Mark Applebaum: Mind Altering Concert

Works for electroacoustic sound-sculpture and percussion ensemble with Terry Longshore and the Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensemble

Mark Applebaum presents an evocative, meditative improvisation on his stunning electroacoustic sound-sculpture—the mouseketier—in the extraordinarily resonant space of Stanford’s Memorial Church. The improvisation will be interspersed with Applebaum’s colorful percussion compositions performed by the Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensemble. The evening begins with a simultaneous two-person performance of Aphasia, an idiosyncratic piece for hand gestures performed in synchrony with two-channel sound.

Mark Applebaum, Ph.D. is the Edith & Leland Smith Professor of Composition at Stanford University. His solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic work has been performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia, including notable commissions from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Fromm Foundation, the Spoleto Festival, the Kronos Quartet, Chamber Music America, and the Vienna Modern Festival. Many of his pieces are characterized by challenges to the conventional boundaries of musical ontology: works for three conductors and no players, a concerto for florist and orchestra, pieces for instruments made of junk, notational specifications that appear on the faces of custom wristwatches, works for an invented sign language choreographed to sound, amplified Dadaist rituals, a chamber work comprised of obsessive page turns, and a 72-foot long graphic score displayed in a museum and accompanied by no instructions for its interpretation. His TED talk has been seen by more than three million viewers. Applebaum is also an accomplished jazz pianist and builds electroacoustic sound-sculptures. At Stanford, Applebaum is the founding director of [sic]—the Stanford Improvisation Collective. He serves on the board of Other Minds and as a trustee of Carleton College.