I did a NerdNite talk and demo in February 2015. 

A Century of Electronic Music

by Victoria Lundy

The theremin was invented by a young Russian physicist named Lev Sergevich Termen (known in the West as Léon Theremin) in October 1920. It’s a electronically straightforward but musically difficult instrument, and it influenced everything that came after it. We’ll take a look at these early electronic instruments and see how we’ve come back to the theremin after it almost disappeared in the 20th century, only to experience a renaissance in the 21st. Victoria will demonstrate the basic principles of playing the instrument, give a short lesson, and play a few pieces demonstrating its versatility.

Speaker creds: Victoria Lundy has been playing theremin in the Denver experimental/underground/punk scene since the 90s. She was a member of the avant garde Carbon Dioxide Orchestra, who opened for the legendary Silver Apples in 1997; is a founding member of Denver’s acclaimed nerd rock band The Inactivists and has appeared all of their 6 CDs and EP, and as a guest player live and in recordings with other local artists. She also was a member of Jackson Induced Mutant Laboratory and performed with them at the 2011 Denver Noise Festival and at the 2013 Denver Post Underground Music Showcase with ambient project Pythian Whispers. Victoria has appeared at many venues in Denver as well as Boulder’s Dairy Center for the Performing Arts, and demonstrated the theremin at the World Science Fiction Convention. In the last year she’s participated in a series of musique concréte performances at the Walnut Room and DU Lamont School of Music, and concentrating on solo ambient work that explores the expressive qualities of the theremin.