Pulaski Skyway
by Matt Marvuglio

Radio Etude
by Richard Boulanger and Dean Anderson

Concerto for Virtual Orchestra

by Richard Boulanger
I. Awaken
II. Wonder
III. Challenge
IV. Desire
V. Forgive
VI. Hope

About the Berklee Virtual Orchestra

For years now, Boston’s contemporary music scene has featured players from
_Berklee College of Music in ensembles such as Collage, Boston Musica Viva, the
Boston Ballet, and the Boston Pops. In 1991, Berklee launched its own contemporary
ensemble—the Berklee Virtual Orchestra.

The BVO combines the intimacy and virtuosity of a chamber ensemble with the
rich timbral palette and raw power of a symphony orchestra. Through technology,
each musician is transformed from a soloist into a complete section—interactively and
instantaneously. In the BVO, the computer plays an active and central role “listening”
to what is played, “generating” its own musical ideas, and “playing” them back in
response to what it “hears.” Thus, the BVO represents the first in a new generation of
cybernetic ensembles—an ensemble whose use of intelligent instruments both extends
and transforms traditional performance gestures into complex and beautiful
soundscapes.

The Music

Pulaski Skyway receives its name from early “Star Trek” influences and a
famous motorway in Bayonne, New Jersey. The composition was conceived as a
virtuostic improvisational display for the BVO featuring percussionist Dean Anderson.
All members of the orchestra play through a Macintosh computer real-time perfor-
mance program, Sybil, which maps various MIDI events by transposing pitches, chord
progressions, and scales that can be looped and used as a basis for improvisation. This
piece was written as a showpiece for the BVO'’s new Bose sound system.

Radio Etude is a dialog between improvising musicians and intelligent instru-
ments. The intelligence of these instruments is derived from two revolutionary
inventions of the father of computer music, Max Mathews. The first is a MIDI conduct-