Darien Brito (*1987) is a sound artist, multimedia programmer and audiovisual performer. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition and a Master of Music in Sonology, both from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague . Darien is fascinated by micro-sound, machine learning, generative art and complex systems. He is interested in a pragmatic approach to performance, focusing on artistic work less guided by concepts and rather founded in strong sensorial experiences.
As a composer and sound artist, Darien has created works for many different formats: from solo-instrument pieces and chamber music to electronics, music for theatre, film and opera, as well as for contemporary dance and installations. As an audiovisual artist, he focuses on the creation of immersive live performances using generative audio, real-time computer graphics and light.
In parallel, he is actively engaged in teaching by giving workshops on various software and programming languages, publishing open-source tools and giving lectures on subjects related to his current practice.
Darien is constantly involved in multidisciplinary collaborations using technology and currently works as freelance creative coder and software consultant for Slagwerk Den Haag, Resolume and y=f(x) studio.
Arne Deforce is renowned for his passionate and unparalleled performances of contemporary and experimental music. His inventive programmes explore new musical forms of expression in which the discovery of the ‘Other’ of the cello and the act of an uninhibited creative listening is foremost. As a musician and researcher, he is fascinated by how, at the intersection between music, art, science and technology, new concepts and relationships in music can be developed between the instrument, musical gesture and electronics. His repertoire is focused mainly on solo and chamber music, with a special interest in works by composers such as Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
His remarkable discography – Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, Iannis Xenakis, Richard Barrett, Pascal Dusapin (Aeon-Outhere); Jonathan Harvey (Megadisc); Phill Niblock (Touch); Mika Vaino (Mego) – has received international acclaim (five Diapasons d’Or, Coup de coeur de l’Académie Charles Cros, and in 2012 the Prix Caecilia).
Cathy van Eck (*1979) is a composer, sound artist, and researcher in the arts. She focuses on composing relationships between everyday objects, human performers, and sound. Her artistic work includes performances with live electronics and installations with sound objects which she often designs herself. She is interested in setting her gestures into unusual and surprising relationships with sounds, mainly by electronic means. The result could be called “performative sound art”, since it combines elements from performance art, electronic music, and visual arts. Her work transcends genres and is presented at occasions as diverse as experimental or electronic music concerts, open air festivals, sound art gallery venues, digital art events, or performance art festivals.
Since 2007, Cathy has a teaching position at the Department for Sound Arts of the University of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland. She is a regular guest lecturer at other art and music universities. In her PhD-research “Between Air and Electricity” (supervisors Richard Barrett, Marcel Cobussen and Frans de Ruiter; accepted in 2013 by Leiden University, Netherlands), she investigated the use of microphones and loudspeakers as musical instruments. Her book Between Air and Electricity – Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments has been published in 2017.
Sergio Luque (*1976) is a composer of vocal, instrumental and electroacoustic music, and a researcher in computer music. He lives in Madrid where he co-directs and teaches in the Master in Electroacoustic Composition programme at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska.
He is a member of the National System of Art Creators of Mexico and his music has been performed by the Schönberg Ensemble, the Nieuw Ensemble, Garth Knox, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Les Jeunes Solistes, among others.
He has a PhD in Musical Composition from the University of Birmingham, where he studied with Jonty Harrison and Scott Wilson, and was a member of BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre).
In 2006, he received a master’s degree with distinction in Sonology, with specialisation in Composition, studying with Paul Berg and Kees Tazelaar. In 2004, he received a master’s degree in Composition from Codarts in Rotterdam, studying with Klaas de Vries and René Uijlenhoet. In 2003, he studied with Klaus Huber at Centre Acanthes in France. He has a bachelor’s degree in Composition from the Musical Studies and Research Center (CIEM, Mexico), where he studied with Víctor Rasgado, Vincent Carver and Alejandro Velasco. From 2000 to 2003, he studied with Ignacio Baca Lobera. He has participated in masterclasses with Luca Francesconi, Toshio Hosokawa and Jukka Tiensuu.
https://sergioluque.com
Sara Pinheiro (*1985) is a sound-maker. For film and video-art, she does sound recording, editing, foley and mixing. In her solo practice, she makes acousmatic pieces, usually for multichannel performances, radio broadcasts or installations. She is a member of the live-coding group K-o-l-e-k-t-i-v and collaborates with the Barrandov CinePost Studios, now PFX, and Bystrouška Sound Studios, in Prague.
She graduated in Cinema (Lisbon, 2008) and holds a Master of Music in Sonology (The Hague, 2012), where she is a guest lecturer. She has been part of the teaching committee at CAS – FAMU since 2013. Her academic work is practice-based research under the name of “Acousmatic Foley”. She is currently a Phd candidate at the College of Arts, Humanities and Business, in The School of Music and Media, at the Bangor University, UK.
http://www.sarapinheiro.com/en/
Guest lectures and workshops have been provided amongst others by: Mathew Adkins, Folkmar Hein, Konrad Boehmer †, Christopher Ariza, Wouter Snoei, Alvin Lucier, Evan Parker, Sarah Nicolls, Richard Cavell, Kaija Saariaho, Douglas Kahn, Peter Evans, Cathy van Eck, Sergio Luque, Arne Deforce, Matthew Ostrowski, Gottfried Michael Koenig †, Francisco Lopez, Larry Polansky, John Richards, James Dashow, Stefan Weinzierl, Daniel Teruggi, Erwin Roebroeks, Diemer de Vries, Lawrence Harvey, Ramón Gonzalez Arroyo, Edwin van der Heide, Barry Truax, Paul Obermayer, Darien Brito, Dario Sanfilippo, Nicholas Collins, Hillel Schwartz, Roberto Doati, Trevor Wishart, Horacio Vaggione, Peter Ablinger, Veniero Rizzardi, Volker Böhm, Kaffe Matthews and Stefano Bassanese.