ICMC acceptance, or not

I submitted my piece Triangular Vibrations to the 2008 International Computer Music Conference, in Belfast this year. I received first a provisional acceptance, and then a confirmed acceptance. I was very pleased about this, as I thought there would be a lot of competition.

But then it turned out that one has to attend the conference in order to have the work played. Unfortunately there was no mention of this in the call for pieces. I don't object to a policy of priority for those who can attend, but I would have liked an indication of this at the time I submitted the piece. I contacted the organisers, and was told "we could not have anticipated the volume of submissions that were made". So, it was very competitive.

I don't know what to conclude from this. Despite the Internet, Australia is still a long way away from Europe, in time and in dollars. For a little while I was making frequent overseas trips, but I couldn't sustain it, and I haven't been further than New Zealand for a while.

"Triangular Vibrations" on tour

Ivan Zavada from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music recently took a program of electro-acoustic music by Conservatorium composers to Sweden, and also presented a concert in Florence (Firenze) at the Conservatorio Cherubini. My piece Triangular Vibrations was played in Gävle and Stockholm in Sweden, and at the concert in Florence.

The concert in Stockholm was at Fylkingen, a long-established new and experimental music association and venue in Stockholm, which has a special emphasis on electronic music. Over the years they have presented works by many well-known composers, including Berio, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Cage, La Monte Young, David Tudor, and many more. I'm pleased to be in this company!