Plectrum is an Audio Unit implementation of the Karplus-Strong algorithm, a classic emulation of plucked string instruments. It is impossible not to fall in love with its deep and complex sonority. Plectrum runs on iOS and macOS devices, and is designed to be very lightweight. It works both as a standalone application and as an AUv3 plug-in.
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Ringabell combines a comb filter with a ring modulator to produce incredibly rich combinations of sounds. Automated parameters help you create complex patterns, like moving tremolos and flanging much beyond the common sense. The host application can load and playback audio files for easy prototyping, supports MIDI, and can load AUv3 instruments and effects by this manufacturer. It comes in both iOS and macOS flavors as a standalone app and as an AUv3 plug-in. You are guaranteed to become addicted!
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Nimbus is a granular synthesizer instrument that bundles pure waveforms and real instrument samples to help you sculpt dense clouds of sounds. It gives you complete ADSR envelope control, and features automated parameters that bring life to your sounds. Nimbus works inside Logic Pro X and GarageBand sd an AUv3 plug-in for both iOS and macOS, as well as a standalone application. The host app can load AUv3 instruments and effects from this manufacturer for easy prototyping and straight-out-of-the-box fun.
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Moonshine is a stereo granulator effect that works both as an AUv3 plugin, and as a standalone app, for easy prototyping. Use Moonshine to independently granulate left and right channels of any track, including your favorite synths. Granulation is the process of taking tiny snapshots of your sound at random deviations from a certain position in time, then combining those grains to form anything from rhythmic patterns to dense and involving clouds of sound. It can add some shimmer to a vocal track, act as an out-of-the-box guitar delay, or be used to transform synth sounds into the most uncanny pads. Moonshine features 13 parameters per channel, including four parameters to automate the interval at which grains are triggered, in a total massive 26 parameters to tweak and make totally original sounds. All that within the comfort of your preferred digital audio workstation.
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RunloopSound brings the world of Csound to iOS devices. Let your musical creativity run limitlessly with the power and versatility of Csound, one of the most advanced music production platforms ever created. Access hundreds of audio signal processing algorithms designed by some of the best names in the industry to shape your sounds in ways unimaginable. With a gorgeous user interface and complete integration to all major cloud providers, RunloopSound allows you to keep designing incredible sounds wherever you go.
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Scandal is both a Java framework and an entirely new programming language designed to manipulate sound objects. It is being developed by me under the orientation of Dr. Beverly Sanders. Scandal utilizes the ASM framework for compiling its domain-specific language.
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Today James Safko, Gordon Pierce, and I introduced to the world our Three Dee Synth, a software synthesizer that is capable positioning its sounds in a 3D space. It utilizes portions of FFT-based binaural panner v3 by Jakob Hougaard Andersen at the Aarhus University. His project is in turn based on Head in Space by Dario Pizzamiglio. Head-related impulse responses are taken from The CIPIC HRTF Database.
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The Boston String Quartet will perform on April 18th of 2017 my Passacaglia (2013). The performance will take place at University of Florida in MUB 101. The quartet is comprised by Christopher Vuk, Angel Valchinov, Chen Lin, and Kett-Chuan Lee. Passacaglia for string quartet is an homage to Ruth Crawford Seeger's triple passacaglia, a procedure in which three levels of coherence are maintained through rotations of a series and through employing this series to generate syntax. These three levels unfold in the foremost ground at the first rotated instance, in the middle ground at each time a new rotation starts, and in the background at the beginning of new sections. Every new section provides harmonic variety by featuring a transposed, inverted, retrograded or retrograded and inverted instances of the series.
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On Friday, February 19th, I will present my 8-channel electroacoustic piece called Microminitronics (2016) at the 57th Unbalanced Connection, the semiannual series of concerts hosted by the University of Florida and dedicated to electroacoustic music. Microminitronics is a piece in 19-tone equal temperament in which a harmonic framework is developed by exploring heterodynes of a center frequency that are not fast enough to constitute a frequency modulation. These heterodynes' relative durations to one another are given by ever-changing duty cycles of rectangular waves, the "modulator" waves. Additive synthesis of harmonically related partials is unraveled on top of it all, adding harmonic and rhythmic diversity.
The saxophone duo by Steven Stusek and Laurent Estoppey will perform on February 25th 2015 at University of Florida in MUB 101 my Duo for Alto and Tenor Saxophones (2015). The reading will be followed by a workshop and recording session. I cannot wait to work with such great artists!
Jorge Variego is an Argentinian composer and a fellow gator who wrote the piece A Rare Form of Kleptomania for violin and electronics, which I will be performing, with himself on the laptop, on February 21st. The performance is part of 2015 edition of the Florida Contemporary Music Festival, and put together by Nuclear Music, a student-run chamber ensemble and organization. The performance will take place in MUB 101 at 3 p.m. In Jorge's own words,
The work is a derivative composition from pieces by other composers. It is a homage that celebrates many preexisting compositions without fixing to any of them. An idea formed by many other ideas with only one unique element, this very performance.
My piece Out of Focus (2014) for woodwind quintet will be featured on the SCI Showcase here at University of Florida. It is a free event happening February 7th 2015 at 7:30 PM in MUB 101.
I am proud to announce my recital with pianist Brian Hargrove on December 1st 2014 at 5 P.M. It will take place in MUB 101 at the University of Florida. This recital is a preview of another I will give in early February, that will include pieces for violin and piano by myself, Michael Polo, James Sain, Paul Richards, and Baljinder Sekhon.
On October 12th 2014 I had a reading and workshop of Out of Focus (2014), my recent piece for wind quintet. It is always a wonderful experience to hear your music performed and to have a chance to work with the performers as well. The première of this piece will take place early in 2015.
The University of Florida student chapter of the Society of Composers, Inc. will be hosting on March 15th 2014 at 3 P.M. a recital in MUB 101 which will feature Long Island Iced Tea (2014), a piece for fixed media I recently wrote. A long island iced tea is arguably the most deceiving drink there is. A typical recipe will include vodka, tequila, gin, triple sec, sour mix, all topped off with cola, but not a single drop of iced tea, in spite of its appearance. My piece is a long island iced tea of sorts, where a banjo improvises surrounded by clouds of hydrogen, except the banjo is actually a comb-filtered lawn mower. The hydrogen clouds come from an application of Rydberg’s formula, which describes with incredible accuracy the quantum leaps of electrons as light passes through excited hydrogen gas. These leaps leave a trace of spectral lines and their spectra, transposed to audible frequencies, comprise the cloudy sounds in the piece. If getting inebriated is the intention, then this piece, just like the drink, will surely hit the spot.
On March 15th 2014 at 10 A.M. come see the reading and workshop of Mergers and Wagers (2014), my brand new piece for piano and percussion. The event will take place at University of Florida in MUB 101, and the piece will be performed by percussionist Caleb Herron and pianist Amy O'Dell, two members of the outstanding Chamber Cartel.
My piece Stingray Variations (2013) for solo cello will be performed by outstanding cellist Craig Hultgren in MUB 101 at University of Florida on October 21st 2013. After the reading there will be a short workshop with the performer. The piece explores the serial techniques of derivation and polyphonization, in which several layers of coherence occur simultaneously.
On May 4th 2013 I attended my Master of Music in Composition graduation ceremony at USF. It was such a happy moment, I look great in pink, Judy Genshaft is a sweetheart, and I guess you can call me Prof. Damiani from now on!
On April 24th 2013 at 7:30 P.M. I will have two pieces featured in the Student Composers' Concert at USF. The recital will take place in Barness Recital Hall and the pieces presented are Whimsical (2013) for flute and piano and Étude (2013) for string quartet, performed by Erica Barden on the flute, Linnea Norsworthy on the piano, Luis F. Vieira Damiani on the viola, Michael Amos on the violoncello, Kate Bryant on the violin, and Leslee Smucker on the violin.
On April 6th 2013 at 7:30 pm I will give a performance of Sun Propeller, a remarkable piece for solo violin and electronics by the talented composer Nina C. Young. The piece is written in scordatura, going all the way down to a low D on the G-string, creating a most impressive effect. The performance will take place in Barness Hall at the University of South Florida as part of the USF's New Music Consortium Spring Concert.
Every year at USF the Systems Complex for the recording and Performing Arts and the Contemporary Art Museum join forces to produce an interdisciplinary art event called SYCOM @ CAM. I will be presenting this year an electroacoustic piece named Aural Anachronism (2013) and the event will take place inside and outside by the entrance of the Contemporary Art Museum on February 7th between 6:24 and 6:48 P.M. The piece is split into three parts, the other portions composed by Jeff Jackson and Ryan Muar, mine being the last. The concept is how technology influences art, and my piece explores the use of video game controllers to trigger musical events while playing the LEGO Star Wars Saga. The indoors portion of the piece, happening simultaneously, will consist of a piece for fixed media, electric cello and electric guitar, performed by Jeff Jackson and Ryan Muar, respectively.
On October 27th 2012 I met in Orlando with my guru Bob Morris, just to find out that I was actually running for commissioner! This picture was taken a block away from where we met.
I am very excited to announce my Graduate Recital! I am particularly thrilled for having been able to finish a new piece for small ensemble called Triton Shells (2012) in time for this event. The program will have Four Piano Pieces (2000), Instrumental Quintet (2008), Trio Sonata (2010), Oasis (2012), as well as Triton Shells (2012), which I will conduct. Violinists Leslee Smucker, Valeria Frege and myself, violist Ashley Frith, cellists Natalie Schulthess and Michael Amos, and pianist and harpsichordist Jeff Chodil will join lovely flutist Erica Barden in Barness Recital Hall on October 26th 2012 at 7:30 P.M.
On October 17th 2012 I will have two pieces presented in the Student Composers' Concert here at University of South Florida! One is very old and the other fairly new. Four Piano Pieces (2000) will be performed by Jeff Chodil and Trio Sonata (2010) by wonderful Erica Barden on the flute, along with Michael Amos on the cello, Jeff Chodil on the harpsichord and myself on the violin. The venue will be the Barness Recital Hall and the recital starts at 7:30 P.M.
On October 16th 2012 I had the pleasure of meeting fellow Gaucho composer Francis Schwartz, who like me now lives in Florida. He came to USF for a composition masterclass and recital. Schwartz's work is absolutely extraordinary, and his adventures around the world just fascinating. He even stayed in Porto Alegre, the city where I grew up, for a whole month during a series of performances of his works by the Porto Alegre Symphony, upon which occasion he was awarded by the governor the title of honorary Gaucho! This photo was taken by Stephanie Brauer, a wonderful photographer who accompanied Schwartz and shows from left to right Prof. Paul Reller, Francis Schwartz and myself.
It is time for the city of Seia in Portugal to check out O Guri, a full-featured cinematic production for which I wrote the original music. The movie already won the Best Feature Soundtrack award at the 6th Cinefantasy International Fantastic Film Festival in 2011 and will now be presented in the Cineteatro at the Casa Municipal de Cultura as part of Cine'Eco 2012 Festival Internacional de Cinema Ambiental da Serra da Estrela on October 8th 2012 at 3 P.M.
O Guri is on fire! This time it will be presented in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of Cinesul 2012 – XIX Ibero-American Video and Cinema Festival. The venue will be the Centro Cultural Correios, on Rua Visconde de Itaboraí, 20 – Centro (Tel. 2253-1580) and you can come check it out on Saturday June 30th 2012 at 2 P.M.
Incredibly talented Brazilian film director and writer Zeca Brito hit a home run with O Guri, for which I had the honor of writing the original music. It will now be featured on Festin Lisboa, a competition that takes place annually in Lisbon, and presented at 4 P.M. on May 11th 2012 in Sala Manoel de Oliveira. Check out the program here.
On April 15th 2012 at 7:30 P.M. I will have my piece Chacarera (2012) for English horn and percussion ensemble premiered in the Concert Hall at USF. Magnificent Amy Collins will join conductor Robert McCormick and members of the USF percussion studio. Chacarera was awarded in 2012 the Percussion Composition Prize and is a piece about my Gaucho origins.
On April 7th 2012 I had the honor of premiering Animate, Geoff Sheil's piece for violin and ensemble. It was truly a memorable experience working with all the people involved. The performance took place in the Barness Hall at the University of South Florida.
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Phi Kappa Phi is an honors society that recognizes academic achievements. I was invited to become a member after my first semester as a graduate student here at USF, and on April 1st 2012 I attended my induction ceremony. I have to say, the food afterward was unbelievable!
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Incredible violinist Byron Hitchcock will give the première of my Solo Violin Suite (2010), winner of the prestigious 2010 Classical Composition Award by the National Foundation of Arts in Brazil. The event will take place in Sala Funarte Sidney Miller.
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O Guri is a feature film directed by Zeca Brito whose original music was written by me which will be premiered on July 7th at the Cine 7 in Bagé, Brazil. After a few years in the making, everybody involved, including myself as the composer of its original music, is absolutely thrilled to watch it on the big screen! The original music features amazing flutist Artur Elias Carneiro and cellist Rodrigo Andrade Silveira.