SPLICE Ensemble: Ansible

SPLICE Ensemble

SPLICE Ensemble is dedicated to cultivating a canon of electroacoustic chamber music for trumpet, piano, and percussion, bringing together acoustic virtuosity, live electronics, and experimental sound. Called a “sonic foodfight” by Jazz Weekly, SPLICE Ensemble combines instrumental virtuosity and electronic media in performances that expand the possibilities of contemporary chamber music. The ensemble consists of Sam Wells (trumpet), Keith Kirchoff (piano), and Adam Vidiksis (percussion, drum set). All three members are experienced electronic musicians and acoustic performers who collaborate closely with composers to create and perform works that integrate electronics with acoustic instruments. Since its formation in 2016, the ensemble has premiered more than 120 works by over 100 composers, playing a central role in developing the repertoire for instruments and electronics through close collaboration with artists and technologists. The ensemble also maintains a deep commitment to education through its work with students and emerging composers at the SPLICE Institute and Festival. SPLICE Ensemble has worked with composers including Elainie Lillios, Christopher Biggs, Brian Belet, Caroline Louise Miller, Alex Christie, Per Bloland, Flannery Cunningham, Robert Seaback, Joo Won Park, Steve Ricks, and Scott L. Miller, among many others. The ensemble is the resident ensemble of both the SPLICE Institute and SPLICE Festival and has been featured at venues and conferences including M Woods in Beijing, SEAMUS, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, the SCI National Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, and New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music festival. Their recordings appear on the SEAMUS, PARMA, and New Focus Recordings labels.

Steven L. Ricks

Steven L. Ricks (b. 1969) is described in BBC Music Magazine as a composer “unafraid to tackle big themes.” He creates work that is bold, innovative, ambitious, and diverse, often including strong narrative and theatrical influences. He writes for specific performers and performance situations and works towards unique moments that capitalize on interesting convergences. For the past 15+ years Ricks has also been active as a performer on trombone and laptop (live electronics), most notably with colleague Christian Asplund through the RICKSPLUND free-improvisation duo. Ricks has performed and recorded with RICKSPLUND and other artists, including Douglas Ewart, Vinny Golia, Anne La Berge, Ron Coulter, and Oğuz Büyükberber. He has received commissions and awards from the Fromm Music Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, SCI, and The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, among others. Recordings of his music appear on multiple labels, including Bridge Records, New Focus Recordings, Neuma Records, Albany Records, pfMENTUM, Vox Novus, TryTone, and Comprovise Records.

Ricks is a professor in the BYU School of Music where he teaches music theory and composition. He is currently a member of the Board of Advisors for the Barlow Endowment (2026-30), and was formerly BYU School of Music Composition and Theory Division Coordinator (2016-24), Editor of the Newsletter for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (2012-19), and director of the BYU Electronic Music Studio for 20 years (2001-21).

Caroline Louise Miller

Caroline Louise Miller (they/them) is a US composer based in Portland, Oregon. Common themes in their work include affect, ecology, labor politics, tactility, and the materiality of media, often within dreamlike musical spaces that incorporate field recordings and electronic textures with acoustic instruments. They have enjoyed wide-ranging collaborations and have been supported by numerous grants, fellowships, and commissions; including from Seattle Modern Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound/Matt Marks Impact Fund, New Wave Opera, Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, SPLICE Ensemble, Ensemble Adapter, Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, Transient Canvas, and others. Their music is performed nationally and internationally. In 2014, Miller worked as an artist-in-residence aboard a Scripps Institution of Oceanography research vessel in the Philippine Sea. Field recordings from the ship were used to compose the score for a feature-length experimental documentary by Lyndsay Bloom about daily life aboard the ship. Miller’s multimedia installation Here There: (Re)collecting Labor on the American Railway, co-created with artist Stefani Byrd and featuring a score recorded with Alarm Will Sound, incorporates field recordings and video footage taken at endangered historic sites in Northern California, and has been exhibited internationally. From 2012-2017, Miller organized and curated an annual cross-disciplinary collaborative arts showcase at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. Miller is currently Assistant Professor of Sonic Arts at Portland State University, where they teach courses including electronic music composition, songwriting, studio production, and music for visual media. They hold a Ph.D in Music from UC San Diego.

Elainie Lillios

Acclaimed as one of the “contemporary masters of the medium” by MIT Press’s Computer Music Journal, Elainie Lillios creates works that reflect her fascination with listening, sound, space, time, immersion, and anecdote. Her compositions include stereo, multi-channel, and Ambisonic fixed media works, instrument(s) with live electronics, collaborative experimental audio/visual animations, and installations. She also performs live electronics with ESC Trio collaborators Chris Biggs and Scott Deal, and with Origami Sound Society collaborator Mark Nagy.

Elainie attributes her success to the many professors whose patience and fortitude helped her explore and understand creativity, intent, technique, experimentation, professionalism, composition, and other important life lessons. She continues to be inspired by her many former students whose explorations and successes make her proud to have been a small part of their journey as musicians and humans. Elainie counts herself fortunate to have numerous colleagues and friends in the field who have become her “other” family — her collaborators and performers, SPLICE colleagues, UK and European acousmatic composer clan, and other amazing humans. Thank you ALL for making this journey an AWESOME one!

Elainie retired from Bowling Green State University in May 2025 but continues sharing offbeat and often eccentric ideas about composition and experimentation through part time teaching at Western Michigan University. She serves as SPLICE Institute Director (www.splicemusic.org) and teaches there as well. She also fundraises for and builds homes at Project Mexico (www.projectmexico.org/homebuilding) and explores #vanlife with husband Michael Thompson and dog Dude.