Music BYTES Concert to Feature ''60X60: Midwest Composers '' Project

Published: September 21, 2005.

Lewis University will present Music BYTES on Friday, September 30 at 2 p.m. Open to the public and free of charge, the concert, which showcases some of the best electroacoustic music in the world, will be held in Ives Hall of the Oremus Fine Arts Center on the Lewis main campus.

A biannual event, Music BYTES was first held in the fall of 2001, under the direction of Dr. Mike McFerron, Associate Professor and Composer-In-Residence at Lewis. Since its beginning, Music BYTES has presented numerous electroacoustic music compositions, including world premieres, new releases, and works by students.

This fall’s concert will consist of music which is part of the “60X60: Midwest Composers” project. Robert Voisey, a composer living in New York, solicited stereo compositions that are one minute or less, and then compiled and ordered 60 of these works into one continuous 60-minute program known as “60X60” – 60 compositions, each under 60 seconds or less, creating a 60-minute concert.

Pieces included in the “60X60” project are performed in succession without pause for the one-hour concert. The performance is played in conjunction with a synchronized analog clock to mark the passing of time. At the top of each minute in the hour the domain of space for the composer has begun. Composers who have written works less than 60 seconds long are strategically and artistically placed within that minute; the rest of the minute is filled with silence until the next minute begins.

One of the unique qualities of Music BYTES is that the length of the musical pieces presented are always reasonably short. In total, the concert usually runs no longer than one hour.

Music BYTES is offered as part of Lewis University’s Arts & Ideas series, a community cultural and educational program presenting a series of performances, lectures, seminars and concerts to students and the community, free of charge or at a nominal fee. For more information, call (815) 836-5482.