Caroline Nihill
Michael Gardiner, associate professor of music, performed ambient music in Bryant Hall as part of the First Tuesdays in Bryant Hall on Tuesday.
Until this point, the new series has featured classical music. The November performance was the first of its kind, with Gardiner using his computer and keyboard to generate improvised electronic music.
Gardiner has been at Ole Miss for six years and has spent most of his time researching music theory. This is his first year back to composing, and he expects to have more performances in the future.
“I would like to see this as maybe a precursor for a longer concert,” Gardiner said. “I’m also thinking of collaborating with some of the saxophone professors and flute professors here.”
Tuesday’s performance template took Gardiner a month to create but is not a blueprint for the entire progression of the concert. The outline is arranged and randomized throughout the live performance with the help of Gardiner’s laptop and keyboard.
“Describing electronic music can be very strange,” Gardiner said. “I’m interested in the sounds (and) actually how you weave them together within the software.”
Gardiner compared his process for creating his music to working in Photoshop, where tools are customizable.
Music program coordinator Lynn Wilkins attended the concert to support Gardiner in his first year composing at the university.
“Normally, we’ve had more traditional programs, even though they sometimes mixed contemporary music and traditional,” Wilkins said. “It’s fine to have something that’s just out of left field, and that kind of makes you think about sound and music in a slightly different way.”
Freshman Caroline Cross went to the concert and expressed her interest in the sound of music performed.
“It was different,” Cross said. “It was kind of spooky, but it wasn’t, like, scary. It kind of had a ‘Stranger Things’ vibe.”
The First Tuesdays in Bryant Hall is slated to have performances for the rest of the year.
