Iowa State’s annual Lipa Festival of Contemporary Music is bridging the gap between technology and live performance by opening up people’s minds and ears to new styles of composition. This year’s festival highlights music performed with a computer.

“The computer interacts with the performer, playing back cues to accompany the performer with some true interaction between the computer and the artist,” says Chris Hopkins, director of the Lipa Festival and assistant professor of music at Iowa State.

Hopkins has been the director of Lipa Festival for the last two years, and within that time he’s adapted it to something less conventional.

“We have music that follows more in an experimental theme, using traditional orchestra instruments. I’ve selected concerts that use electro-acoustic music, music which incorporates electronics one way or the other,” he says.

Electronic music is something we hear all the time without thinking about it, Hopkins says. He says hopes to show people another side to something which he believes people don’t consider music.

F. Gerrard Errante, the artist highlighted for this year’s festival, uses an amplified clarinet which a special computer interprets and plays, combining it with pre-mixed studio music to create a unique sound landscape.

To ease people into understanding e-music’s nuances, Errante will be attending Hopkin’s class lectures, as well as holding a special lecture to the public where he’ll demonstrate how the process works before the concert in the evening.

Although Hopkins finds e-music composers pride themselves on novelty, he says the music is more accessible than what normal concert goers might expect.

“It’s not intended to be esoteric – it has a traditional side and an unconventional side to it,” says Hopkins.

If there’s one aspect of the festival Hopkins is completely satisfied with, it’s the venue.

Taking place in the Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall, he feels it offers a top notch hall for instrumental music. Coupled with the sound, this year’s performance also involves a visual element.

By incorporating video with two of the pieces Errante performs, Hopkins believes it will make the concert-goers emotionally connected. He says video helps people become more engaged, just as watching a traditional music performance helps add to the musical experience.

In the future, Hopkins hopes the festival could expand into two concerts rather than one. Awareness of what the Lipa Festival has to offer is necessary for that to happen.

Most importantly, Hopkins finds Lipa Festival to highlight the strengths of Iowa State.

“[Lipa Festival] is a good thing for a university that focuses on science and technology,” he said.