05.06.09 Dear Integra website user, This is the first of what will hopefully be a regular series of newsletters outlining the activities and achievements of the Integra project over the next two and a half years. For those of you that don’t know already, Integra is a Europe-wide live electronic music project that is led by Birmingham Conservatoire (UK) and funded by the European Commission. Phase one of the project was completed in late 2008 and, following a plenary session held in Birmingham in March 2009, the second phase is now fully underway. Central to Integra is the creation of a brand new piece of software that will enable composers and ensembles to work with live electronic material in a more intuitive way. Phase one saw the successful completion of the background code for the environment and in Integra 2 we are now focused on creating a graphical user interface (GUI) that will enable the power of the software to be exploited easily but with depth. Six partner organisations (including Birmingham) are working on this aspect of the project, and they are listed below. Our artistic aims are no less important. With five major commissions over the next three years, all of which will involve the use of the environment, we hope to establish Integra as a platform that composers will want to use for its adaptability and accessibility. Six partner organisations (including Birmingham) are working on this facet, and they are also listed below. Sustainability is a key part of the Integra vision: music that cannot be performed is obsolete, and this is a problem that many important pieces of live electronic music encounter as technology changes and the equipment required for their realisation becomes harder and harder to source. We hope to address this issue by migrating such pieces to the Integra environment, thus providing a new platform for works that would otherwise be forgotten. Alongside the elements described above, we also aim to run an extensive series of education and outreach events that will provide training in live electronic music practices for musicians, researchers and producers. Thank you for your interest in the project and please keep checking our website for updates. Tom Cahill-Jones Integra Project Administrator Tel: +44 (0)121 331 5913 Email: tom.cahill-jones@bcu.ac.uk Website: http://www.integralive.org/ Lead Partner Birmingham Conservatoire Birmingham, UK Research Centres CIRMMT McGill University Montreal, Canada IEM Graz, Austria Malmö Academy of Music Malmö, Sweden Muzyka Centrum Krakow, Poland NOTAM Oslo, Norway New Music Ensembles Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen, Denmark BIT 20 Ensemble Bergen, Norway Court-circuit Paris, France Ensemble Ars Nova Malmö, Sweden Grup Instrumental Valencia, Spain