Electro-Acoustic Research Space Grand Opening
UW Humanities Building 455 N. Park St., Madison, Wisconsin 53706
press release: This fall, the Mead Witter School of Music will add a new studio to Humanities: the Electro-Acoustic Research Space (EARS). Located in a former classroom, EARS will be stuffed with the latest electronic music equipment, and will be available to faculty, students, and collaborators within the School of Music and in other departments.
Grand opening: Friday, September 15, 7:30 PM, Room 2401 (street level), Mosse Humanities Building, 455 North Park Street.
The studio was shepherded by School of Music horn professor Daniel Grabois after a grant opportunity opened up for the arts: in 2015, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and other sources sponsored UW2020. UW2020, according to the program parameters, is a “large equipment grant” program intended to “stimulate and support highly innovative and groundbreaking research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison over the next five years."
In the second round of funding, the project received an award of over $150,000 (quite unique as the only arts-related grant in the mix), and that new facility will open this September.
What’s in it? Computers, of course. Software galore. Pedals. Electric keyboards. A theremin. Microphones, interfaces, speakers. Cameras, printers, headphones, mixing boards. Electronic percussion. A Moog synthesizer. There will also be a mobile unit to record classical music, as EARS will not be a recording studio. And much, much more.
Several noted UW-Madison alumni have embraced electro-acoustic music, notably Paula Matthusen (BM, 2001, assistant professor of music at Wesleyan University) and Kevin Ernste (BM, 1997, professor of composition at Cornell University) who were guests at our 2015 Alumni Composers Festival. EARS will be available to alumni, current students and faculty, and to faculty researchers outside the School of Music. And I will revive $2 Broom, which will have a permanent home in EARS.
Special thanks to Director Susan C. Cook, who found funds for a room renovation, and to all the vendors who supplied equipment, notably Full Compass, a local firm that offered the winning bid on a large package of equipment.
Grabois will host monthly open houses at EARS, but we’ll start the year off with a grand opening on Friday, September 15, 2017, at 7:30 pm. EARS is located in room 2401 in the Mosse Humanities Building.