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NOVARS Research Centre for Electroacoustic Composition, Performance and Sound-Art

Overview of MANTIS

MANTIS Setup at the Cosmo Rodewal Hall. 40 Gelenecs

MANTIS COMES OF AGE: 15th EDITION OF THE MANTIS FESTIVAL: 5, March and 10, June 2011

MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) biannually presents concerts of music and sound, featuring compositions and performances enhanced by the use of new technology and digital media. MANTIS combines a broad array of sonic events, which range from the live diffusion of acousmatic works on a 48-loudspeaker sound system (using the unique MANTIS System), to Live Instrumental and Electronics events involving large ensemble groups on stage (the MANTIS Battle of Gestures and Textures for voice, acoustic instruments and electronics). A call for national and international works, acousmatic, live or audiovisual compositions, regularly receives hundreds of submissions from all over the world.

Concerts normally take place at the Martin Harris Centre at the University of Manchester but we have also taken festival events to a number of venues in Manchester and the Northwest, such as the Victoria Baths, the Whitworth Art Gallery, and Lancaster. We are also proud to contribute to our local musical scene by having regular smaller-scale concerts at The Greenroom, Nexus Arts Cafe and more recently at MadLab, in the Northern Quarter (fully run by our students at the University of Manchester).

A central focus of MANTIS composers' research is experimentation within different acoustic spaces and with new audiences. In 2007 we launched MANTIS-in-Motion, putting MANTIS 'on wheels'. MANTIS concerts have taken place in Chile, Costa Rica, ZKM- Karlsruhe, Mexico DF, Zamora and Morelia (Mexico), Thailand, Japan, Sweden, Finland, Brussels, Berlin, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Valencia (Spain), Maynooth, (Ireland) and Aberdeen.

In the past, MANTIS has run the festival in co-partnership with Sonic Arts Network EXPO, LICA in Lancaster, the North Wales Music Exchange Conference, Digital Media Valencia, IDKA-Sweden, NK-Berlin or Empreintes DIGITALes and performers: Esther Lamneck (clarinet) , Elizabeth McNutt (flute), Neil Heyde, BBC Singers (with LICA), Kairos Electronic Ensemble, Christophe de Bezenac (Saxophone), Christion Sebille (Computer), Adam Melvin (saxophone), David L*wis (Percussion), Tom McKinney (Guitar), Iñigo Ibaibarriaga (Saxophones), Idoia Zabaleta (dance), Luo Chao-yun (Pipa) and Chen Wai-kai (Tai-chi improviser), Trio Atem and most recently Psappha (who played Kontakte by Karlheinz Stockhausen).

The last fourteen editions of the MANTIS festival hosted distinguished composers such as Francis Dhomont (on his 80th birthday), Annette Vande Gorne, Gerald Bennett, Jonty Harrison, Simon Emmerson, Denis Smalley, Pete Stollery, Pippa Murphy, Ludger Brümmer, Thomas Bjelkeborn, Joao Pedro Oliveira, Rajmil Fischman, Rodrigo Sigal, Barry Truax, Orm Finnendah, Francesco Dillon, Theodore Lotis, Andreas Mniestris, Jonas Valfridsson, Philip Marks, Camilo Salazar, Iain McCurdy, Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos, Dominique Bassal, Gilles Gobeil, Luis Antunes Peña, Iain McCurdy, David Butler, Martin Bedard, Federico Schumacher and Jef Chippewa.

MANTIS has focused on themes such as 'South-North', including music from Latin American composers, 'Battle of Gestures and textures', 'Launch of NOVARS' (including the commission of new works) or 2011's 'Manchester's Sonic Meta-ontology'.

Another important aspiration of MANTIS is to promote, disseminate and perform new works from electroacoustic composers based at The University of Manchester.

MANTIS events have been supported by organisations such as Arts Council England - West Midlands, Arts Council England - NorthWest, Cornerhouse, Mondrian Foundation, Dutch Embassy, Norwegian Music Info Centre, SAN, Performance Rights Society Foundation, American Music Centre, Manchester University, School of Arts Histories and Cultures, Sheila Beckles Foundation, Mexican Embassy in London, Eusko Jaurlaritza- Gobierno Vasco, Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores- Mexico, Council for Cultural Affairs (Taiwan), Centro Mexicano para La Musica y Artes Sonoras, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, The Goethe Institute Manchester and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.


MANTIS Setup at the Cosmo Rodewal Hall. 40 Gelenecs


FESTIVALS and MANTIS events to date:

More information, including a detailed programme of events, can be found on the MANTIS website at www.manchester.ac.uk/mantis/. For more information on events at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama visit our website at www.manchester.ac.uk/martinharriscentre or call the boxoffice on 0161 275 8951.

MANTIS SYSTEM

Alternative title.

A MANTIS 1037 speaker, one of the 40 Genelec Speakers of the MANTIS diffusion system.

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