Paulo C. Chagas, Director

Tel: (951)827-2939
Email: paulo.chagas@ucr.edu

https://paulocchagas.com

Born in Salvador, Brazil, prolific composer Paulo C. Chagas has created over 160 works in many different forms including stage, orchestra, chamber, choral, percussion, solo instruments, electroacoustic, and multimedia. His award-winning and ambitious productions have been applauded throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. After living and working for extended periods in Belgium and Germany, Chagas has resided in the U.S. since 2004. 

As a survivor of torture in his early adulthood at the hands of the Brazilian military, it should not be surprising that Chagas’ art has been indelibly shaped by such an experience. His music has consistently been born out of experimentation and the desire to use the transcendent power of creation to heal and exemplify a resistance to the darker tendencies of societies, a threat posed by the over-commercialization of art. Chagas’ oeuvre explores heterogeneity and richness across cultures.

Chagas first studied at the Universidade de São Paulo and later with Henri Pousseur at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège and the University of Liège. He then turned his focus toward electronic music, studying at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, and earned his PhD in Musicology at the Université de Liège.

Among numerous honors, Chagas has received composition prizes from highly esteemed international competitions over the course of his career. His piece, Webern: de tempos em tempos won at Rio de Janeiro, while Oddort was honored at l'Opéra Autrement from the Centre Acanthes. Bonfirm was selected for the IAMIC Annual List. Chagas has also received commissions from the festival Ars Musica in Brussels, the Bonner Entwicklungswerkstatt für Computermedien, the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, Moscow Autumn, MusikTriennale, Oper Bonn, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, WDR Radio Cologne, and the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik.

As sound director and composer-in-residence at the Studio for Electronic Music at WDR Radio Cologne in the 1990s, Chagas conducted research in computer music, algorithmic composition, electronic music, interactivity, multimedia, and sound spatialization. He taught as a visiting lecturer at the Université de Liège in Belgium from 1991–93 and at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège in 1995–96. He served as a member of the board of directors of the Centre Henri Pousseur in Liège from 1996-2004, and was musical director and composer-in-residence of the Bonn Research Center of Computer Media in Germany.

From 2004-2008, Chagas was Assistant Professor of Composition before being promoted to Professor of Composition in 2008, at the University of California, Riverside. It was there he founded the state-of-the-art Experimental Acoustic Research Studio, a facility designed to modernize interdisciplinary research for electroacoustic music and multimedia. Since 2005, Chagas’ music has been extensively performed in dozens of countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas by distinguished soloists and orchestras alike.

Chagas’ scholarly activity has organically evolved alongside his artistic career. He has written several book chapters, journal articles, and proceedings in English, Portuguese, German, and French. His book, Unsayable Music (Leuven University Press, 2014), develops in great detail the main themes of his research, which include electroacoustic and digital music, musical semiotics, and philosophy.

Chagas’ compositional philosophy is driven by the belief that a major transformation is occurring in the way we create and experience art and music in today’s digital world. Aside from writing for traditional acoustic media, Chagas’ work makes extensive use of electronic sound and audiovisual media while developing a critical approach to technology in order to achieve transparency and illuminate human thinking and emotion. Chagas holds that art has an ethical mission to provide people the opportunity to observe the world from the outside. Now more than ever, the arts offer myriad possibilities for transcendence while critically engaging with human and social issues.

James Lin, Technical Director

Email: james.lin@ucr.edu

James Lin is the Chief Technology Officer for the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. He is responsible for technology planning, budgeting, development, daily technology operations, and aligning technology vision with business strategy by integrating business processes with the appropriate technologies. He is also responsible for all aspects of developing and implementing technology initiatives within CHASS. James manages a high performance technology team in developing and maintaining College-wide enterprise systems, and providing direction in all technology related issues in support of business operations and core organization's values.

Gary Barnett

Gary Barnett is a lecturer in undergraduate music theory and music skills at the University of California, Riverside. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, Riverside, and a DMA in piano performance from the University of Kansas. His research and performance interests are devoted to keyboard literature from diverse eras and styles with an emphasis on piano music of living composers and music for piano and electronics. Barnett has performed as a keyboard soloist and collaborative artist in the Russian Federation, Singapore, the United States, Latin America, Europe and the United Kingdom. In Southern California, concerts with piano and electronics include the Culver Center for the Arts, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles Community College, Dixie State University, among others.

Bradley Butterworth

Bradley Butterworth is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, audio engineer, producer, educator, and the owner of Studio B Recordings LLC in Northridge, CA. His roots as a musician are deeply influenced by his childhood in Metro Detroit. The rhythm and blues music of Motown made an early impression on Bradley, and continues to shape his musicality to this day. 

Bradley has since received a BFA in guitar performance from Columbia College Chicago, as well as a MFA as a Performer and Composer from The California Institute of the Arts. Since moving to California, he has composed, produced, mixed, and mastered dozens of projects from world music to jazz to chamber music. Bradley's original breadth of work is highly diverse and original.

As an audio engineer, Bradley has worked at The Young Turks News Network, Rat Sound Systems, The Troubadour, Avalon Hollywood, The Brooklyn Bowl, The Wynn Hotel and Casino, REDCAT Theatre at Disney Hall, The California Institute of the Arts, and The Grammy Award-winning TV Tray Studio.

Bradley is a Visiting Assistant Professor in The Department of Music at The University of California Riverside, teaching Audio Recording and Production, Songwriting, and Concert Production.

Eun Cho

Eun Cho is a music educator and a researcher, interested in the interdisciplinary research that encompasses music, education, psychology, and culture. Currently, she is a visiting scholar/external researcher at EARS at UCR. She is also involved in the International Research Symposium on Talent Education (IRSTE) Research team. 

She received a Doctor of Musical Arts in music education from the University of Southern California (USC). Previously, she was involved in several research initiatives, including USC Brain and Creativity Institute for a longitudinal research project on music and the brain and AIRS: Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing. She also holds a Master of Arts and a Master of Education in music and music education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her current research focuses on music-evoked nostalgia, and small music ensembles as a context to cultivate social-emotional skills and creativity. Musical parenting is another area in which she is particularly interested.  

Over the past 15 years, she has taught music to learners of all ages from widely different settings, including early childhood music programs, K-12 schools, colleges, music studios, and community music programs in New York, Los Angeles, and South Korea. 

Visit www.eunchomusic.com to learn more about her work.