Violinist Mikylah McTeer and flutist Francesca Arnone perform diverse electroacoustic pieces on their first collaborative album REACT, released on Ravello Records. The works on this album demonstrate well the potential range of electroacoustic music in facilitating both experimental and traditional compositional ideas. The featured composers explore new ways of creating and organizing sound, and as performed with either computer or other interactive electronics, the violin and flute help construct unique sonic landscapes. Interact and React, composed by Ben Johansen for flute, violin and interactive computer, is unique for its incorporation of non-instrumental sounds (such as mouth noises, whistling, stomping, snapping, and more) into its musical landscape, and has three basic parts: two deeply abstract outer sections, with an intervening period of fierce counterpoint between the flute and violin. Margaret Schedel’s Partita, Perihelion for violin and interactive computer most clearly blends traditional ideas with electroacoustic ones, as the electronics grow out of the solo violin part. The titles of its three movements refer to Baroque dance suite forms, and also paraphrase, if not outright quote, Bach’s solo violin partitas. Luminosity, David Taddie’s flute and electroacoustic piece, is one of the more traditional experimental works on the album, using synthesized sounds that can be traced back to electronic music from the 1960s and 70s. • Violinist Mikylah McTeer’s performances have been called “energetic and virtuosic” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), and “captivating” (Boulder Daily Camera) • Reviews of flutist Francesca Arnone note her playing as “sublime” and “without flaw” (Audiophile); “engaging, convincing and fearless” (Flute View); that she “has a full, singing tone that she employs with great variety and contrast” (American Record Guide) • McTeer is the violin professor at West Virginia University and coordinator of the string area. She was formerly concertmaster of the San Juan Symphony in Durango, CO • Arnone is flute professor at Baylor University, principal flute of the Waco Symphony, and flutist in the Brazos Ensemble • McTeer and Arnone began their duo collaboration in 2009, forming the duo reACT with a commitment to performing music of living composers • The album features composer Russell Pinkston, who has released a solo album BALANCING ACTS (RR7921) and is featured on TORNADO PROJECT (RR7908), both on Ravello Records. His composition, Vox Clamantis, is an interactive work commissioned by the Arnone and McTeer duo reACT
