Friday, May 18 at a distance is a real-time, albeit virtual, composition comprised of electro-acoustic sound, simultaneous performances, visual art, and audience participation. It is an absurdist take on video conferencing and mediated communication in general. The text-based score directs participants in abstracted interactions and reactions, creating a shifting videographic landscape with performers veering from the self-indulgent monologues to heated disagreements. This realization is performed by the quintet No Steve: Benjamin Levy, Stacey Mastrian, Kristian Twombly, and both composers. Composed by Michael Boyd and Stephen F. Lilly.
Michael Boyd, Associate Professor of Music and Music Program Coordinator at Chatham University, is a composer, scholar, and experimental improviser. His music embraces experimental practices such as installation, multimedia, and performance art, and has been performed in a variety of venues throughout the United States and abroad. His user-driven installation Confessional won the 2016 FETA Prize in Sound Art. Boyd has published articles in Perspectives of New Music, Tempo, and Notes. He is active in his community, currently serving a third elected term on the Wilkins Township Board of Commissioners. Boyd often bikes to work and competes in mountain bike races. https://michaelrboyd.com/
Stephen Lilly is a composer, performer, audio engineer, and amateur poet. He has degrees from the University of Idaho (composition/bass performance) and the University of Maryland (composition). Stephen also spent a year studying electroacoustic music at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. His work ranges from abstract and microtonal to theatrical and satiric; he mostly composes chamber music for friends and friends of friends as well as fixed media works for nobody in particular. His writings on contemporary experimental music have been published in Organised Sound, Performance Research, Perspectives of New Music, and Computer Music Journal. Recordings of his compositions are available on the SEAMUS Electroacoustic Miniatures Recording Series, the SCI CD Series, and from C7 Music, while recordings he has engineered have been released on Neuma, Navona, and Albany Records. Furthermore, his scores are available through BabelScores. https://www.stephenlilly.net/