21st Annual EMM Festival
Mark your calendars! EMM will be held at Kansas City Kansas Community College March 10-11, 2023, when our guest performer will be Scott Deal. Find our call for submissions at New Music Engine.2023 Guest Performer: Scott Deal
Scott Deal engages new works of computer interactivity, networked systems, media, and percussion. Hailed as "a riveting performer" who "exhibits phenomenal virtuosity", Deal has performed at venues worldwide, with groups that include ART GRID, Another Language, Callithumpian Consort, Percussion Group Cincinnati, Miami Symphony, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, and Big Robot. His recordings of Pulitzer Prize/Grammy Award-winning composer John Luther Adams were listed in New Yorker Magazine's and WNYC's "Top Ten Classical Picks" and featured in the sound track of the Academy Award winning movie The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2011, Deal and composer Matthew Burtner won the coveted Internet2 IDEA Award for their co-creation of Auksalaq, a telematic climate opera called "an important realization of meaningful opera for today's world". His work has received funding from organizations that include Meet the Composer, New Frontiers, Indiana Arts Council, Clowes Foundation, IU Arts and Humanities Institute, and the University of Alaska. He is the co-founder of Deck 10 Media, a company that creates interactive network systems for musical performance, teaching, and conferencing. Deal is a Professor and Director of the Donald Louis Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at IUPUI.
About EMM
Electronic Music Midwest [EMM] is dedicated to programming of a wide variety of electroacoustic music and providing the highest quality performance of electronic media. This annual festival consists of approximately nine short concerts (about 1 hour in length) over the course of a weekend in Autumn. Our goal is to bring together vibrant and interesting artists of all forms, give them a vehicle for their expressions, and a place for them to share ideas with others.
EMM is the result of a consortium formed in 2002 between Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC), Lewis University, and the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Officially formed in 2002, this festival was founded by Mike McFerron, Connie Mayfield, and Paul Rudy in 2000 when it was presented at KCKCC under the name "Kansas City Electronic Music Festival." In 2001, the festival continued at Lewis University under the title, "Electronic Music at Lewis - 2001."
EMM originally featured an 8-channel surround diffusion system, and now features a 12-channel immersive system, under the guidance of Ian Corbett. The core of the system are Yamaha powered speakers and subwoofers, and a Digico S21 mixer (named "EMMilia"). Many visiting composers comment that EMM is one of the best sounding and smoothest run festivals they have ever attended.
Since its beginning, EMM has programmed over 1000 new electroacoustic compositions. Composers have traveled from around the world to graciously share their music with audiences in the Midwest. However, EMM is about more than just playing new music. We strive to create an environment conducive to building community interaction. Most concerts are approximately one hour long, and composers have plenty of time to "talk shop" with each other as well as interact socially with students and audience members.