Project Transonic – new project at Newcastle
Over the past 4-5 years the International Centre for Music Studies (ICMuS) has developed a very distinctive strand in composition studies that is now termed postvernacular for convenience.
Project Transonic centres on developing national and international performance and networking opportunities for postgraduate (MMus and PhD) creative practitioners in this field and remodelling programmes (including PhD) to include more integrated professional development. As this area of work was not directly funded by the CETL, a successful bid was made to the Universitys Enterprise Centre to take a new area of curriculum development forward under the umbrella of the CETL.
The biggest and most ambitious venture for Project Transonic in 2007 was the trip to New York. New York, along with Chicago, Montreal and Berlin, is recognised as a world centre for regular performances and presentations of the kind of postvernacular musics practiced at ICMUS. On a non-institutional level, there are dozens of small organisations (typically centred around a particular performance space) that put on relevant music/performance events at least five nights per week. Academically, the postgraduate composition department at Columbia University (through the influence of Professors Brad Garton and George Lewis) have developed a programme of study fairly similar to that at ICMuS - internationally, such postgraduate departments in major universities still represent a very small minority.
Will Edmondes leads the Transonic Project
‘The purpose of our trip was to visit Columbia University in order to present our work and initiate contact and discussion with fellow practitioners. Around this visit we also arranged two public concerts (at Roulette and Galapagos, both venues strongly associated with this area) which would also feature students from Columbia and other potential, non-academic contacts in the city. John Ayers (included in the party as technical support, but also as a performer) added to the schedule the participation in an ‘open-platform’ digital/electronic music club night. During one week, then, the students performed in four concerts. Needless to say, the experience was incredibly rich and beneficial to all those who took part – the students are currently sharing their views on the trip via the ICMuS Hub. A report will be compiled from their various postings and sent to the Columbia contingent for their feedback and views’. (Will)
‘The Project Transonic trip to New York was brilliant in so many ways; it gave us the opportunity to network with like-minded students and enabled us to introduce free improvisation to a new audience. Everyone on the trip really gave 100‰ in their performances which highlighted the quality of musicianship amongst CETL students. The trip gave students the chance to perform a kind of music that wouldn't normally be performed in the fabulous venues we visited on the tour. I believe that this trip was extremely worthwhile in terms of students' experience and flying the flag for the CETL’.
(Kitty, participating PhD student)
