Wunderkind
2012
toy piano and electronics
ca. 10'
Commissioned by the Kansas City Electronic Arts & Music Alliance (KcEMA) for Kari Johnson
List of Performances
toy piano and electronics
ca. 10'
Commissioned by the Kansas City Electronic Arts & Music Alliance (KcEMA) for Kari Johnson
List of Performances
“Wunderkind” is a well-known German term historically applied to a person who possesses an extraordinary talent or brilliance (particularly musical) at an early age. The creative impetus for this work was the desire to explore the intellectual workings of a developing child prodigy, the electronic component used to expand the palette of such a restricted instrument while representing the mind’s ear of the child. The opening cadenza begins clumsily as the “child” seemingly explores the instrument for the first time. Musical ideas begin to mature, congeal, and find meaning. The fixed media playback begins after two minutes of solo, and a complex and harmonically-saturated sound world emerges from and interacts with performed gestures, meant to be perceived as imagined musical structures, astonishingly advanced for a mere child. All of the sounds in the fixed media were created by recording and processing my own toy piano. I did, in fact, sit on the six-inch-high bench while doing so.
Wunderkind was awarded First Prize in the 2013 Prix Destellos competition, mixed media category.
Wunderkind was awarded First Prize in the 2013 Prix Destellos competition, mixed media category.
Below: Laura Hrivnak performs Wunderkind at Fisch Haus studios in Wichita, KS. Kip Haaheim, live sound
Wunderkind by Timothy Roy from Fisch Haus on Vimeo.
Performances
- La Crosse New Music Festival — University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. November 6, 2021. J.J. Pearse, performer
- REMLABS Fall Concert — Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. November 15, 2017. Wesley Ducote, performer
- Applause Music Concert Series — Fort Worth, TX. July 25, 2017. Wesley Ducote, performer
- BEAST FEaST Festival of Music and Ideas — University of Birmingham, UK. April 28, 2017. Xenia Pestova, performer
- International Computer Music Conference — University of North Texas. September 25, 2015. Keith Kirchoff, performer
- 28th Music Biennale Zagreb — April 22, 2015. Terezija Cukrov, performer
- Bowling Green New Music Festival — October 19, 2013. Jeff Manchur, performer
- Studio 300 Digital Art & Music Festival— Transylvania University. October 4, 2013. Jeff Manchur, performer
- Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium — August 14, 2013. Joseph Ferretti, performer
- Opensound concert series — Somerville, MA. April 27, 2013. Keith Kirchoff, performer
- SEAMUS National Conference — McNally Smith College of Music. April 20, 2013. Keith Kirchoff, performer
- “Tutti” New Music Festival — Denison University. February 23, 2013. Jeff Manchur, performer
- Helianthus Ensemble — Fisch Haus Studios, Wichita, KS. December 1, 2012. Laura Hrivnak, performer
- Helianthus Ensemble — University of Kansas. November 30, 2012. Laura Hrivnak, performer
- MidAmerica Nazarene University — November 27, 2012. Kari Johnson, performer
- Electronic Music Midwest — Lewis University. October 12, 2012. Adam Marks, performer
- KC Fringe Festival — Kansas City, MO. July 28, 2012. Kari Johnson, performer
- Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance — Kansas City, MO. April 21, 2012. Kari Johnson, performer
| Wunderkind_SCORE.pdf |