Baltimore-based composer Sam Pluta comes to Conservatorium Maastricht on June 2 to talk to our composers, electronic music performers and creators about using the laptop as a performance instrument.
Sam Pluta is a Baltimore-based composer, laptop improviser, electronics performer, and sound artist. Though his work has a wide breadth, his central focus is on using the laptop as a performance instrument capable of sharing the stage with groups ranging from new music ensembles to world-class improvisers. By creating unique interactions of electronics, instruments, and sonic spaces, Pluta's vibrant musical universe fuses the traditionally separate sound worlds of acoustic instruments and electronics, creating sonic spaces which envelop the audience and resulting in a music focused on visceral interaction of instrumental performers with reactive computerized sound worlds.
As a composer of instrumental music, Sam has written works for Wet Ink Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Warsaw Autumn Festival. His compositions range from solo instrumental works to pieces for ensemble with electronics to compositions for large ensemble and orchestra. As an improviser, Sam has collaborated with some of the finest creative musicians in the world, including Peter Evans, Evan Parker, Ikue Mori, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Anne La Berge, and George Lewis.
Since 2009, Sam has been Technical Director of Wet Ink Ensemble and Artistic Director of Carrier Records. He studied composition and electronic music at Columbia University, where he received his DMA in 2012. Dr Pluta is now Associate Professor of Computer Music and Music Engineering Technology at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he directs the Peabody Computer Music Studios.