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Carnegie Mellon University's Exploded Ensemble hosts virtual, interactive concert | TribLIVE.com
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Carnegie Mellon University's Exploded Ensemble hosts virtual, interactive concert

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop
3180948_web1_PTR-CMUENSEMBLE-1
Courtesy of Justin Merriman for Carnegie Mellon University
A musician plays drums during the SubSurface: Site Specific Sight & Sound arts festival in December 2017 in Brady’s Bend Underground Storage, a limestone mine in East Brady .
3180948_web1_PTR-CMUENSEMBLE-2
Courtesy of Justin Merriman for Carnegie Mellon University
A musician plays drums during the SubSurface: Site Specific Sight & Sound arts festival in December 2017 in Brady’s Bend Underground Storage, a limestone mine in East Brady .

Audience participation from afar is highly suggested for this performance.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Exploded Ensemble will play a live concert at 7 p.m. Sunday on Twitch.tv, a livestreaming platform for gamers that has become a virtual vehicle for other interactive events.

According to its website, Exploded Ensemble is the university’s hybrid music research wing, fusing traditional orchestral performance with experimental, electronic, multi-media and non-Western approaches to live music performance.

This virtual performance is part of the university’s plan to provide safe arts engagement opportunities during the pandemic.

The audience will be able to determine different aspects of the show in real time. Attendees can vote on the order of the concert, control the video, set colors, create text overlays and change the sound mix and effects.

The ensemble is part of CMU’s Integrative Design, Arts and Technology Network.

Musicians to play from across the globe

Musicians will be performing from home across the world, said Jesse Stiles, co-director of the ensemble and associate professor of sound media within CMU’s School of Music and part of the Integrative Design, Arts and Technology Network.

Instruments include violin, flute, upright bass, electric bass, guitar, percussion synthesizer and electronic keyboards.

There’s also performance by a robot.

“At the beginning of the semester, we were thinking of new things for the ensemble to explore,” said Stiles. “With the pandemic there are some incredible changes taking place. Our lives have been transformed.”

The audience can participate via a chat window and “like” buttons. The concert is free. Participants must register to comment on choosing the order of the pieces and some of the sounds effects.

Stiles and Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, co-director of the ensemble, assistant teaching professor of music within the CMU’s School of Music and part of the Integrative Design, Arts and Technology Network, wanted to transform performance interactions into something that radically changed the audience experience.

This isn’t the first time the ensemble has done a non-traditional performance. It has played in a museum and an underground limestone mine.

3180948_web1_ptr-cmuensemble
Courtesy of Justin Merriman for Carnegie Mellon University
A musician plays drums during the SubSurface: Site Specific Sight & Sound arts festival in December 2017 in Brady’s Bend Underground Storage, a limestone mine in East Brady .

The students are well versed in using digital tools in unique spaces, Stiles said. The internet will be the latest performance venue for the group. “We are going to test this to see how far an audience will go,” Hui-Hsin Hsieh said. “I think it will be an interesting social experiment.”

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.

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Categories: AandE | Coronavirus | Local | Music | Pittsburgh
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