N-BEAM Consortium (Jim Mobley, Alex Shapiro, & Benjamin Taylor)

N-BEAM Consortium Every day we hear and experience music that has
incorporated music technology, through electronic components and
instruments, to positively contribute to the listener's overall
musical experience.  Electro-Acoustic (EA) music is now widely
accepted in music - in both production and performance - from
scores created for screen and stage, to popular music, and even the
professional classical orchestra stage. As technology becomes a
more important part of the daily life of our students and can
create new palates of sound in our music, educators must embrace
technology as part of our sound and our curriculum - much the
same way as it already has been in most other areas of music.
 The New Band Electro-Acoustic Music (N-BEAM) consortium aims
to add three new pieces of EA music to the school concert band
repertoire. ​In 2018, N-BEAM v1.0 released it's first composition
to its members - TECHNO BLADE, by Benjamin Taylor.
 This was followed in 2019 with Daniel Montoya Jr.'s
composition AXE TO GRIND.  In 2020, the N-BEAM consortium met
the goal of introducing three new pieces of EA music to the school
concert band repertoire by the addition of Alex Shapiro's OFF THE
EDGE. With N-BEAM v2.0, the New Band Electro-Acoustic Music
consortium project looks to build on this success with the addition
of three more EA pieces to the wind band repertoire. Beginning in
early 2021, N-BEAM v2.0 consortium members
will receive the first of three new pieces of concert
band literature, graded between 2 and 2.5, each including an
audio component.  Those components may be live or
interactive, using an electronic instrument or computer/tablet
to create sounds; or may be fixed, like an accompaniment audio
track that is played throughout the composition. Each of these
compositions will be created in a way that will allow any school
(and their director), the "plug and play" ability to perform
each composition easily and effectively, regardless of their
experience with technology, their level of access to sound
reinforcement equipment or their technology/instrument budget. ​At
least 30 schools will have an opportunity to join a consortium that
funds the creation of those three pieces.  And each consortium
member will receive performance benefits for being part of this
project.