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Alejandro Castaños - alecas@koncon.nl
program notes
When I first started to work on this piece, the following thought crossed my mind: Watching someone playing behind a Laptop is generally quite unrewarding, the person could be checking his e-mail or triggering the most exciting sound files and we wouldn t notice the difference. I have always been attracted to computer interfaces that allow a more gestural control of the sound and demand a more active attitude. I come from a different background, I had been mainly writing chamber music and I wanted to create the same kind of communication needed to play, for example, a string trio. In this case, both computer performers are facing a score and somehow "precise" notation. The form is structured in blocks with clear cuts between them. Mainly fast, pulsed sections combined with more static material. The idea of creating simultaneous rhythmic layers was very present while working on the percussion part, I often tried to create the illusion of more than one line by rapidly switching between different playing techniques. For the electronic parts, pitch and changes on two other parameters (to be chosen by the performer) are indicated on the score as well as the duration and the direction of each event. I included some general remarks about the nature of the sounds but apart from that, these have been mainly developed by Henry Vega and Juan Parra.
bio
He first studied music and composition in Mexico City at CIEM and later on privately with Juan Trigos and Ignacio Baca-Lobera. Looking for a more personal way of writing and willing to exchange ideas with other composers, performers and visual artists, he decided to move to the Netherlands in 1999. Thanks to the support from the National Arts Fund in Mexico, he studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague where he finished a master degree in 2004. He has also attended diverse workshops and master classes including Franco Donatoni s International Courses in Mexico City; Voix Nouvelle in Royaumont, France and the New Music Symposium in Quebec, Canada.
His music has been performed in festivals such as the Gaudeamus Music Week (The Netherlands) and RADAR (Mexico). He has participated in projects with the Maarten Altena Ensemble, Modelo 62, Garth Knox and most recently Le Percussions de Strasbourg amongst others.
He is a member of the Dutch Organization (www.tag004.nl) and the group of composers DAM (www.dam-music.org).
He recently received the support from the VSB Fonds and the Prinsbernhard Cultuurfonds from the Netherlands to continue his studies at the year-long course for computer music and composition at IRCAM, Centre Pompidou in Paris, France.
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