Home / Events / Princeton Electronic Music Festival Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of PLOrk

Please consult our COVID-19 policies and resources for guidance on attending public performances.

Princeton Electronic Music Festival Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of PLOrk

Latest News

Elizabeth Margulis on the Frontiers of Music Cognition

Learn more

date & time

Sun, Feb 23, 2025
5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

location

Lee Rehearsal Room, Lewis Arts Complex

ticketing

Free, Unticketed

  • This event has passed.
Come to the first event in the Princeton Electronic Music Festival: a series of events celebrating the 20th Anniversary of PLOrk, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra!

This event is a “mini-symposium” on the topic of physical modeling for audio, exploring research into using simulations of acoustic instruments and objects to generate electronic sound. Guests include Stefania Serafin, who studies ways to integrate physical models of sound environments into VR, Max Neupert and Clemens Wagner of CHAIR audio, who create audio plugins that model percussion instruments like cymbals and have created an analog synthesizer module that reproduces digital waveguide techniques in the analog domain. Alumnus Emily Liushen will return to play the Birl electronic wind instrument, and Jeff Snyder will perform on the Electrosteel pedal steel synthesizer.

Two events make up the symposium: first a workshop takes place in the CST Studiolab on Friday, Feb 21 from 10am-1pm (you’ll learn to program up a physical modeling using PureData), then a public concert/talk happens in the Lee Room of the Effron Music Building on Sunday, Feb 23rd from 5:30pm-7:30pm.

Both events are free and unticketed, and open to the public.
Details:
workshop:
CST Studiolab in Fine Hall
10am-1pm
Friday, Feb 21
talks/performance:
Lee Rehearsal Room in the Effron Music Building
5:30pm-7:30pm
Sunday, Feb 23

 

PLOrk: Princeton Laptop Orchestra: First performing in 2006, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, or PLOrk, takes the traditional model of the orchestra and reinvents it for the 21st century. Each laptopist performs with a laptop and custom designed hemispherical speaker that emulates the way traditional orchestral instruments cast their sound in space. Wireless networking and video augment the familiar role of the conductor, suggesting unprecedented ways of organizing large ensembles.

Originally founded by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, the group is currently directed by composer and instrument designer Jeff Snyder and features new electronic instruments that arise from his research. Performers and composers who have worked with PLOrk include Zakir Hussain, Pauline Oliveros, Matmos, Sō Percussion, the American Composers Orchestra, and others. In the past 11 years, PLOrk has performed widely — presented by Carnegie Hall, the Northwestern Spring Festival in Chicago, the American Academy of Sciences in DC, the Kitchen (NYC), 92Y and others — and has inspired the formation of laptop orchestras across the world, from Oslo to Bangkok.

« Back to events calendar

PLOrk: Princeton Laptop Orchestra: First performing in 2006, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, or PLOrk, takes the traditional model of the orchestra and reinvents it for the 21st century. Each laptopist performs with a laptop and custom designed hemispherical speaker that emulates the way traditional orchestral instruments cast their sound in space. Wireless networking and video augment the familiar role of the conductor, suggesting unprecedented ways of organizing large ensembles.

Originally founded by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, the group is currently directed by composer and instrument designer Jeff Snyder and features new electronic instruments that arise from his research. Performers and composers who have worked with PLOrk include Zakir Hussain, Pauline Oliveros, Matmos, Sō Percussion, the American Composers Orchestra, and others. In the past 11 years, PLOrk has performed widely — presented by Carnegie Hall, the Northwestern Spring Festival in Chicago, the American Academy of Sciences in DC, the Kitchen (NYC), 92Y and others — and has inspired the formation of laptop orchestras across the world, from Oslo to Bangkok.

back to events calendar