Convergent Boundaries: Giiwas, Kopački Rit, Etna (2022) features original field recordings from Crater Lake (Oregon, USA), Kopački Rit Nature Park (Osijek, Croatia), and Mt. Etna (Sicily, Italy). In this piece, natural sounds from these three locations converge, much like the forces that brought them into existence. The percussion music expresses the human dimension of my own experiences at each of these natural wonders through a patchwork of shifting landscapes. 

The title “Convergent Boundaries” refers to the travelogues of Adam Virzi, my brother. In the summer of 2021, Adam and I traveled across the Pacific Northwest through California, Oregon, and Washington. We visited the major peaks at 7 National Parks and Forests on the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a string of volcanoes along the Pacific Rim of Fire that extends into Canada, including Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Adam’s travelogue details the natural history of these places alongside the more human moments we experienced. Adam’s first chapter, “Convergent Boundaries,” describes the geologic forces that gave rise to the Cascade Volcanic Arc.

Crater Lake is an ancient volcanic caldera that filled with rain and snowmelt to become the deepest lake in the USA, at nearly 2,000 feet deep and 6 miles in diameter. The Klamath people, who observed the creation of Crater Lake 7,700 years ago, tell that the collapse of Mt. Mazama and formation of the caldera was the outcome of a tremendous battle between spirit gods. After the battle, medicine men gave thanks for the victory in a sacred song. The lake was called Giiwas (a most sacred place), known as a place of power.” 

Kopački Rit is the largest nature preserve in Croatia and one of the largest wetlands in Europe – a place where the meandering rivers of Drava and Danube meet, forming a unique ecological habitat for hundreds of wildlife species. In June 2022, I explored the canals of Kopački Rit’s Special Zoological Reserve on a small boat, accompanied by a park ranger with expert knowledge of the landscape and wildlife.

L’Etna [Mt. Etna] is the volcano on the Italian island of Sicily, my ancestral homeland. Mt. Etna is located at the convergent boundary of the Eurasian and African tectonic plates and dominates the Sicilian landscape at over 11,000 feet tall with a base circumference of 87 miles. It is clear that the active volcano, which rises directly out of the Mediterranean Sea, is a singular force on the island – or that perhaps it is the island and everything surrounding it is merely a consequence of its frequent eruptions. 

Commissioned by the Novalis Music and Art Festival
Premiered by Line Upon Line Percussion - Osijek, Croatia (Oct. 2022)

"Convergent Boundaries" for Percussion Trio and Electronics (2022) | Line Upon Line

“SILO” is a work composed for feedback-augmented bass drums and electronics, and was written for the Line Upon Line percussion trio.

Sonically, this work explores the complex acoustics of feedback systems, vibration and the transduction of sound through physical objects, and performer agency and control of chaotic systems.  Compositionally, this visceral and demanding piece presents a constantly fragmenting web of materials which blur and shift in and out of focus; exploring a world in which the microscopic and the monolithic are harshly juxtaposed, and in which dizzying chaos and stasis exist nearly simultaneously.    

Performance of “SILO” is facilitated through the use of a video score constructed out of materials shot and edited together in isolation.  The performers respond to the same video score in real-time using intersecting sets of rules and strict timing cues, yielding a performance practice similar to that of a foley artist.  The subtle differences in interpretation reveal a sonic spectrum that shifts wildly between coherence and disjunction.  From one perspective, the performers are simultaneously “siloed” apart from one another.  However, from another perspective, they are all bound to the same score and exist as one unified vertical sonic structure.

SILO (2023) // Performed by Line Upon Line

Dr. Nick Virzi (b. 1991) is a composer from New York City whose work includes acoustic, electronic, and electroacoustic music, as well as intermedia pieces and multichannel installations. His recent pieces explore the relationships between humans and the natural world, numerology and rhythmic structure, and ethnography and identity. His practice includes field recording in nature preserves, orchestration of rhythmic frameworks based on complex numerical systems, and ethnographic research focused on collecting and adapting archival media as an exploration of his identity as an Italian-American. In addition to composing, he is an electric guitarist, conductor, photographer, researcher, and educator. He also hosts the international composer interview series Composer OverTime.

Nick’s music has been performed throughout the USA and internationally by leading artists such as cellist Séverine Ballon (France), soprano Tony Arnold, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, the JACK Quartet, the Spektral Quartet, Splinter Reeds, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Ensemble Liminar (Mexico), Distractfold (United Kingdom), the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, the TAK Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Wild Up. His work has been featured at such venues as the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center, the Center for New Music in San Francisco, and the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. His recent projects include “Convergent Boundaries” for Percussion Trio and Electronics, an electroacoustic piece featuring field recordings from Kopački Rit Nature Park in Croatia, Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, and Mt. Etna in Sicily, Italy. This piece was commissioned by the Novalis Music and Art Festival and premiered by Line Upon Line Percussion in October 2022.

Virzi has been a featured composer at international festivals such as Gaudeamus Muziekweek (The Netherlands), the Impuls Academy (Austria), and Festival Ecos Urbanos (Mexico). He has been awarded fellowships by the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival (NYC), the Cortona Sessions for New Music (Italy), the soundSCAPE Composition and Performance Exchange (Italy), and the New Music for Strings Festival (Denmark). He has won festival competitions including the Black Bayou Composition Award, 2nd Prize at the New Music on the Bayou Festival in Louisiana. He has held residencies at the Academy of Arts and Culture and Kopački Rit Nature Preserve in Osijek, Croatia, the Sagehen Experimental Forest and Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve in the UC Reserve System, and the Poto Festival in Grass Valley, California. He has presented his music and given lectures at universities such as UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Missouri (Mizzou). He has presented his research in music theory and analysis at conferences hosted by the American Beethoven Society, the California Interdisciplinary Consortium of Italian Studies (CICIS), and the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS). He has presented his research in acoustic ecology at NYU’s Steinhardt School as part of the Precarious Sounds/Sounding Sanctuary Conference (NYC), The Catholic University of America at the Eleventh International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses (Washington, D.C.), and the Centro Cultural Vila Flor at the Ninth International Conference on the Constructed Environment (Guimarães, Portugal).

Dr. Virzi completed his D.M.A. in Music Composition at Stanford University, where he studied with Mark Applebaum and Brian Ferneyhough. He also completed his B.M. at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Du Yun, Huang Ruo, Laura Kaminsky, and Suzanne Farrin. He recently completed the H&S Dean’s Fellowship at Stanford University, where he was a Lecturer in the Department of Music and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). His music is published by the American Composers Alliance (ACA) in New York City.

Douglas McCausland is a composer / performer, sound designer, and digital artist whose visceral and often chaotic works explore the extremes of sound, technology, and the digital medium.

As an artist, he researches and leverages the intersections of numerous technologies and creative practices, such as real-time electronic music performance with purpose-built interfaces, spatial audio, interactive systems, intermedia art, musical applications of machine-learning, experimental sound design, and hardware-hacking.

Described as “Tremendously powerful, dark, and sometimes terrifying…” (SEAMUS) and “Ruthlessly visceral…” (The Wire), his works have been performed internationally, including features at Sonorities, SEAMUS, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, MISE-EN Music Festival, Klingt Gut!, Sounds Like THIS!, NYCEMF, Sonicscape, and Ars Electronica.  Recent collaborations include artists such as bassist Aleksander Gabryś, cellist Seth Parker Woods, the Quasar Saxophone Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, and vocal ensemble Variant 6.  His work is available through various online platforms, and on SEAMUS, Plyta Z Audiomatu, and Jikken Records.

Recent honors include an award of distinction in the 2021 Prix Ars Electronica for his piece “Convergence”, winning 1st-Prize in the 2021 ASCAP/SEAMUS commission competition, the gold-prize award for “contemporary computer music” in the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister Student 3D Audio Production Competition, and being awarded the runner-up nomination for the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music's 2019 CIME Prix. 

Douglas is currently the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Studio Manager at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  He holds a DMA in music composition from Stanford University, where he studied with Chris Chafe, Patricia Alessandrini, Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, and Mark Applebaum.  He additionally holds a MSc in Digital Composition and Performance from the University of Edinburgh, a MM in Music Composition from Michigan State University, and a BM in Music Composition, Saxophone Performance, and Music Education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

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