ELECTROACOUSTIC BARN
DANCE BRINGS HUNDREDS
OF COMPOSERS AND
PERFORMERS TO CAMPUS
Jacksonville University hosted the Seventh Annual
Electroacoustic Barn Dance in the spring of 2018, a free
three-day national festival of electronic music and art
that brought in acclaimed composers and artists from
around the world.
On stage performing with top student and faculty
composers from dozens of universities at this year’s
event included the JU Music Division’s own Faculty New
Music Ensemble: Dr. Shannon Lockwood on cello, Artist-
in-Residence Tony Steve on percussion and Director of
Jazz Studies John Ricci on saxophone.
Electroacoustic music showcases multimedia by
mixing analog and digital sounds, often with video, with
performers using computers as control stations while
traditional instruments are also incorporated. At any
given concert at the Barn Dance, audience members
listened to musical works in eight-channel surround
sound; acoustic instruments processed to sound like
clouds, sandpaper, and steel; video works that embrace
the real, the colorful and the heavily abstract; works
performed by the audience members from their seats;
and works played on instruments created by the
composers themselves.
The festival is an academic conference for electronic
artists, with more than 300 scores, papers and
installations judged for entry. Composers come from
diverse backgrounds and include winners of the Rome
Prize, the Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the
Barlow International Competition, the ASCAP/SEAMUS
award and many others.
The next Electroacoustic Barn Dance Festival will be
held November 8-10, 2018 in Terry Concert Hall. For more
information, visit www.ju.edu/cfaevents.
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