Alumnus R. Benjamin Sutherland joins Howard Sandroff at computer music opening

Alumnus R. Benjamin Sutherland (A.M. ’97, Ph.D. ’01) joined composer Howard Sandroff to inaugurate the Regenstein Library’s new exhibition, The Music of Howard Sandroff and the Computer Music Studio, with a performance of “Improv for Computer and Sound Sculpture."

R. Benjamin Sutherland is a percussionist, as well as a composer, and he performed on Howard Sandroff’s recent untitled metal sound sculpture while Sandroff himself performed the computer manipulations.

While a student at Chicago, Sutherland was a composition student of Shulamit Ran, John Eaton and Marta Ptaszynska, and Sandroff’s assistant in the Computer Music Studio. Sutherland's compositional interests are centered around electro-acoustic and experimental systems and include classical, film, popular and "underground" genres. Sutherland is currently Assistant Professor with the Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago.

The performance took place on Tuesday February 21st at the Regenstein Library. The exhibition is in the Regenstein Library’s 3rd Floor Reading Room, and documents the history of electronic and computer music at the University of Chicago, including the Sandroff Sound Sculpture, photos, scores and CD's. Curated by Bibliographer for Music Scott Landvatter, the exhibition runs through June 2012.