2020-2021 Corwin Chair Series Kicks Off in Virtual Format

Corwin Chair of Composition João Pedro Oliveira curates events showcasing composition at UC Santa Barbara

In Fall 2020, amidst the pandemic and continued lockdowns, Professor and Corwin Chair of Composition João Pedro Oliveira made several Corwin Chair Series events available to the public as virtual events. These events included three lectures with guest speakers via Zoom and a special Corwin Chair Series Concert featuring original music from the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music and College of Creative Studies Composition Faculty.

The first Visiting Artist of the 2020-2021 Corwin Chair Series, composer Manuella Blackburn, gave a talk titled “Composing with Short Sounds” on October 16, 2020. Blackburn specializes in acousmatic music creation and currently lectures within the Music Technology Program at Keele University in the United Kingdom.

The second lecture, titled “Composing Sound,”on November 6, 2020 featured guest speaker Panayiotis Kokoras, Associate Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) at the University of North Texas.

The final lecture of the quarter, titled “Shadows for Piano and Electronics. An Exploration of Texture, Harmony and Timbre,” was given on December 4, 2020 by Professor Liviu Marinescu, Head of Composition at California State University, Northridge.

Using innovative visuals, media arts, technology, and sound, the final Corwin Chair Series event of the year, a concert titled “Synesthesias,” showcased the relationship between both visual and auditory senses. With works by UC Santa Barbara Department of Music and College of Creative Studies Composition faculty members João Pedro Oliveira, JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, Curtis Roads, Sarah Gibson, Andrew Watts, and Leslie Hogan, the program featured pieces that responded to color, artwork, and images, which invited the listener to interact with the crossing of their own senses. Watch the full concert—which premiered on December 2, 2020—on the UC Santa Barbara Department of Music's YouTube channel.

João Pedro Oliveira

JoAnn Kuchera-Morin

Curtis Roads

Sarah Gibson

Andrew Watts

Leslie Hogan