Electronic Music Midwest

Electronic Music Midwest (EMM) is a festival of new electroacoustic music.

EMM is the result of a consortium formed between Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC), Lewis University, and the University of Missouri–Kansas City. This festival was founded by Mike McFerron, Connie Mayfield, and Paul Rudy in 2000 when it was presented at KCKCC under the name "Kansas City Electronic Music Festival." In 2001, the festival continued at Lewis University under the title, "Electronic Music at Lewis - 2001." Electronic Music Midwest became the official name at the 2002 festival held at Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Electronic Music Midwest continued its tradition of excellence, in this, its eleventh annual festival hosted by Kansas City Kansas Community College. As one of the premiere electroacoustic conferences in the world, EMM is responsible for having performed over 500 works. That is quite the feat. This essential festival is remarkably approachable for anyone willing to take the first leap. If your impression of electronic music is a random collection of bleeps and blorps, the variety of music at EMM will astound you if you’re willing to delve into outwardly atypical aural spaces - Eclectic electronics By Lee Hartman KCMetropolis.org Tue, Oct 04, 2011

In celebration of EMM's 10th anniversary, Lewis University hosted the first EMM mini-Invitational festival on March 11, 2010. 15 composers were invited to present up to 15 minutes of music during this one-day, three concert festival. Among other compositions, highlights from this festival included Three Improvisatory Groovescapes (performed by the composer) by EMM technical director, Ian Corbett, Tranquility by Kyong Mee Choi, Bapu (performed by Lisa Bost-Sandberg) by Asha Srinivasan, and Texturologie 6: Emerald Emergent by James Caldwell.

Composer's Voice Concert Series hosted a EMM mini-Invitational festival on June 24, 2012.

EMM has always featured an 8-speaker surround diffusion system under the guidance of Ian Corbett. The core of the system are eight Mackie 1521 bi-amped speakers, an EAW/QSC subwoofer system, and a Soundcraft MH3, 32+4 Channel mixer.

Since its beginning, EMM has programmed over 500 new electroacoustic compositions. Composers have traveled from around the world to graciously share their music with audiences in the Midwest. EMM strives to create an environment conducive to building community interaction. Most concerts are approximately one hour long, and composers have plenty of time to "talk shop" with each other as well as interact socially with students and audience members.