PLOrk

The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (abbreviated PLOrk) is an ensemble of computer-based meta-instruments at Princeton University. PLOrk is part of research at Princeton University that investigates ways in which the computer can be integrated into conventional music-making contexts while also radically transforming those contexts. The Princeton Laptop Orchestra is a group of 12–15 persons and uses the “orchestra” (in a very general sense) as a model.

Each PLOrk “instrument” consists of a laptop, a multi-channel hemispherical speaker, and a variety of “control” devices (keyboards, graphics tablets, sensors). The members of this ensemble act as performers, researchers, composers, and software developers.

PLOrk was co-founded in 2005 by professors Perry Cook and Dan Trueman, with graduate students Scott Smallwood and Ge Wang, and funding and support from many Princeton University departments, organizations, and industrial affiliations. Composers and performers from Princeton and elsewhere developed new pieces for the ensemble, including Paul Lansky (Professor of Music at Princeton), Brad Garton (Director of the Columbia Computer Music Center), Pauline Oliveros, PLOrk co-founders Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, Scott Smallwood, Ge Wang, and others. The new PLOrk gave its first performance on April 4, 2006, in Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University. Grammy-winning tabla player Zakir Hussain, renowned accordionist Pauline Oliveros, and So Percussion also performed with the group. PLOrk has since performed at Dartmouth College, the Ear to the Earth festival (produced by the Electronic Music Foundation), ffmup and elsewhere. Several scholarly articles describing the motivations for establishing such an ensemble, the issues involved in composing for laptop orchestra, and pedagogical concerns, are currently in press. PLOrk was first presented academically at the 2006 International Computer Music Conference in New Orleans. The guest director of the PLOrk for 2007 was R. Luke DuBois.

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