On November 1st, flutist and improviser Robin Meiksins visited TIMARA’s TECH 170 class to discuss her collaborations with composers of electroacoustic music as well as her experiences of performing works with flute and electronics. Meiksins work has particular synergy with TECH 170, taught this fall by Visiting Assistant Professor Christopher Poovey: the course is devoted to assisting musicians introduce technology into their performance practice. Meiksins has a long history of close collaboration with composers: in her project entitled 365 Days of Flute, Robin uploaded performances of flute compositions created by living composers and works for the established flute repertoire every day of 2016. Every video was performed, recorded, and uploaded to YouTube on the same day. Inspired by Meiksins’ YouTube performances, Oberlin alum Ralph Lewis composed an interactive YouTube experience with her in mind, entitled DuoTube.
In her lecture to TECH 170, Meiksins also spoke about her work at the SPLICE institute and her flute commissioning projects. Robin’s experience performing electroacoustic music provided the class a firsthand perspective of the challenges and affordances of working with technology as a performer that may inform the direction of students’ final projects: for their final projects this semester, TECH 170 students have an option this semester of performing a commissioned work by a TIMARA student, performing an established work of electroacoustic music, or writing their own composition and performing it.
-ASH
