Sorry for the delay in posting about Day 4. It was another busy (but short) day, and then we all had to travel home afterwards.
I woke up early & got all packed up and headed down to the lobby. Armen Ra was outside, so we chatted for a bit about how much fun the festival was (and theraputic - the perfect term, thanks Armen!). Steve Burnett also joined us, and then I took off to towards the Orange Peel around 10am so I could load up my Ethervox and other misc. gear before everyone else got there. The morning's brunch was just being set up, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and got to work. While I was loading, the guys from Barbez arrived. Their show the night before was amazing, and it was great to be able to tell them in person. Slowly, more people trickled in... Jen from New York, Victoria and Ann from Colorado, Paul from Wisconsin... It was nice to have a relaxed morning to finish conversations, take more pictures, and wind down.
Wilco Botermans gave us a 45-minute wrap up of his "Using the theremin as a controller" talk. Again, it was just as fascinating as the previous day's edition. He showed us around Max MSP, a software package for processing audio, control signals, and MIDI notes. Jon Bernhardt joined him to gave a quick demo of controlling a bouncing ball on a video screen using the theremin. Very inspirational!
Next, Herbert Deutsch gave us some closing comments & said some wonderful words about his dear friend, Bob Moog. He shared a funny story about a time when he had been called as an expert witness for the U.S. government in a trial where Casio was suing to have their keyboards classified as "electronic equipment" instead of "musical instruments" in order to classify for lower import duties. It turns out Casio had hired Bob Moog as THEIR expert witness to argue that synthesizers were NOT musical instruments! His point was that you don't make physical contact with the noise generation component of the instrument (like a vibrating string or the head of a drum). I had never thought about this before, I'll admit.
Next, Ileana (Bob Moog's wife) spoke for a few minutes. She thanked everyone for the fesitival and assured us Bob was disappointed he couldn't attend. She reminded us about the caringbridge.com site to get updates on his health, and unfortunately gave us the bad news that his tumor has apparently been resistant to the radiation and chemotherapy thus far. This was the toughest part of the festival by far, and I could see several teary eyes among the attendees.
Next, the winner of the theremin composition contest was announced: Elizabeth Brown's "Airpiece" took the top prize of $1000! Congratulations Elizabeth! All of the top 5 entries I heard were simply incredible and all deserved to win in my opinion.
Mike Adams wrapped up the fetival with some closing thank-yous and let us know that next year's festival is already scheduled for August 3-6. So, no more excuses about not having enough planning time :) We took a group photo (I'll upload all my pictures very soon), said our goodbyes, and headed home. I was a bit rushed, so I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone personally. So here goes... Thank you all for attending, for putting up with me snapping photos in your faces, for sharing your theremin techniques, philosophies, dreams, and your music. Everybody I met was fascinating and I would have loved to spend SO much more time with you all. I hope to see you back next year!
I woke up early & got all packed up and headed down to the lobby. Armen Ra was outside, so we chatted for a bit about how much fun the festival was (and theraputic - the perfect term, thanks Armen!). Steve Burnett also joined us, and then I took off to towards the Orange Peel around 10am so I could load up my Ethervox and other misc. gear before everyone else got there. The morning's brunch was just being set up, so I grabbed a cup of coffee and got to work. While I was loading, the guys from Barbez arrived. Their show the night before was amazing, and it was great to be able to tell them in person. Slowly, more people trickled in... Jen from New York, Victoria and Ann from Colorado, Paul from Wisconsin... It was nice to have a relaxed morning to finish conversations, take more pictures, and wind down.
Wilco Botermans gave us a 45-minute wrap up of his "Using the theremin as a controller" talk. Again, it was just as fascinating as the previous day's edition. He showed us around Max MSP, a software package for processing audio, control signals, and MIDI notes. Jon Bernhardt joined him to gave a quick demo of controlling a bouncing ball on a video screen using the theremin. Very inspirational!
Next, Herbert Deutsch gave us some closing comments & said some wonderful words about his dear friend, Bob Moog. He shared a funny story about a time when he had been called as an expert witness for the U.S. government in a trial where Casio was suing to have their keyboards classified as "electronic equipment" instead of "musical instruments" in order to classify for lower import duties. It turns out Casio had hired Bob Moog as THEIR expert witness to argue that synthesizers were NOT musical instruments! His point was that you don't make physical contact with the noise generation component of the instrument (like a vibrating string or the head of a drum). I had never thought about this before, I'll admit.
Next, Ileana (Bob Moog's wife) spoke for a few minutes. She thanked everyone for the fesitival and assured us Bob was disappointed he couldn't attend. She reminded us about the caringbridge.com site to get updates on his health, and unfortunately gave us the bad news that his tumor has apparently been resistant to the radiation and chemotherapy thus far. This was the toughest part of the festival by far, and I could see several teary eyes among the attendees.
Next, the winner of the theremin composition contest was announced: Elizabeth Brown's "Airpiece" took the top prize of $1000! Congratulations Elizabeth! All of the top 5 entries I heard were simply incredible and all deserved to win in my opinion.
Mike Adams wrapped up the fetival with some closing thank-yous and let us know that next year's festival is already scheduled for August 3-6. So, no more excuses about not having enough planning time :) We took a group photo (I'll upload all my pictures very soon), said our goodbyes, and headed home. I was a bit rushed, so I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone personally. So here goes... Thank you all for attending, for putting up with me snapping photos in your faces, for sharing your theremin techniques, philosophies, dreams, and your music. Everybody I met was fascinating and I would have loved to spend SO much more time with you all. I hope to see you back next year!
