Composer, Kaija Saariaho died on June 2, 2023. In the Fall of 2015, Ms. Saariaho was the Bloch Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley. Her husband Jean-Baptiste Barrière was the holder of the CNMAT David Wessel Residency in Music and Science. Edmund Campion conducted lengthy interviews with Kaija and Jean-Baptiste throughout their stay. Her presence at CNMAT was one of the highlights of the last decade.
"That's very sad and unexpected. My lesson with her was one of the best I've had...In m158a today, we'll listen to Verblendungen or Lichtbogen. I think these pieces show a very different role for the computer's participation: how she fuses them intentionally so there is no audible separation between human and computer. ....Very different from the whole acousmatic "tape" music idiom and goals where it's clear and intentional that the computer is slicing and dicing sounds."
