbues these generative, algorithmic structures with an abundance of sonic material, resulting in forms that flow through a wide range of moods, timbral combinations and textural densities. In their realization, Schumacher uses multiple speaker configurations that relate the sounds of the installation to the architecture of the exhibition space. Architectural and acoustical considerations thereby become basic structural elements.

Schumacher's sound installations have been heard worldwide. His Living Room Pieces is permanently installed in an apartment at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City, and runs 24 hours a day, continuously generating new forms. He is an established recording artist, and his CD Room Pieces, on XI Records, was rated best of 2003 for "modern composition" by The Wire magazine.

Schumacher has composed for traditional instrumentation, as well, including works for solo piano, pieces for a variety of chamber ensembles, song cycles, and two symphonies for full orchestra. He is also a guitarist and improviser.

Schumacher was awarded the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Grant in 2001. He has also received awards and residencies from NYFA, Harvestworks, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Meet the Composer, DAAD, and others. He has lectured and taught at several colleges and universities, and holds degrees in music composition from Indiana University, where he won the composition prize in 1982, and the Juilliard School, where he earned his doctorate in 1988.

For more information, please visit http://www.michaeljschumacher.com