Lunch Concert 1A
After the Opening Concert of ICMC HAMBURG 2026, the regular music program begins today. This first Lunch Concert offers an insight into the current international computer music scene. What makes this event special is the personal presence of the artists: the composers are either on stage themselves or have brought the musicians they wrote for with them to Hamburg.
It is a program of short distances between idea and sound. The works demonstrate how diverse collaboration between humans and technology can be today—from the classical solo clarinet to interactive formats.
Program Overview
Tyche
Sever Tipei
AIKYAM
Claudia Robles Angel
HOTPO
Michael Edwards
Tessellae
Rodrigo Cadiz
The Center of the Universe
Sunhuimei Xia and Sunhuimei Xia
About the pieces & artists
Sever Tipei: Tyche
Tyche for Bb clarinet and fixed media is a composition generated with original software for Computer-assisted (algorithmic) Composition and sound design developed by the composer and his collaborators.
Divided into four main sections of 2-3-1-2 minutes, the work utilizes stochastic distributions, Markov chains, sieves and Just Intonation as well as detailed control of spectra, FM transients, spatialization and reverberation. A basic framework of precise proportions and deterministic procedures are complemented by random details governed by Tyche, the goddess of fortune, chance, providence and fate.
About the artist
A composer and a pianist, Sever Tipei was born in Bucharest, Romania, and immigrated in the United States in 1972. He holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan (DMA) and piano performance from Bucharest Conservatory (Diploma). Tipei taught at Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and, between 1978 and 2021, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music. After retirement Tipei continues to teach in the School of Information Sciences where he also directs the “James W. Beauchamp Computer Music Project”. He is also a National Center for Supercomputing Applications Faculty Affiliate. Between 1993 and 2003 Tipei was a Visiting Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory where he worked on the sonification of complex scientific data.
Most of his compositions were produced with software he designed: MP1 – a computer-assisted composition program first used in 1973, DIASS – for sound synthesis and M4CAVE – software for the visualization of music in an immersive virtual environment. More recently, Tipei and his collaborators have developed DISSCO, software that unifies computer-assisted (algorithmic) composition and (additive) sound synthesis into a seamless process. His compositions have been performed in the US, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom and Taiwan.
Claudia Robles Angel: AIKYAM
AIKYAM is a real-time surround sound work for 1 performer and 5 to 6 participants (audience) inspired by Kuramoto’s mathematical model of the spontaneous order or synchronisation system in nature, e.g. fireflies, heart rates or humans clapping their hands together. The term AIKYAM is based on the Sanskrit word: ऐक्यम, and it means unity or harmony.
About the artist
Born in Bogotá (Colombia), living in Cologne (Germany). Composer, sound and new media artist, her work covers different aspects of visual and sound art, extending from acousmatic and audio-visual compositions to interactive performances/installations using biomedical signals and AI (Artificial Intelligence).
She has been Artist-in-residence in several outstanding institutions around the globe. In 2022 was awarded with an honorary mention by the GIGA Hertz award at ZKM Center.
Her work has been performed and exhibited worldwide e.g. at ZKM, ISEA; KIBLA Centre Maribor, CAMP Festival – 55 Venice Biennale Salon Suisse, ICMC; New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival; NIME; STEIM; Harvestworks Digital Arts Center NYC, Heroines of Sound Berlin; Audio Art Festival Cracow; MADATAC Madrid; Athens Digital Art Festival ADAF, CMMAS Morelia; Beast FEaST Birmingham; ICST ZHdK Zurich; RE:SOUND Aalborg; Electric Spring Festival Huddersfield; AI Biennal Essen; at the Centre for International Light Art Unna and more recently at Acht Brücken Festival Cologne and at the Philharmonie Essen.
www.claudearobles.de
Michael Edwards: HOTPO
Hinting at something a little more coarse, the title HOTPO is in fact a completely innocent reference to the Collatz Conjecture. This mathematical proposition, also known by other names, refers to a succession of numbers called the hailstone sequence (or wondrous numbers), because their values usually ascend and descend like hailstones in a cloud.
Though the mathematical proof of the conjecture is complex, the proposition is very simple: Take any positive whole number; if it is even, divide it by two; if it is odd, multiply it by three and add one (hence the acronym Half Or Three Plus One: HOTPO); repeat the process with the result and you will find that no matter which number begins the process, you will always, given enough iterations, reach one.
The algorithm is easy to programme and experiment with plus it produces rather nice images when given different starting numbers and plotted over various iterations. I used the algorithm in this piece to generate section lengths and repeated structures from nine basic rhythm sequences, hence my sequence was 9 28 14 7 22 11 34 17 52 26 13 40 20 10 5 16 8 4 2 1. The piece alternates sections opposing mixed materials (odd section numbers) with obsessively repeated material (even). The numbers are also used for the generation of the sound files triggered during the performance. Despite the rather abstract nature of the generative procedure, the results of the algorithms were developed intuitively and the piece as a whole arises out of and proceeds through a maelstrom of events fitting to the imagery of a hailstorm.
HOTPO was commissioned by Henrique Portovedo for the World Saxophone Congress 2018 in Zagreb. That version included an ensemble. In 2020 I reworked the sound files to include MIDI data from the ensemble and made a solo + computer version. This was revised in 2024.
About the artist
I’m a composer, improvisor, software developer, and since 2017 Professor of Electronic Composition at ICEM, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany.
I’m the programmer of the slippery chicken algorithmic composition package. My compositional interests lie mainly in the development of structures for hybrid electro-instrumental pieces through the integration of algorithmically produced scored materials with similarly generated computer-processed sound. I also improvise on laptop, saxophones, and MIDI wind controller, performing for instance at the 2008 Montreaux Jazz Festival.
I studied composition at Bristol University with Adrian Beaumont (BA, MMus) and privately with Gwyn Pritchard. In 1991 I moved to the US for further studies in computer music with John Chowning at CCRMA, Stanford University (MA, Doctor of Musical Arts). Whilst studying there I also worked at IRCAM, Paris, with a residence grant at Cité des Arts.
During 1996-7 I was a consultant software engineer in Silicon Valley. I developed a Document Recognition System used in several US hospitals. In 1997 I was appointed Lecturer in Music Theory at Stanford but later that year moved to Salzburg, Austria. I was Guest Professor at the Universität Mozarteum until I left to teach at the University of Edinburgh in 2002.
Rodrigo Cadiz: Tessellae
Tessellae for percussion and live electronics unfolds as a mosaic of small rhythmic tiles laid in time by a single performer. The percussion writing is built on Euclidean rhythmic principles, patterns that distribute events as evenly as possible, expanded through asymmetric tuplets (notably groups of three and five), repetitions, and carefully placed silences that create a strong sense of anticipation from phrase to phrase. Only one or two instrumental lines sound at a time, allowing the listener to perceive each gesture as a discrete tessera within a larger rhythmic surface. The live electronics, built on RAVE, a real-time variational autoencoder developed at IRCAM and trained on a corpus of percussion sounds, listen to the performer and respond by reshaping timbre and resonance in the moment, extending and refracting the acoustic material without fixing it in advance. The result is a dialogue between strict rhythmic architecture and fluid sonic transformation, where expectation, delay, and renewal are central expressive forces. Tessellae was composed for Thierry Miroglio.
About the artist
Rodrigo F. Cádiz is a composer, researcher and engineer. He studied composition and electrical engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) in Santiago and he obtained his Ph.D. in Music Technology from Northwestern University. His compositions, consisting of approximately 70 works, have been presented at several venues and festivals around the world. His catalogue considers works for solo instruments, chamber music, symphonic and robot orchestras, visual music, computers, and new interfaces for musical expression. He has received several composition prizes and artistic grants both in Chile and the US. He has authored around 70 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and international conferences. His areas of expertise include sonification, sound synthesis, audio digital processing, computer music, composition, new interfaces for musical expression and the musical applications of complex systems. In 2018, Rodrigo was a composer in residence with the Stanford Laptop orchestra (SLOrk) at the Center for Computer-based Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), and a Tinker Visiting Professor at Stanford University. In 2019, he received the prize of Excellence in Artistic Creation from UC, given for outstanding achievements in the arts. In 2024, he was a visiting researcher at the Orpheus Instituut in Belgium. He is currently full professor at the Music Institute and Electrical Engineering Department of UC.
Sunhuimei Xia and Sunhuimei Xia: The Center of the Universe
The Center of the Universe, an algorithmic music work integrated with interactive technology, draws inspiration from the artist’s immersive impressions of New York City gleaned through multiple on-site visits. Standing atop the Empire State Building, the artist perceived the metropolis as a dynamic global nexus where people of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds converge, weaving a vibrant, multifaceted urban tapestry that resonates with the energy of an interconnected world. Taking the phrase “The Center of the Universe” as its foundational sonic material, the work delivers innovation through experimental multilingual vocal manipulation—deploying the core line in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai—with all vocal textures sourced from sampled macOS AI voices, blending computational sound synthesis with linguistic diversity to push the conventional boundaries of vocal-based algorithmic composition. It achieves nuanced translation by converting the artist’s subjective perceptual experience of the city into an audible, interactive sonic landscape, while translating the abstract idea of cross-cultural convergence into tangible musical logic via the layered interplay of multilingual vocal samples. Further embodying participation, the piece adopts wireless Nintendo Wiimote Controllers as its interactive performance interface, enabling the performer to stand at the “center” of the stage and manipulate the musical structure in real time; this design redefines the dynamic between creator, performer, and audience, turning the performance into a collaborative process where physical movements directly shape sonic evolution.
About the artist
Sunhuimei Xia, Associate Professor of Art and Technology at Wuhan Conservatory of Music’s Composition Department, Dr. Xia holds a Master’s from Johns Hopkins University and a Doctorate from the University of Oregon (U.S.). Mentored by renowned composers Jian Feng, Jian Liu, Geoffrey Wright, and Jeffrey Stolet.
As central and western China’s first DMA in data-driven musical instrument composition and performance, this accomplished composer focuses on computer music creation and music-technology integration, with core interests in interactive data-driven instruments, algorithmic composition, and data sonification.
Honored as a Music Entrepreneurship and Innovation Talent by the Ministry of Culture and an Outstanding Young and Middle-Aged Literary and Art Talent by Hubei Federation of Literary and Art Circles, her works won the Hubei Golden Bianzhong Music Award, with over 10 pieces showcased at top global events including ICMC, ISMIR, NIME, SMC, SEAMUS, NYCEMF, EMM, IRCAM, WOCMAT and Musicacoustica-Beijing.
She released China’s first DVD album of data-driven instrument works, published by Shanghai Music Publishing House and Shanghai Literature & Art Audio-Video Electronic Publishing House. She guided students to secure 20+ domestic and international awards, leads provincial projects and participates in the Ministry of Education’s Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Fund Project, driving music-technology innovation.