Jonny Smith

Research Assistant

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About

Toronto-based percussionist Jonny Smith is an avid performer of new and contemporary music. His solo concerts have been described as “phenomenal and surprising, even from a performer who is already known for eclectic and diverse performances.” (M. Wightman, The Argosy). Jonny has worked with numerous contemporary composers, commission and developing new works for solo percussion, including Kevin Lau, Quinn Jacobs, Riho Maimets, Stephanie Orlando, Liam Ritz, and others.

Jonny is also a founding member of the marimba duo Taktus. Taktus released its debut album, “Glass Houses for Marimba” in July 2015. It has been nominated for an East Coast Music Award in the category of Classical Recording of the Year and was included in the CBC’s Top 10 Canadian Classical Albums of 2015. On January 24th, 2020, Taktus released their second album, “Mirrored Glass,” with Ravello Records and PARMA Recordings. The album was listed among the CBC’s Top 20 Canadian Classical Albums of 2020.

As an active part of the new music community, Jonny has performed with various chamber ensembles in Canada including the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, Din of Shadows, and the Freesound Series.

Jonny has also recently finished a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Toronto. His research centres on composer-performer collaborations in the development of new percussion music. It examines how long-term, collaborative relationships are initiated, how they develop over time, how the participants communicate about their shared work, and how collaboration affects their individual practice.

Projects

MadLib

by Louis Pino

MadLib is an electro-acoustic piece for open instrumentation with live electronics created using Max software. It was commissioned by Jonny Smith in 2021 from composer Louis Pino. The concept of this work was to create a piece that can be customized by the performer in a variety of ways thereby giving the performer greater creative agency and allowing for a wide array of potential musical outcomes. The concept of the piece is inspired by the word game, Mad Libs. In the game, the reader or group of readers is asked to think of and write down random words. These words are then used to fill in the blanks of a prewritten story, usually for comic effect. A core aspect of the piece is the performer uploading their own audio samples to then be manipulated by the patch in some preset and some personally customizable processes.

A study was held from October 4th to November 6th 2022, involving various TaPIR researchers learning, experimenting with, and recording their own versions of the piece. The goal of this experiment was to analyze how performers chose to perform and interact with the electronic accompaniment, and to evaluate the piece as a creative practical tool to aid in learning the Max software. MadLib premiered in April 2022 at The Space Between conference at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Both Smith and Pino performed their own versions of the piece in order to demonstrate how the piece can be shaped in a variety of ways by different performers.

Renderer

by Quinn Jacobs

This poster presents the collaborative research of Louis Pino and Jonny Smith in creating a concert piece for solo percussion that is open to customization by the performer. Pino has extensive experience composing music with Max while Smith focused his doctoral research on the subject of collaborative creativity. Together they are working on a new piece that consists of a notated score with open instrumentation and a Max patch template which is designed to be customized by the performer of the piece. The question that their research seeks to answer is: Can collaborative learning yield useful results in designing a piece that is both a compelling concert piece and an effective tool for learning about Max software? Research studies in collaborative creativity have shown that collaboration does not necessarily yield satisfactory musical results for the musicians involved (Hayden and Windsor, 2007). However, it has also been demonstrated that direct communication and mutual learning throughout the creative process are vital to the success of collaborative projects (Smith, 2020). Throughout their collaborative process, Pino and Smith each provide feedback to one another on the design of the piece and the programming of the Max patch. This reciprocal feedback has aided them in developing a piece that can be a useful introduction to Max software. Furthermore, their focus on creating a piece that is modifiable by each performer means that the collaborative aspect of the work is not finished once the score is complete. In this research poster, Pino and Smith will present an analysis of their process for creating the piece and a discussion of how their individual research in music technology and creative collaboration have intersected to create a new piece that is truly interactive and malleable.

Interactivity in Composition and Performance: A Study in Music Technology and Collaborative Creativity

This poster presents the collaborative research of Louis Pino and Jonny Smith in creating a concert piece for solo percussion that is open to customization by the performer. Pino has extensive experience composing music with Max while Smith focused his doctoral research on the subject of collaborative creativity. Together they are working on a new piece that consists of a notated score with open instrumentation and a Max patch template which is designed to be customized by the performer of the piece. The question that their research seeks to answer is: Can collaborative learning yield useful results in designing a piece that is both a compelling concert piece and an effective tool for learning about Max software? Research studies in collaborative creativity have shown that collaboration does not necessarily yield satisfactory musical results for the musicians involved (Hayden and Windsor, 2007). However, it has also been demonstrated that direct communication and mutual learning throughout the creative process are vital to the success of collaborative projects (Smith, 2020). Throughout their collaborative process, Pino and Smith each provide feedback to one another on the design of the piece and the programming of the Max patch. This reciprocal feedback has aided them in developing a piece that can be a useful introduction to Max software. Furthermore, their focus on creating a piece that is modifiable by each performer means that the collaborative aspect of the work is not finished once the score is complete. In this research poster, Pino and Smith will present an analysis of their process for creating the piece and a discussion of how their individual research in music technology and creative collaboration have intersected to create a new piece that is truly interactive and malleable.
Poster from The Space Between Conference at McMaster University, April 29-30 2022