High honor for HfMT professor
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Alexander Schubert, who studied multimedia composition with Georg Hajdu and Manfred Stahnke at the HfMT until 2010, has won the prestigious Golden Nica at Ars Electronica in the Digital Music and Sound Art category
Alexander Schubert holds a Dr. sc. mus. doctorate from the HfMT and has held a deputy professorship here for 3 years.
From the statement of the jury for awarding the prize:
"Alexander Schubert's work Convergence consists of a complex experimental arrangement in which a computer voice asks the instrumentalists to perform certain activities in order to scan them. The process of scanning creates a digitally parameterized representation of the person and their activities in the computer, which on the one hand is only a part of reality, but on the other hand can be manipulated and assembled into a new representation. (...) The consistent aesthetics, the dramaturgical power, the chosen concept and the skillful integration of all technical and aesthetic means led the jury to the decision to award the Golden Nica in the Digital Musics & Sound Art category of the Prix Ars Electronica 2021 to Alexander Schubert's work Convergence."
The Ars Electronica is a festival for the presentation and promotion of art in close connection with (digital) technology and social issues, which takes place annually in Linz (Upper Austria). It is organized by Ars Electronica Linz GmbH, an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, which was founded in Linz in 1979. It is based in the Ars Electronica Center, which houses the Museum of the Future, in the city of Linz. Ars Electronica's activities focus on the interactions between art, technology and society.
Vita
Alexander Schubert, born in Bremen in 1979, studied computer science and cognitive science in Leipzig. At the same time, he worked as a musician and composer in various contexts. After working for a year at the ZKM in Karlsruhe at the Institute for Music and Acoustics, he studied multimedia composition with Georg Hajdu and Manfred Stahnke at the University of Music and Drama in Hamburg until 2010. Since then he has been a doctoral student in the field of sensor-based electroacoustic performance, teaches at the Lübeck University of Music and works as a freelance composer.
He is fundamentally concerned with the interface of acoustic and electronic music across genres. Formally notated live electronic compositions and tape works are just as much a part of his work as the design of software setups and sensor-based expansion of instruments for intuitive operation in an improvised context (e.g. "Weapon of Choice"). An ongoing focus is the combination of improvised and notated music - both on a structural and aesthetic level (e.g. "Superimpose-Zyklus"). Various works feature multimedia and graphic elements - for example in pieces for soloists and live video (e.g. "Laplace Tiger") and in interactive installations (e.g. "Some forgotten Patterns").
In addition to his work as a composer, he is also active as an improviser in various ensembles, such as the electro-acoustic free jazz quartet "Emder". Schubert has contributed to numerous scenic projects as a musician, composer and programmer (e.g. for Wiener Festspielwochen, Berliner Staatsoper, MDR, SWR). Alexander Schubert runs the Ahornfelder label for experimental audio and book publications.
He was invited as a guest artist at the ZKM in Karlsruhe in 2008. In 2009 he was awarded the Bourses Residency Prize, won the international JTTP competition and received an ICMC scholarship in Montreal. In 2010 he is a resident artist at the University of Birmingham and a fellow of the Darmstadt Summer Course. He has received commissions from the International Music Institute Darmstadt, the NDR / Ensemble Resonanz, IRCAM Paris and the Ensemble Intégrales, among others. His works have been performed by the Ictus Ensemble, Nadar Ensemble, Ensemble Intégrales, Ensemble Mosaik, Barbara Lüneburg, John Eckhardt and the Decoder Ensemble, among others. His works have been performed in over 20 countries, including: IRCAM Paris, NIME Sydney, ICMC, ZKM Karlsruhe, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Steinhart School New York, Essl Museum Vienna, Deutschlandfunk Cologne, SMC Porto, MDR, Wiener Festwochen, Komponistenforum Mittersill, TU Berlin, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Akousma Montreal, Klangwerktage Hamburg, EMM Kansas, ARD Hörspieltage, Ljubljana, USA, England, Spain, Tunisia.