EMF Productions: Madeleine Shapiro
Tuesday, March 13, 8pm
Judson Church
55 Washington Square South
New York City
Suggested Donation $10
Madeleine Shapiro: Cello & Electronics
The idea behind Many Times … (the ellipsis is the name of the performer), for an acoustic instrument and Kyma DSP system, is that electronic technology extends us beyond what we can otherwise do and what we otherwise are. In a performance, the performer’s sounds are transformed into multiple images that, as layers of timbral transformations or echoes distributed to loudspeakers, extend the performer.
More, the performers of these compositions are, in effect, playing the Kyma system as an electronic instrument; and they are playing it, not by means of a performance device of any kind, but by the characteristics of the sounds they play, such as pitches, successions of pitches, the speed with which pitches change, loudness, varieties of timbre.
Yet more, the electronic instrument is an interactive instrument. By ‘interactive’, in this context, I mean ‘mutually influential’. An interactive instrument, defined by software, can seem to think for itself, make its own decisions, and translate its input into an unpredictable output. The performer ‘influences’ the instrument, as always, but in this case the instrument also influences the performer, providing the performer with something to react to as a cue for what to play next. – Joel Chadabe
Madeleine Shapiro (cello)
Madeleine Shapiro has been a recognized figure in the field of contemporary music for three decades; as a cellist, producer of chamber music concerts, and as a teacher. She is the founding director of ModernWorks, and performs as a solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. She also directs the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the prestigious Mannes College of Music.
Madeleine’s concerts have included premiere performances of recent works for cello, and cello and electronics, many of which were written especially for her by American, European and Asian composers. She is the recipient of two Encore Awards from the American Composers Forum, two Meet the Composer Commissioning Awards and a Barlow Commission, all to assist in the premieres of new works. Recent appearances include a concert of works for cello and electronics at the avant-garde Logos Foundation in Ghent, Belgium and five tours of Italy which included performances at The American Academy and the Nuovi Spazi Musicali festival in Rome (three seasons), Rivegauche Concerti in Turin (two seasons); and masterclasses and workshops at the conservatories of Parma and Castelfranco Veneto.
From 1974-1996, Madeleine was the cellist and co-director of The New Music Consort, an ensemble specializing in the performance of twentieth century music. As co-director of the Consort, Madeleine was the recipient of a number of awards and grants including the 1993 First Prize in Adventurous Programming awarded by ASCAP-Chamber Music America. With the Consort, Madeleine toured the United States and Europe, and participated in numerous premiere performances of works by such eminent composers as Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Charles Wuorinen and Mario Davidovsky.
In addition to performing, Madeleine continues as an adjunct professor at the Mannes College of Music, New York City, where she directs the Contemporary Music Ensemble and teaches classes in the performance practice of contemporary music. She has also taught masterclasses at such colleges and universities as University of Virginia, University of Maryland, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin College, CUNY Graduate Center, New York University, Rutgers University, The National Academy of Sciences, Michigan State University, and University of Florida, among others.
Madeleine’s solo CD Electricity:Works for Cello and Electronics has been released by Albany Records. She has also recorded for New World Records, CRI, Mode and Harvestworks.
http://www.emfproductions.org/
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