Introducing The Princeton Laptop Orchestra
Making music with a notebook is not a new concept, but setting up an ensemble of 15 students and playing live is. The folks involved with the Princeton Orchestra (PLOrk) combine hardware and new audio programming software to create innovative compositions.
What will crazy college kids do next? First, there was that old "see how many toga wearers we can cram in a phone booth" trick. Next came the "let's see how many of us puke if we do a shot of beer every minute for 100 minutes" trick. The latest trick? Let's see if we can compose music worthy of Brahms with students and a bunch of laptops. Officially, it's called the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, PLOrk for short. There are at least 15 dorks in PLOrk at last count. And their goal is to explore the horizons of creating sounds with notebooks, speakers and electronic music devices. Kidding aside, PLOrk has been around just a year, and thanks partly to a new audio programming language (Chuck) created by student Ge Wang, the innovative concept is already garnering serious attention from the press and real musicians. So they must be on to something. Professional composers and musos are creating laptop music for and with PLOrk, the likes of tabla master Zakir Mussain and Brad Garton, the director of Columbia University's computer music center.
PLOrk has even gotten press in techie print journals like Wired magazine. The orchestra has had performances, too, first in April on the Princeton campus. In May, they hit the road and played Dartmouth College. Heck, next, they'll have groupies. I have my new Macbook, Casio CTK-691, and Dire Straitsesque pink neon headband - where do I sign up?
