€xtin¢tion$ (2020) – James Bohn (United States)

Inspired by the Devo song

“No Place Like Home,”

€xtin¢tion$ explores the hubristic irony of a people who
doom themselves to extinction in pursuit of materialism.

The Devo song imagines
“Maybe it really is ok . . .
the skies and waters will clear in a world without us.”

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Ann adds: One of the unexpected delights of my project has been both meeting several composers (in person and on Zoom) and even, in some cases, collaborating with them. In February 2023, Jim invited me to play at Stonehill College in Massachusetts where he teaches. He played the pedal steel guitar on €xtin¢tion$, bringing a whole new depth and texture to the work.

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James Bohn is a composer and music technology specialist. His music has been performed internationally as well as throughout the United States. He has had his music presented at the Bonk Festival, CYNETart, the Electronic Rainbow Coalition, the extensible Toy Piano Festival, the Florida Electro-Acoustic Music Festival, the La Crosse New Music Festival, the MAXIS festival of Sound and Experimental Music, MEDiA CIRCU[it]S, Most Significant Bytes, The Not Still Art Festival, the University of Alabama New Music Festival, and the University of Central Missouri New Music Festival.

His music appears on several recording labels: Capstone, The Experimental Music Studios, Frog Peak, and The Media Cafe. James has received commissions from the Bonk Festival, the University of Illinois School of Music, The College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, The Music Institute at Rhode Island
College Choir, Part of the Oath Dance Ensemble, The Rhode Island College Choir, The Rhode Island College Wind Ensemble, and the Boston and Chicago Chapter of the American Composer’s Forum.

As a scholar, James has given papers at conferences for the American Musical Instrument Society, the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, Technological Directions in Music Learning, the MAXIS festival, The Northeast Popular Culture Association, and the American Chemical Society. He has written a book about Lejaren Hiller (the first composer to write a piece of music using a computer) as well as Music in Disney’s Animated Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Jungle Book.