June in Buffalo 2022 Senior Composer: Olivier Pasquet

We are pleased to welcome Olivier Pasquet as one of the senior composers at the 2022 edition of June in Buffalo!

Olivier Pasquet is a composer, music producer and visual artist. His work is based on the writing of audio visual compositions and synesthesia. His generative pieces are minimalistic and maximalistic at the same time and contextualized within rationalist theory-fictions. The latter can be deciphered through singular pieces or the overall artistic research. The formal and plastic value of his work provides strong links with geometry, architectural and algorithmic designs. His compositions can be sound-based, visual or material. Olivier Pasquet first practices music writing on his own. After composition studies in Cambridge with Richard Hoadley, lectures with Trevor Wishart and Iannis Xenakis, he works in several popular music studios and does a short visit at INA-GRM. 

He got his PhD in musical composition and non-standard architecture at Huddersfield University with Pierre Alexandre Tremblay. He orientates his work toward staged, contemporary music and media art. He collaborates with a wide variety of other artists mostly at IRCAM-Centre Pompidou for several decades. He confronts his sonic compositions with reality thru performance art; dance, opera, music and contemporary theatre. His pieces also materialize themselves under the form of plastic installations and purely electronic music. They are played, sometimes danced, in concert halls, galleries, clubs, or specific sites worldwide. 

Olivier Pasquet taught interactive arts and computational design at Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, theater-music at Théâtre National de Strasbourg etc. He also has been, or is, guest professor at the National Taiwan University of the Arts, the Hochschule der Künste Bern or NY Buffalo University. He has been a researcher at Tokyo University with Philippe Codognet, Keio and Buffalo with David Felder. He worked at Sony CSL and Ableton as a consultant. He received several prizes and residencies such as Villa Médicis, Tokyo Wonder Site, Arcadi, residencies both in Chili and Taiwan. He received the Creative Art Initiative for Frank Lloyd Wright and Toshiko Mori’s buildings in 2018, the FB price for “Momemtum of AI Creation” in 2021. Besides commissions, he is currently research associate at the Zurich University of the Arts’ Institute for Computer Music and part of the European Flucoma research project.

Olivier Pasquet's work can be found here.

"Steve Reich and More at June in Buffalo"

Allan Kozinn, writing about June in Buffalo for The New York Times, weighed in with some interesting observations gleaned from attending seminars led by Olivier Pasquet and Steve Reich. In the course of his thoughtful article, Kozinn touched on a hot topic in the new music world: where the boundaries lie between popular and classical music. Writes Kozinn, "Mr. Pasquet edged onto a fascinating subject when he played examples rooted in techno but meant to be heard as concert music. Mr. Pasquet described this style as 'nonacademic contemporary music,' an awkward description for a gray area that has become pretty crowded recently."

Kozinn also reported remarks by Reich regarding Popcorn Superhet Receiver, an orchestral work by Jonny Greenwood, the guitarist for Radiohead and the composer of the soundtrack score for There Will Be Blood.

“He is an interesting and serious guy,” Mr. Reich said of Mr. Greenwood (at right). “I suggest that instead of thinking in terms of popular music and classical music, we are going to be thinking more in terms of notated music and non-notated music. Instrumentation is no longer a defining issue.” 

Slee Glee

As is customary for June in Buffalo, UB's own Slee Sinfonietta plays a key role in the concert schedule this year, serving up two programs of music by JiB master composers. On June 2, James Baker leads the ensemble in David Felder's Tweener, Olivier Pasquet's Kasper, 6 Piano Etudes by Augusta Read Thomas, and Roger Reynolds's Aspiration.  

On June 4, Brad Lubman conducts the Slee Sinfonietta in works by Harvey Sollberger (New Millennium Memo), Felder (Partial [Dist]res[s]toration and Canzone XXXI), Thomas (Carillon Sky), and Bernard Rands (Now again - fragments from Sappho). Julia Bentley is the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Rands, and violinist Yuki Numata takes the solo role in Thomas's piece.  You can hear excerpts from Carillon Sky here and here.  

In case you're unfamiliar with the group, the Slee Sinfonietta is the professional chamber orchestra in residence at the University at Buffalo and the flagship ensemble of the Center for 21st Century Music. Founded in 1997 by David Felder, it is comprised of UB faculty artists, visiting artists, regional professionals and advanced performance students. Others activities include tours, professionally produced recordings, and unique concert experiences for regional and international audiences alike.