Jay C. Batzner is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches theory, composition, and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. He holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Missouri – Kansas City, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kansas.
Jay's music is primarily focused around instrumental chamber works as well as electroacoustic composition. His music has been recorded on the Capstone, Vox Novus, and Beauport Classical labels and is published by Unsafe Bull Music.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
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2/27/2006
Sparked
I'm back from this year's Spark Festival. It was a lot of fun. Lots of music, lots of talking, lots of everything. You can check out Anthony Cornicello's blog about specifics. There are only a couple of things I want to talk about.
First of all, Alvin Lucier's music was incredible. The simplicity and elegance of his music really made an impact on me. It made me rethink all the business that seems to happen in electronic music. It is going to take me a while to synthesize the experience but I cannot wait to try.
The other standout performances, for me, were the dance/drama trio Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts and Maja Cerar's performance of Autopoiesis by herself and Liubo Borrisov. The Disappearing Acts' piece, Stranger, was energetic, fun, angst-ridden, and incredibly entertaining. I hope to see more of them in the future. Autopoiesis, for violin and computer, was possibly the best integration of live performance. audio processing, and video processing. It was smack in the middle of a 3 hour mega-concert. The performance energized me enough to make it through the rest of the program.
Also of note was the installation Examination of the Tendencies Toward and Away From Physical Expression by Adam Tourek. Basically, after each concert, Adam set up a video projector, put a line of white tape on the floor, danced, and projected the dancing onto a wall or ceiling. It was great. Not because of the simplicity of what he was doing but because nobody seemed to know WHY he was doing this. The fact that Adam was an installation sailed right over the heads of most of the attenders (myself included). We wondered who the "Boogie Man" was. Was he a student at Minnesota? Just some guy from the area? Did he do this at other UM events? It took me until Saturday to realize that he traveled up from Louisiana State to do what he was doing.
So, there it was. A good time was had by all. Only 2 or 3 tech glitches, which is surprisingly few for 7 concerts averaging 2 hours in length. Doug Geers and the Spark Army really know what they are doing. I'm looking forward to next year!
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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