First Brazilian Symposium on Computers and Music, 2-4 August 1994, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Review by Silvia Matheus
The first Brazilian Symposium on Computers and Music was held in Caxambu, a resort town in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was organized by NUCOM (Brazilian Computer Music Society) and was part of the XIV Congress of Brazilian Computer Society. It was successfully organized by a small and diligent group of musicians and researchers. The symposium organizing committee included Mauricio Loureiro, Eduardo Miranda, Edinburg University, Geber Ramalho, University of paris, jamary de oliveira, Federal university of Bahia, Wilson de Paula, Federal university of minas Gerais and Aluisio Arcela Unuversity of Brazilia. and Nivio Ziviani from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, and NUCOM coordinator Geber Ramalho from University of Paris. The program was arranged by an organizing committee comprised of Aluizio Arcela(), Eduardo Miranda,() Jamary Oliveira,() Wilson de Padua de Paula Filho(), and a concert committee comprised of Conrado Silva,() Francisco Kropfl,() Mauricio Loreiro and Robert Willey(). Among the invited guests was Stephen Travis Pope from CNMAT.
NUCOM (Brazilian Computer Music Society) was created in 1993 with the objective to promote computer music in Brazil. It is the main facilitator of communication among Brazilian artists and researchers interested in this field, and it facilitates exchange of information relating to computer music through collaborations with foreigners. It also acts as a forum where the activities of its members from Brazil are presented.
Thirtyfour selected papers in the field were presented. Some of the diverse number of topics presented included: analytical musicology, linguistics, electronics, artificial intelligence, psycho-acoustic and cognitive models. An important part of the conference were the six concerts at which were introduced a total of fourty-six new compositions by Brazilian and forein composers.
There were two panel discussions where the current state of the computer music in Brazil was debated. The first was titled 'Perspectives of Educational Programs in Computer Music in Brazil'. It addressed the problems of developing suitable educational programs and the difficulties associated with raising adequete financial support to finance the efforts. Panel members included ---- The second panel was centered around the research effords in computer music with panel members, Conrado Silva, David Jaffe, Dexer Morril.
The highlight of the concerts was the presence of an excellent ensemble of seven musician called "Groupo de Musica Contemporanea" from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, organized and directed by Mauricio Loreiro.
The participants at the conference came mostly from Latin American countries, but quite a few Europeans, Americans and a few Asians were present as well. They came from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Denmark, France, Italy, USA, and Hong Kong, to name a few. Most of the talks were presented in Portuguese or English.
Because of the broad spectrum of the talks and some compositions which were somewhat unrelated to computer music, the conference lost a bit of its focus. Many participants found that the main benefit of the conference was the personal exchange of ideas between musicians and computer scientists. The mixing of people from Brazil with people from Latin American and European contries helped expose Brazilian society to the latest reseach developments in the field of computer music. The conference left a lasting impression on many of the participants and will greatly facilitate future exchange with outside countries in the future.
The Conference was successful and funding has already been secured for a Second Brazilian Symposium on Computers and Music to be organized by the same committee in 1995. It will be held in ---.
I would like to name the participantes and their respective talk. Systems and laguages for syntheses, Signal Processing: and Sound Transformation Celso Aguilar,Joao Fernando Marar and Edson dos Santos Moreira, Agostino Di Scipio and Ignazio Prognano, Carlos Cerana, Andrew Choi, Aluizio Arcela, Marcio da Costa Pereira Brandao, Carlos Augusto, Jonata Manzolli.
Thanks to Fernando Iazzetta providing input to this article.