Dr. Thomas Dempster, coordinator of music studies and director of bands at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, will be a featured performer at the Ninth Annual Electroacoustic Barn Dance on Nov. 14-16 at Jacksonville University.
The Electroacoustic Barn Dance is a three-day festival of electronic music and art that will be held at the Jacksonville, Fla.-based university. It is held in partnership with Jacksonville University’s Division of Music, Jacksonville Dance Theatre and Ronan School of Music. Dempster said it is one of the country’s biggest festivals of contemporary music that features electronic music, music technology and augmented performance practices as well as research into those areas.
Dempster will perform several works for bassoon and electronics on Nov. 15. Each will be a Florida premiere, and one is an American premiere. He is one of four featured performers. The others are a clarinetist, a flutist and a percussionist.
“All of the pieces require extended performance techniques on the bassoon — multiphonics, singing through the instrument, extremes of range, and other novel sounds,” Dempster said.
Dempster joined ASMSA’s faculty in the fall of 2018. He previously held teaching positions at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Claflin University, South Carolina State University and the Governor’s School of North Carolina.
He has performed at several festivals as well as with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, the Fayetteville (N.C.) Symphony Orchestra, the Danville Orchestra, the Greensboro Philharmonia, the Florence Symphony Orchestra and the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra. He currently regularly performs with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
As a composer, his works have been performed in 36 states and 15 foreign countries. His performances can be found and/or heard on Navona Records, MusicSpoke, Potenza Publishing and Quiet Design Records.
For more information on the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, visit eabarndance.com.