BIOGRAPHY
Rodolfo Vieira, DMA
Violinist /
Lead Software Developer
Northwestern University
Rodolfo Vieira was a recipient of the 100 Young Creative Talents of the European Union in 2009, and the Búzio Revelation Prize from Portugal, and was a prizewinner at the Julio Cardona International Competition and RDP2 Prémio Jovens Músicos. He has performed as a soloist with the ERA orchestra (Chicago) and Lisbon’s Academic Metropolitan Orchestra, and has appeared in solo and chamber music recitals in Europe and the Americas. Rodolfo served as the concertmaster of the Conservatory Project Orchestra at the Kennedy Center (Washington) and as assistant concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago under the direction of Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink. Vieira appeared at the Ravinia, Lucerne Academy and Oviedo festivals, and brought IRCAM’s technology to Northwestern University to perform Pierre Boulez’s Anthèmes II for solo violin and live electronics. Rodolfo teaches at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy and is a senior software developer at Northwestern University’s Advanced Media Production Studio.
Chris Mercer, PhD
Lecturer, Composition and Music Technology
Northwestern University
Chris Mercer received a PhD in composition at the University of California, San Diego in 2003. His principal teachers were Chaya Czernowin and Chinary Ung (instrumental music), and Peter Otto and Roger Reynolds (electronic music). He has held artist residencies at Experimentalstudio des SWR, Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf and Sound Traffic Control (San Francisco). His music has been performed by Ensemble SurPlus, SONOR Ensemble and Schlagquartett Köln. His recent electroacoustic music and research focus on animal communication, especially nonhuman primate vocalization, and he has undertaken research residencies at the Duke University Lemur Center, Wisconsin National Primate Research Center and the Brookfield Zoo. His instrumental music involves modified conventional instruments, found objects and instruments of the composer’s own design, with amplification, live electronics and spatialization. He has taught electronic music at UC San Diego, UC Irvine and CalArts; he currently teaches music technology at Northwestern University.
http://musictechnology.music.northwestern.edu/mercer/home.html