Archives

2024

PLOrk: Sound System Taplin Auditorium, Thursday, March 28, 2024
PLOrk, (the Princeton Laptop Orchestra) presents "PLOrk: Sound System," featuring guest percussionists Evan Chapman, Gladstone Deluxe, and Mark Eichenberger, and scupltor/light artist Ezra Masch. This special program, performed on electronic and acoustic instruments, features a custom-built light sculpture drum-controlled installation, two enormous subwoofer speakers that are also instruments themselves, a strange multiplayer video game where the performers turn screen pixels directly into sound, and a piece that uses the audience's cellphones as its instrument. We invite the community to experience the sounds and sights of these new experiments in sound and light.

2023

PLOrk: Thermal Music Embodied Computation Lab, Friday, Oct 27, 2023
The Princeton Laptop Orchestra presents a collaboration between the Music Department and CHAOS Lab – “Thermal Music”. What if temperature were a parameter of a live performance just like light and sound? And what if temperature were used as an input for control of sound? Come see what happens at this event, in which PLOrk debuts new robotic heaters designed as part of a research project between composer Jeff Snyder from the Music Department and designer Forrest Meggars from the School of Architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Pieces include a seance-inspired performance composed by professor of music Juri Seo and a group-composed piece using thermodynamic score generated by swirling water of different temperatures. Forrest Meggars gives a brief interlude to contemplate what it means to heat or cool someone, and how experiential learning about heating and cooling can help change our current paradigms that cause climate change and fail to make comfortable climates.
Thanks for support from the Music Department and the School of Architecture, the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, CreativeX and the Council for Science and Technology.
The concert will be held at the Embodied Computation Lab, just south of the Frick Chemistry Building.
PLOrk: Destiny Clock Taplin Auditorium, Thursday, March 23, 2023
The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) presents Destiny Clock, a show that explores new music for new instruments. The concert will feature Lola Constantino’s new piece for wind ensemble with electronic manipulation using gestural control. Claire Hu and Yue Qiaio combine forces to create a rhythmic and textural tour-de-force using modular synthesizer and live percussion sounds spatialized around the hall. Jeff Snyder’s new piece is a contemplative meditation for a quartet of Electrobasses, an instrument designed in his lab on campus. Finally, PLOrk has created an improvisational piece based around CST Studiolab manager Brendan Byrne’s Destiny Clock sequencer invention and sets of bitwise logic chips sharing a synchronized pulse.

2022

PLOrk: Cat's Cradle Taplin Auditorium 8pm November 16th 2022
The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) presents Cat's Cradle, a collection of works for electronic music ensemble that explore how musicians can interact with each other. Bora Yoon's piece turns the stage into a network of strings that evokes the children's game cat's cradle, while performers weave in and out of the pattern and influence the sound of a giant collective instrument. Gudmundur Stein Gunnarsson's "8 Light Pieces for Pauline Oliveros" coordinate the actions of the performers through animated notation, allowing intricate and irrational rhythmic patterns to emerge that traditional notation would be unable to express. Lola Constantino's Ukelear Power transforms a chorus of live acoustic ukuleles into a bionic monster of sound. The concert is free and open to the public - join us for an adventure in sound!
PLOrk/EMPLOrk on the Frist Lawn Wednesday, April 27, 2022
Outdoors on the Frist Lawn, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) teams up with Early Music Princeton to form EMPLOrk, presenting a free concert that combines new works for live electronics with fresh electronic arrangements of music written in the 14th-17th centuries. Pieces by Gillaume de Machaut and Barbara Strozzi get a wild new treatment with custom-designed instruments from the New Instrument Research Lab. Piping-hot pieces by graduate student composers Jenny Beck, Gulli Björnsson, Liam Elliot, and Soo Yeon Lyuh, and undergraduate composer Lola Constantino round out the program with pitch- shifted ukeleles, spectrally-exploded harmonium, networked cellphones, homemade audio circuit feedback, and electronically-modified haegum (a traditional Korean bowed string instrument). The afternoon concert will be informal, and you may come and go as you please...
Directed by Jeff Snyder (PLOrk) and Wendy Young (EMP)
EMPLOrk in the Chapel Saturday, February 26, 2022
The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (“PLOrk”), Chamber Choir, Glee Club, and Early Music Princeton Laptop Orchestra (EMPLOrk) join forces to perform a program juxtaposing music from the Renaissance with contemporary compositions written by Princeton University undergraduate and graduate students combining instrumental, vocal, and electronic music.
Directed by Jeff Snyder, Gabriel Crouch, and Wendy Young

2020

PLOrk in Quarantine April 20, 2020
PLOrk, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, presents an online virtual concert in quarantine! On April 20th, PLOrk will stream a live, free concert on their youtube channel at 8pm. Two pieces will be performed, both of which were designed for online collaborative performance. The first piece is by Jess Rowland (current Lewis Arts Center Fellow), and has the performers manipulating a Google Sheets spreadsheet to collaboratively create a soundscape over the internet. The second piece, "Interference", is by Matt Wang, PLOrk's Assistant Director, and is built using a game engine for multiplayer collaboration. Listen in for some great bleeps and bloops made together over a distance.

2019

Meditation with Music February 19th, 2019, Princeton, NJ
Join us for Meditation with Music, an hour long guided meditation led by Dean Matt Weiner, Associate Dean of Religious Life with a live music performance by Chris Douthitt and PLOrk. Indulge in attentive, focused, and mindful listening. Open to all.
PLOrk @ TCNJ. November 20th, 2019, Ewing Township, NJ
Come to the TCNJ Art Gallery this Thursday, 4:00 to hear the Princeton Laptop Orchestra demo a few of their pieces as part of our In The Groove exhibit.
PLOrk @ Newark Rhythms. October 12th, 2019, Newark, NJ
PLOrk in collboration with HPRIZM will perform Do You See/Do You Hear?, a site-specific piece that uses projection and improvisational audio to react to the history and architecture of Hill Hall.

2018

Sideband Tour. October 25th to November 1st, 2018, California
Sideband, the professional offshoot of PLOrk, made stops at UC Berkeley, Mills College, and Stanford on their Fall 2018 tour.
PLOrk with Ellen Fullman November 20th, 2018, Lewis Arts Complex, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk will perform a piece by director Jeff Snyder alongside sound-artist Ellen Fullman playing her infamous creation, the Long String Instrument, in the Lewis Arts Complex's CoLab Gallery in Princeton, NJ.
PLOrk @ Rutgers University. March 4th, New Brunswick, NJ
PLOrk performs alongside the Rutgers Laptop Orchestra (RIME) in a rare double-bill.

2017

PLOrk @ the Festival of the Arts. October 6th and 7th, Lewis Arts Complex, Princeton, NJ.
Join us on in the main atrium of the new Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton, NJ. PLOrk will begin its adventures in the incredible new arts facilities with a multi-sensory inaugural "Wave Fanfare." The performance features original music by Jeff Snyder for the Laptop Orchestra, Tilt Brass, and Sō Percussion interacting with a kinetic lighting installation by Tony Award-nominated theatrical lighting designer Jane Cox.
10th Anniversary Show. May 3rd, Princeton, NJ
PLOrks annual end-of-year concert features the all-star ensemble along with guest artists Hprizm (rapper/composer, also known as High Priest, from Antipop Consortium) and Iarla O Lionaird (Irish singer and producer). Prepare yourself for the sounds and sights of neurons firing, planets spinning, stars glimmering, and voices transforming.
The Science of Memory. February 24th, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk joins forces with the Council on Science and Technology and hosts Stevie and Bryan from the WPRB radio show These Vibes Are Too Cosmic to present "The Science of Memory." Neuroscientists Mike Lemonick, author of Perpetual Now, and Sabine Kastner (Princeton faculty) will be interviewed with musical interludes by PLOrk. PLOrk will premiere a new neuroscience-inspired work called Connectome, jointly developed by Mike Mulshine (tech/composition), Jeff Snyder and Aatish Bhatia (neuron model sound synthesis), and Drew Wallace (neuron visualization).
PLOrk @ the Princeton Art Museum. February 23rd, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk engages with the celestial theme of the Museum's installation of contemporary art with Opposite Earth, a new piece by PLOrk director Jeff Snyder. A second piece, titled Five States of Being, composed by Princeton graduate student Chris Douthitt, will also be performed.

2016

PLOrk @ Brooklyn Bound. Sō Percussion Studio, Brooklyn, NY
PLOrk will perform with So Percussion at their Brooklyn digs alongside TAK Ensemble. PLOrk will present Five States of Being, by Chris Douthitt, and PLOrkCycler, composed by the ensemble.
PLOrk Arch-Sing. November 28th, 1879 Arch, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk presents a "PLOrk Arch-Sing" beneath 1879 Arch, Princeton's traditional A Capella "arch-sing" venue. PLOrk will perform Five States of Being, composed by our own Chris Douthitt, and PLOrkCycler, composed by the ensemble. The performance is dedicated to the great Pauline Oliveros, who recently passed away.
Human Modular. April 18, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk presents "Human Modular", a program of live electronic music that explores how technology both connects and disconnects us from each other. Two classic works by John Cage and a piece from the 1980s by Nicolas Collins are combined with new compositions by the ensemble and a raucous electronic arrangement of a Swedish folk song.

2015

PLOrk with Nicolas Collins. December 17, Experimental Intermedia, NYC
PLOrk plays at the release party for Nicolas Collins' new DVD.
Battleship Potemkin. December 14th, Garden Theatre, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk performs a live soundtrack to Sergei Eisenstein's classic film, Battleship Potemkin.
PLOrk @ Grounds for Sculpture. November 19, Hamilton, NJ
PLOrk performs IceBlocks, by Jeff Snyder, at the Grounds for Sculpture Museum, alongside members of Sō Percussion.
MEDI3VAL DR3@MS. April 22nd, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk presents MEDI3VAL DR3@MS, featuring recompositions and arrangements of Medieval and Renaissance music on newly invented electronic instruments.

2014

PLOrk and Sinfonia. December 12th, Richardson Auditorium, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk joins Princeton Sinfonia for a performance of student Mike Mulshine's new piece "Displaced," for orchestra and electronics.
PLOrk @ NIME 2014. Mobile Device Marching Band. June 30-July 3, Goldsmiths, London
Members of PLOrk attend the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference at Goldsmiths College in London in June of 2014. Thanks to the Lewis Center for the Arts, the Princeton University Music, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Departments for their funding support in making this happen! We presented two posters of PLOrk-related research and performed our arrangement of Brazilian Maracatu for Mobile Device Marching Band.
Machine Yearning. April 23, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk presents Machine Yearning, with special guests Sam Hillmer, Jason Treuting, and a giant industrial robot.

2013

Annual PLOrk Concert. April, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk Concert with works by Ryan Carter, Anne Hege, Daniel Iglesia, Dafna Naphtali, Sarah O'Halloran, Meg Schedel, Ryan Ross Smith, Jeff Snyder, and one piece written collectively by the students in the class! Associate Press covered the event.
PLOrk @ Berlind Theatre. February, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk provides a live score to a performance of Merce Cunningham choreography led by Silas Reiner.

2012

PLOrk with Kathy Supove. April, Richardson Auditorium, Princeton, NJ
PLOrk Concert with works by Ryan Carter, Anne Hege, Daniel Iglesia, Dafna Naphtali, Sarah O'Halloran, Meg Schedel, Ryan Ross Smith, Jeff Snyder, and one piece written collectively by the students in the class! Associate Press covered the event.
PLOrk Sideband @ SLEO. April 15-17, Baton Rouge
PLOrk's professional offshoot, Sideband, performs at SLEO (the Symposium on Laptop Ensembles and Orchestras).

Older

04/23/2011
 PLOrk at Taplin Auditorum and 92Y Tribeca: documentation
05/15/2011
 PLOrk-o-sound, Woolworth Center, Princeton
04/03/2010
 with Anders Åstrand, Van Stiefel, and others: documentation.
10/09/2009
MMiX Festival in NYC (and NYTimes podcast about it)
05/16/2009
 with Matmos, So Percussion: documentation
05/30/2009
 members of PLOrk with Laurie Anderson's Atelier Project
05/16–17/2009
 at the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC Winner's Showcase
05/10–11/2009
 at The Kitchen in NYC with So Percussion and Matmos
04/24/2009
 at ffmup: Midterm performances
05/05/2008
Northwestern Spring Festival, Chicago: documentation
04/25–27/2008 with the American Composers Orchestra presented by Carnegie Hall (Zankel) and the Annenberg Center (Philadelphia). read more! videos about the project here. reviewed here, and a good pic here (of half the group for this piece).
06/10/2007
NIME/Columbia
05/18–19/2007
Woolworth (for Riley's In C) and Taplin
01/18/2007
 Winter Concert, Taplin Auditorium, Princeton
11/21/2006
 ffmup, plorktastic chamber music
10/28/2006
 Genomics Institute, for President Tilghman and guests.
10/13/2006
3 Legged Dog, NYC, part of the Ear to the Earth festival.
05/05/2006
 In the Round: documentation
04/06/2006 first BIG show, with Zakir Hussain, So Percussion, Curtis Bahn, Tomie Hahn, Pauline Oliveros, Brad Garton, Paul Lansky: documentation
01/22/2006
 first show: documentation