Sixty years of electroacoustic music in Chile

by Tinker Visiting Professor Rodrigo Cádiz

Electroacoustic music is usually thought of as an European art form, but it has been of great interest to Latin American composers since its inception. Chile has been a pioneer country in this regard. In 1956, the chilean composer León Schidlowsky wrote "Nacimiento",  the first electroacustic work composed in the country, giving "birth" to a new era of musical creation in the region. A few years later, José Vicente Asuar composed the first electronic piece in Latin America. Sixty years have passed since those founding milestones, with very intense periods and very dark ones. In this talk, I would like to provide a brief panoramic view of the history of this particular genre of music in Chile, giving special focus to the post-dictatorial years and its present state.

Rodrigo F. Cádiz is a composer, researcher and engineer. He studied composition and electrical engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago and he obtained his Ph.D. in Music Technology from Northwestern University. His compositions, consisting of approximately 40 works, have been presented at several venues and festivals in Latin America, North America and Europe. His catalogue considers works for solo instruments, chamber music, symphonic and robot orchestras, visual music, computers, and new interfaces for musical expression, in particular brain-computer interfaces and the Arcontinuo, a new electronic musical instrument he has been working on with two more colleagues for the past 10 years. He has received several composition prizes and artistic grants both in Chile and the US.  Cádiz has authored around 40 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and international conferences. His areas of expertise include sonification, sound synthesis, audio digital processing, computer and electroacoustic music, composition, new interfaces for musical expression and the musical applications of complex systems. He has obtained research funds from Chilean governmental agencies, such as the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (Fondecyt) and the National Council of Culture and the Arts (CNCA). He recently received a Google Latin American Research Award (LARA) in the field of auditory graphs. At Stanford, Cádiz will be a composer in residence with the Stanford Laptop orchestra (SLOrk) at the Center for Computer-based Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), and a Tinker Visiting Professor at the Center for Latin American Studies.

Professor Rodrigo F. Cádiz is teaching MUSIC 154F: Electroacoustic Music Analysis in spring 2018.