About Live Structures
My compositions are defined by the importance of color and textures, and the structures of my works are intimately linked to the orchestral choices I make for each composition, whether a solo piece or a composition for full orchestra. I refer to this approach as Orchestration as Design. Composing from this perspective emphasizes the importance of timbres, color, and texture as structural principles in composition. The focus moves away from harmony and pitch systems to conceive of the continuous gesture of unfolding music in real time and stresses the perceptible experience of sound through a global approach instead of a sequential or cellular approach.

My work takes its inspiration from the world we live in: natural, sociological, and political. It is often inspired by nature’s geometry, structure, and textures, as if writing music could begin by starting with a magnifying glass at nature’s elements — water-gas-rock formations and chemical reactions — and creating from these images a series of abstract landscapes. It is also inspired by the world of humans, which is complex — rich and disconcerting, inspiring and horrifying.
I do not try to make an aesthetic experience of this reality. But as an artist, I question and seek to understand if the aesthetic paradigm expressed in sounds can be relevant, provocative, revealing, and possibly restorative for the listener.
In this research, I am going one step further with these various sources of inspiration to include data interpretation in the construction of my compositions — data from complex natural behaviors and from the analysis of rich sounds.
This systematic data investigation is the process by which I create Live Structures compositions that simulate specific complex systems. The interpretation from the analysis of complex sounds into graphical notation, symbolic systems, and nomenclature allows for repeated performances.
Ocular Scores
Graphical Notation
Flock to Music
Data Interpretation
Photo credit: David Cole
About Linda
Linda Bouchard is an active composer, conductor, and researcher, who music crosses a variety of media: acoustic and electronic music, as well as multimedia performances with interactive video, theatre, and dance. Born in Québec, Canada, Bouchard holds an undergraduate degree in composition from Bennington College (Vermont, 1977),and a graduate degree in composition and flute performance from the Manhattan School of Music (MSM; New York, 1982).
Bouchard was recently honored with the Prix Jan V. Matejcek for New Classical Music from the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN, 2023). She also received the Composer of the Year Prize (Conseil Québecois de la Culture, 1999), the Joseph S Stauffer Prize (Canada Council for the Arts, 1999), a Fleck Fellowship (Banff Centre, 2015), the Davidson Award from the Victoria Symphony Orchestra (Canada, 2017), first prize at the Princeton Composition Contest, the Indiana State Competition, and the National Association of Composers USA Contest, and a Fromm Music Foundation Award (Harvard University).
Bouchard moved to the United States in 1977 to study composition with Henry Brant. She lived in New York City from 1979 to 1990, where she composed, led new music ensembles, and made orchestral arrangements for The Washington Ballet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and various churches in the New York metropolitan area. She was assistant conductor for New York Children’s Free Opera from 1985 to 1988 and was a guest conductor for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Dance Festival, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Absolute Music Group, and the New Music Consort. In 1991, Bouchard returned to Montréal in time for the world premiere of her composition Elan with the Orchestre Métropolitain during the New Music America Festival. She was composer-in-residence from 1992 to 1995 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, where she composed several orchestral works and curated new music events. In 1997, she moved to San Francisco, where she resides with her husband and son.
In 2001, Bouchard was invited to participate at IRCAM’s Stage d’Informatique Musicale in Paris. Since then, she has pursued her interest in the intersection of traditional artistic practices and new technologies. In 2005, Bouchard founded New Experimental Music, Art and Production (NEXMAP), a non-profit arts organization that explores this evolving artistic landscape. She acted as artistic director until January 2016. Bouchard was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley during spring 2016. Since the mid 2000s, Bouchard has been creating multimedia work while continuing to compose music for the concert hall.
Since 2017, Bouchard presented lectures on her developing custom software tool Ocular Scores® at the International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation (TENOR), the German Society for Music Theory Conference (October 2019), IRCAM Forum Hors-les-Murs (Montréal—delivered over zoom due to COVID-19), and was invited to present at the ISCM Conference in New Zealand (which was cancelled due to COVID-19). Currently, she serves as a guest researcher at the Center for New Music and Audio Technology at University of California Berkley. She is working with designer Jeffrey Lubow, under the supervision of Carmine-Emanuelle Cella, to further develop Ocular Scores®. Current commissioning projects include the Bozzini Quartet in a collaboration with videographer Huei Lin, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.
Research Collaborators
Joseph Browne
Joseph Browne is an emerging sound artist based in Montreal. His work encompasses: sound design and composition for theatre as well as interaction design and computer music.
In 2015 he was awarded CUSRA (Undergraduate Research Award) funding to research and develop spatial audio methods for stage performance. He was recently nominated for a META (Montreal English Theatre Award) for Outstanding Composition for his sound design on Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre’s production of Bar Kapra: The Squirrel Hunter.
He studied electroacoustic composition at Concordia University, where he now works as an artist researcher and technical coordinator of the Matralab, and as an associate researcher at the Topological Media Lab. His research areas include machine improvising, responsive media, spatial audio. Joseph Browne is the Designer of Ocular Scores™.
Sandeep Bhagwati
Matralab, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec Canada
Professor Sandeep Bhagwati is a multiple award-winning composer, theatre director and media artist.
As Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Arts at Concordia University since 2006, Professor Bhagwati currently directs matralab, a research/creation center for intercultural and interdisciplinary arts. His current work centers on comprovisation, inter-traditional aesthetics, the aesthetics of interdisciplinarity, gestural theatre, sonic theatre and interactive visual and non-visual scores. Sandeep Bhagwati has been counseling the research on Ocular Scores™.
Jeffrey Lubow
CNMAT, UC Berkeley, California USA
Jeffrey M. Lubow is currently supporting Linda Bouchard in further developing the tool Ocular Scores. He is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher concerned with the space between body and technology.
Jeffrey studied conceptual art at the Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI), and electronic music practice at Mills College (Oakland, California). Since then, he has worked with various organizations, including Cycling '74, The Hafter Auditory Perception, and Starkey Hearing Research Center. In 2008, Jeffrey commenced a research position at The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at the University of California, Berkeley. He is focusing on instrument building, music technology, pedagogy, and experimental software development. He currently occupies the role of Music Systems Designer at CNMAT.
Edmund Campion
CNMAT, UC Berkeley, California USA
Edmund Campion is the Director at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at the University of California, Berkeley and is overseeing the residency that Bouchard is pursuing at CNMAT. He is an internationally recognized composer, performer, and collaborating artist for over 30 years, he continues to produce highly personal music that often mixes emerging technologies with acoustic instruments and electronic sounds.
Campion is the recipient of several accolades including the American Rome Prize (1994), the Lili Boulanger Prize (1993), the Paul Fromm Award (Tanglewood, 1992), and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship (American Academy in Rome). In his own words, “[his] role [at CNMAT] is to foster creation of new music and to build the pedagogical models necessary for new music creation and production”
Carmine-Emanuelle Cella
CNMAT, UC Berkley, California USA
Carmine-Emanuele Cella is an internationally acclaimed composer with advancedstudies in mathematics. He is overseeing the development of the tool Ocular Scores.Cella strives to utilize music as a medium to intersect the structured world ofmathematics and the chaotic world of artistic expression. Cella does not concernhimself with standard paradigms in music. Rather, he writes sound itself to reflect itsstory. Cella enjoys an interdisciplinary background of studies including piano, computermusic, composition, mathematics, and philosophy. He holds PhD degrees incomposition (Accademia S. Cecilia, Rome) and in applied mathematics (Università diBologna).
Since January 2019, Carmine is a professor in music and technology at the Universityof California at Berkeley, where he is also lead researcher at the Center for New Musicand Audio Technology (CNMAT). Since 2020, Carmine is also professor of computermusic at Conservatorio G. Rossini in Pesaro. In 2022 he has been the recipient of theprestigious Traiettorie music prize for composition, with the following motivation: “for hisresearches in the field of Artificial Intelligence applied to musical creation, augmentedreality, the definition of mathematical models for the representation of sound throughdeep learning techniques and machine learning methods for computer-assistedorchestration.”
Philippe Pasquier
Metacreation Lab, Vancouver, BC Canada
Philippe Pasquier works on creative AI and generative systems. He is both a scientist specialized in artificial intelligence, a multidisciplinary artist, an educator, and a community builder. His contributions range from theoretical research in multi-agent systems, computational creativity and machine learning to applied artistic research and practice in digital art, computer music, and generative art. Philippe is an associate professor in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology and an adjunct professor in Cognitive Science at Simon Fraser University.
http://www.sfu.ca/pasquier | http://metacreation.net
http://MusicalMetacreation.org | http://MovementComputing.org/
Kadenze Class: https://tinyurl.com/ycvleqlm
Jeff Ens
Jeff Ens is a PhD student in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on endowing machines with creative behaviour. More specifically, Jeff is working on generative polyphonic music systems using artificial intelligence techniques.
Performers Collaborators
Photo credit: Uli Templin
Kyle Bruckmann
Oakland, CA-based composer/performer Kyle Bruckmann’s work extends from a classical foundation into gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music and post-punk rock. He is a member of acclaimed new music collective sfSound, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, and Quinteto Latino. He has worked with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area’s regional orchestras while remaining active in an international community of improvisers and sound artists. From 1996-2003, he was a fixture in Chicago’s experimental music underground; long-term affiliations include the electro-acoustic duo EKG, the art-punk monstrosity Lozenge, and the Creative Music quintet Wrack.
Photo credit: FIMAV 2014 Martin Morissette
Lori Freedman
Lori Freedman is known internationally for her provocative and creative performances. As an interpreter of written music for clarinet hundreds of works have been dedicated to and/or premiered by her. While managing a full performance schedule (more than 75 concerts a year), making recordings, touring and leading workshops, Freedman has also been receiving commissions to write music for an eclectic group of artists from all over the world. In 2017 she was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for “outstanding artistic achievement,” twenty years after having received the Freddie Stone Award (1998) for the “demonstration of outstanding leadership, integrity and excellence in the area of contemporary music and jazz.” Her most recent feature recordings include On No On (Mode Records), Bridge (Collection QB), Plumb (Barnyard Records), 3 and À un moment donné (Ambiances Magnétiques), Huskless! (Artifact Music), See Sawand Thin Air (Wig).
Photo credit: FIMAV 2014 Martin Morissette
Photo credit: Michèle Bühler
François Houle
Clarinetist François Houle has established himself as one of today’s most inventive musicians. Inspired by collaborations with the world’s top musical innovators, François has developed a unique improvisational language, virtuosic and rich with sonic embellishment and technical extensions. A sought after soloist and chamber musician, he has actively expanded the clarinet’s repertoire by commissioning some of today’s leading Canadian and international composers and premiering over one hundred new works. François’s contribution to the Canadian and international improvised music scene spans three decades, with extensive touring at major festivals around the world. A prolific recording artist, earning multiple Juno Award and West Coast Music Award nominations, he has been listed on numerous occasions in Downbeat magazine’s Readers and Critics’ Polls as “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” and “Rising Star”.
Photo credit: ©KaiBienert
Charlotte Hug
Swiss-born Charlotte Hug is an inter-media artist, composer, improviser and musician of the extreme. Her innovative solo performances in distinctive locations have created an international furore. With her inter-medial compositions, room-scores and Son-Icons (visual sounds) she created a new genre of multidisciplinary music and art. Hug has reinvented the viola. Her specialty is also a blend of viola and vocals into hybrid sounds. Having completed her studies in fine arts and classical music she won divers awards such as “artist- residencies in London, Paris, Berlin, Johannesburg, Shanghai. She was “artiste étoile” (star artist) at the world-renown Lucerne Festival and nominated for the Classic:Next – Innovation Award 2019. Hug is fully active as a concert performer, soloist, composer and conductor of her own works at major festivals worldwide. She is head of the international postgraduate studies Creation & Scenario in Music at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Jacob Felix Heule
Jacob Felix Heule is an improvising percussionist with a special interest in friction techniques. His music is shaped by intuition, listening, and following where the sounds lead. He embraces limited instrumentation – like a single drum and a single cymbal – as a commitment to exploring the depth of his instruments.
Heule frequently collaborates with Danishta Rivero, Guro Moe, Haavard Skaset, Kanoko Nishi-Smith, Matt Chandler, Chris Cooper, Kevin Corcoran, Kyle Bruckmann, Tom Djll, and Bill Orcutt. He also organizes the monthly Active Music Series, and facilitates a monthly improvisation workshop, Doors That Only Open in Silence.
Heule's practice is informed by his work as an audio engineer. In addition to regularly doing live sound, he has worked on albums by artists such as Burmese, Las Sucias, and Black Spirituals.
Other Collaborators
Photo credit: Xavi Bou
Xavi Bou
“Xavi Bou focuses on birds, his great passion, in order to capture in a single time frame, the shapes they generate when flying, making visible the invisible.”
Xavi Bou was graduated in Geology by Barcelona University while he was studying at the International Photography Grisart School. Once finished his studies in 2003, Xavi started his professional career in the fashion and advertisement photography world, as a photographer assistant. In 2009, he co-founded with his partner Dani Ciprian, La Crin Studio, a photography retouch studio specialized in big campaigns for national and international brands and magazines.
Xavi combines his retouch work with the development of his personal photography projects. Ornitographies, got him to publish in the main European magazines, like The Guardian, The Volkstrant, Sonntag, The Spiegel, National Geographic or Geo. His project also was exhibited in Holand, United Estates and Spain.
http://www.xavibou.com/index.php/project/about-ornitographies/
Photo credit: Xavi Bou