GTLork at the Goat Farm thanks to JT and the Varsity

A great event in a great space and I almost didn't go. As we approached, ambient music wafted from Goodson Yard. From the door we could see the long line of laptopers beneath giant screens.

It was free, it was odd, it was at the Goat Farm, a performance of student works by the Georgia Tech Laptop Orchestra (GTLork) & New Music Ensemble.

On Thursday I was eating at the Varsity next to a man and his teenage sons. Turns out it's music photographer Jim 'JT' Gilbert from upper New York state visiting Georgia Tech where his 18 year old has been accepted. They'd been told to eat the at the "V" while they were in Atlanta - good choice.


Y'all know me: We chatted it up and bonded over french fries. They'd spent a long day at Tech and were heading back to the hotel before driving home to New York on Friday.


So I asked if they wanted to go to the Goat Farm to hear the Georgia Tech Laptop Orchestra. They said yeah and we headed out.


My wife said, "They actually went with YOU? Didn't they know how strange you are?"

They didn't exactly go with me, they followed in their car. What were they thinking as we turned into the dark Goat Farm drive and parked in the grass?


It was odd and wonderful, thirty+ musicians and a few hundred fans in Goodson Yard.


It was dark, there were three giant screens, there were a few traditional instruments. I had no idea what would happen next.


A score.


Title: “Fusiform” Members: Chris Howe, Raja Raman, Ziwen Fan, Xinquan Zhou Description: A performance controlled by facial expressions, wherein laptop performers affect the acoustic musicians signal with various effects via web cam control.


This trio played over ambient music and it was wonderful.
Title: “Impossible Mission” Members: JUAN MARTINEZ-NIETO, Shuo Liu, IMANKALYAN MUKHERJEE, Cian O’Brien Description: A piece written for Trumpet, Tenor Saxophone, Euphonium, 3 laptop musicians and 3 puzzle solvers. The music tells a story of solving a jig-saw puzzle that eventually unfolds the score for the musicians to play.


Weird and wonderful and I almost didn't go. Thanks to JT and sons.

I don't know if the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology has a mailing list, so we'll need to check their event calendar.

2014 Finals: Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at the Klaus

This was my third Guthman. I plan to attend them all. On Friday the 8 finalists demonstrated their instruments.

" Twenty-two inventors, composers and designers representing 14 nations were selected to present their new instruments at this year’s competition . They were selected from a pool of over 80 applicants from 20 countries..."


Margaret Guthman awarded the 2014 first prize and $5,000 to the Adjustable Microtonal Guitar by Tolgahan Cogulu the only non-computerized instrument.


Tolgahan Cogulu played, moved the frets around and played some more.


I started smiling early.


Who knew that the Klaus (designed by Perkins +Will) had a glass-fronted 3-level trapezoidal room with grand stair and balconies?

Georgia Tech music technology students wore these T-shirts and worked the show.

I walked around before liftoff.


These little circuit boards had gyros, accelerometers, and light sensors I think. He danced them around and made wireless music.


I asked why the heat lamp. Uday said it was built in a tropical climate and heat lamps were legal. This is Uday Shankar's chitravenu.


Two wild and crazy Swedish guys played OP-1's by Teenage Engineering .


The AlphaSphere went through pre-flight checklists. Was he loading Bach, hip-hop, or Vangelis? All, I think..


The Happy Fun Ball was an "elektrisk oraksje" (electric orange). You could dance with it AND dance to it.


Things got started before I could meet all the inventors.


The balcony birds leaned in from the best seats in the house.


The three judges sat on the front row.


No Mozart from Yuto Hasebe's Tree Guitar but WHO CARES? We wanted to party with the Tree Guitar.


Feng Gao's TRI-O : Three little turntables put a triangle in motion whose area made midi controls modify Bach.

After the performance the judges judged while the fans swarmed the inventors.


Yuto Hasebe and his Tree Guitar.


Inside the Intonaspacio a.k.a. happy fun ball.



Uday Shankar demonstrated the chitravenu for his inteview.


Allie and company with the Happy Fun Ball.


Children welcome.


Insider tip: Free beverages and sweets after the performances.


The judges returned. Tree Guitar won a peoples choice award and a coveted Margaret hug.


The winners.


The winners.


The winners.

Unamplified, uncompressed, intimate - Sonic Generator in Shutze's Academy of Medicine

I found myself leaning in, leaning forward, trying to get closer. They played loud and in a whisper.

These days music is engineered to sound good in the car and on MP3 players. Dynamics get squeezed out else we'd constantly adjust the volume while we jogged.

Not this night. It was the perfect storm of architecture tourism: a great event in a great space.

I sat 10 feet from the string quartet in the extraordinary auditorium at the Academy of Medicine.


Violinists Helen Hwaya Kim and Adelaide Federici, cellist Brad Ritchie, composer Jonathan Berger, violist William Johnston. Sonic Generator is the contemporary music ensemble-in-residence at Georgia Tech.

Until the music began I enjoyed the building and the people.


The Academy of Medicine glowed in the low sun. The brick pavers are part of the composition, the base layer of rustication.


A string quartet in a building like this? Free? Bring it on.


I've been here before. It works every time. Philip Shutze designed this just for me. However grand, this room is comfortable.

The rotunda is the narthex for the auditorium.


There are 230 seats. It feels like an oval but it's not. The entrance wall is flat. The stage is in Turn 1.

I wondered how would it sound? Did Shutze do acoustics?


We were about to find out.


The stage featured two marimbas and columns in antis.


Jason Freeman, associate professor in Georgia Tech School of Music introduced the show.


William Johnston performed first, playing "Viola Elegy" with a recording. I stood in the very back corner. It was as if he was right beside me.

I moved to the front row.


It was Marimba time, left - Charles Settle, right Stuart Gerber. They performed "Piano Phase" by Steve Reich and messed with our brains (see video).


Composer Jonathan Berger introduced the final piece, his own work: "Doubles" (2004).


The quartet took the stage.

I just don't get to do this.. I felt like I was holding each instrument, feeling the vibrations.


Bravo. Mark Gresham reviewed the performances at ArtsATL.com.

Did Shutze do acoustics? Somebody sure did. Did Shutze ever hear a performance in Academy of Medicine?


The end of concerts are so sad. The performance is just gone. You have to leave, go back to eating, working, and sleeping.


For most of us this was the first and last time. And modern works rarely leave me whistling a melody.


Yet I do have vivid memories of the performances.


I remember how real and intimate it sounded, as if they performed just for me.


Time to go.

I don't know when the Academy of Medicine will host music again.

Sonic Generator will perform at the opening event for gloATL's Liquid Culture: a utopia station series July 6, 7-8 pm – Midtown – 15th Street and Peachtree Street, Colony Square Plaza. More here.

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter I'll give you a heads up.