Wonderful things my colleagues are doing, Part I

Get set in early November for the Extensible Toy Piano Festival at Clark University! Matt Malsky from our music department set this up together with David Claman from the music department of our sister school, Holy Cross. Composers were offered, via the internet, a set of recorded samples from a classic Schoenhut upright toy piano and invited to assemble them into original pieces. John Cage had already explored its potential in his 1948 Suite for Toy Piano. The aim of this project is to "bring the instrument into the 21st Century," combining its unique sound with the interactive potential offered by computer networks. On November 4 and 5, there will be performances of the selected compositions and there will be a symposium with a keynote address to be given by Kyle Gann.