George Lewis (2022): Forager

Composed by George Lewis (2022), for quintet and interactive pianist.
Recorded live at George Lewis in Residence: World Premiere concert at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 25 November 2022.
Performers:
Leah Wing (flute)
Robyn Saunders (bass clarinet)
Andrew Farrow (trumpet)
Ross McDonnell (trombone)
Jack Adler-McKean (tuba)
Voyager
Recorded by Royal Northern College of Music and edited by Bofan Ma.
//
'Forager' is a new RNCM PRiSM commission, as part of George Lewis' year-long artistic residency at PRiSM & the RNCM. Working with the PRiSM team as well as New York-based artist-technologist Damon Holzborn, Lewis' Forager features a machine-learning enhanced version of his earlier development 'Voyager - the interactive pianist' that is able to recognise musical gestures and therefore make improvisatory decisions accordingly.
This work is supported by PRiSM, the Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music at the Royal Northern College of Music, funded by the
Research England fund Expanding Excellence in England (E3).
//
Further info:
Professor George Lewis (RNCM PRiSM Artist in Residence & Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology, Columbia University) is known internationally as one of the pioneers in the field of computer-driven, interactive compositions and performance practice.
He first developed the Voyager system between 1985 and 1987 at the Studio for Elektro-Instrumemtale Muziek (STEIM) in Amsterdam, building on the earlier Rainbow Family system he developed and premiered at IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) in Paris between 1982 and 1984.
Widely referred to as the ‘virtual improvising pianist’, the Voyager system analyses aspects of the musical environment in real time, using that analysis to guide an automatic ‘improvisation’ program that generates both complex responses to input and independent behaviour that arises from its own internal processes. It is one of Lewis’ most frequently presented works, and a secondary scientific, musicological, and even philosophical literature has sprung up around it over the years.
//
Forager Project Team:
Professor George Lewis (composer & lead researcher)
Professor Emily Howard (director PRiSM & project supervisor)
Professor David De Roure (computer scientist & research software engineer)
Dr Christopher Melen (research software engineer)
Dr Damon Holzborn (research software engineer)
Dr Bofan Ma (research assistant & project manager)
With additional thanks to:
Research England
Royal Northern College of Music
Yamaha UK
Edition Peters
Forsyths Ltd
//
Copyright info:
George Lewis (2022): Forager
EP 68838
© 2022 by C. F. Peters Corporation, New York
Licensed courtesy of Peters Edition Limited, London.
All rights reserved.
For non-commercial use for PRiSM only.