What is electroacoustic music?
CCM faculty featured on Cincinnati Spotlight
WGUC's Cincinnati Spotlight recently spoke with UC College-Conservatory of Music Composition professor Mara Helmuth about her upcoming faculty recital, "Sparkling Streams: Music for instruments and computer," on September 1.
Featuring electroacoustic works, the free event will start at 7:30 p.m. at CCM's Cohen Family Studio Theater.
But what exactly is electroacousic composition? A relatively new genre dependent on electronics, electroacoustic composition uses audio processing to manipulate the unique timbres of instruments and other sounds, as Helmuth explained.
Helmuth has been pioneering computer music composition and research for decades.
"I like to work with all levels of the computer usage, from programming — I actually programmed some of my own software — to processing sound with various applications," Helmuth told Cincinnati Spotlight.
Helmuth has been at the forefront of experimenting with audio processing for decades. Throughout her career, she has created composition applications StochGran and Patchmix, as well as the internet improvisation application Soundmesh. In 2025, Helmuth earned a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship that she is utilizing for a project on composing algorithmic music simultaneously for both computer and instruments.
"When I found the computer I felt I had really found my voice because it was so freeing," she told Cincinnati Spotlight. "You could do anything with it."
In her upcoming recital, many of the instrumental performers are also compositional contributors with Helmuth. "I love collaborating with people who really know their instruments," she said.
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Featured image at top of the Cohen Family Studio Theater.
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