UW News

March 31, 2017

Music played by EEG featured in DXARTS Spring Concert April 6

UW News

UW Music School Director Richard Karpen plays an electromagnetic piano called a Disklavier. Though he is shown performing on the keys, some of the music for the April 6 DXARTS Spring Concert will be played hands-free, with only the EEG.

UW Music School Director Richard Karpen plays an electromagnetic piano called a Disklavier. Though he is shown performing on the keys, some of the music he’ll play for the April 6 DXARTS Spring Concert will be performed hands-free, guided only by his brain waves, via the EEG.

The Disklavier is an electromagnetic piano that — like the UW-created encephalophone recently reported on by the Seattle Times — is played by brain waves alone, with the performer hooked up to an electroencephalogram (EEG).

UW audiences will get a look at, and listen to, this creative new technology in “Music of Today: The DXARTS Spring Concert,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 6, in Meany Hall.

This evening of all-digital music will include Richard Karpen, professor and director of the School of Music, performing a piece on the Disklavier called “Human Subject” hands-free, via an EEG.

For the second piece in the program Karpen will be joined by School of Music professor emeritus Stuart Dempster and Juan Pampin, UW associate professor of music and director of the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media — called DXARTS for short. This piece, called “Cisternization.” is an improvisation for piano, trombone and live electronics using the virtual acoustics of the Dan Harpole Cistern at Fort Worden State Park.

Closing the program is “Hemispheres” by Pampin, a piece for EEG and 3D sound projection, with Stuart Dempster as performer.

Music of Today is a concert series co-sponsored by DXARTS and the School of Music featuring modern classics and new works by faculty and guest composers.

Tickets are $10-$15, available through ArtsUW.

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For more information about music played via EEG, contact Pampin at 206-616-6258 or pampin@uw.edu.

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