The composition program in the Glenn Korff School of Music will be hosting the Boulder Image and Sound Network ensemble from Boulder, Colorado, on Nov. 5. Directed by Hunter Ewen, BISoN is a groundbreaking, five-member quintet that performs a wild variety of music using nothing but iPads.
BiSoN will be giving a mini concert and talkback session for composition students at 2 p.m. Nov. 5 in Westbrook Music Building, Room 110. The event is free and open to the public.
Exploration, both artistic and technological, is the foundation of the ensemble. With every performance, they try to do a new collaboration, new technical workflow and new hardware and software set up.
BISoN is an extension of a laptop ensemble, but the use of iPads allows them a greater amount of freedom within their performances. The iPads not only have virtual buttons, knobs and sliders, but they also have the acceleration of the iPad itself. The technology makes it easier to be mobile, as well. For example, the ensemble can make a sound by turning the iPad in a certain direction, or turn it into a steering wheel that controls a filter or sound.
As well as acting as an artistic entity, the BISoN Ensemble acts to inform and excite people about what is possible when you combine art and technology.
