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Erin
Gee: composition, voice
Mouthpiece
II (2002) | Akiguchi Mouthpiece (2005) | Mouthpiece IV (2004) | Yamaguchi
Mouthpiece (2005) | Mouthpiece I (1999)
Program notes
by Erin Gee:
My paintings have neither objects nor space nor time nor anything—no forms.
They are light, lightness, and merging, about formlessness, breaking down
form.
—Agnes Martin
When we study
the science of breath, the first thing / we notice is that breath is audible.
—Hazrat Inayat
Kahn
In the Mouthpieces,
the voice is used as an instrument of sound production rather than as
a vehicle of identity.
Linguistic meaning is not the voice’s goal. The
construction of the vocal text is often based on linguistic structure
— vowel-consonant formation and the principle of the allophone—and is
relatively quiet, with a high percentage of breath.
The Mouthpieces presuppose a state of listening. They engage physiology
rather than psychology.
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Erin
Gee
Erin Gee received
her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano and composition, respectively,
from the University of Iowa, where she studied with Réne Lecuona,
Lawrence Fritts, and Jeremy Dale Roberts. In Austria and Germany, she
studied composition with Beat Furrer, Mathias Spahlinger, Chaya Czernowin,
Richard Barrett and Steve Takasugi. She completed her Ph.D. in music theory
from the University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz in 2007.
Ms. Gee’s awards
for composition include the Teatro Minimo Prize (first round) from the
Zürich Opera House, the International Rostrum of Composers Award,
the Impuls award, the Gianni Bergamo Prize, the SKE Prize, the Austrian
Government Grant, the Pelzer Award, the Look & Listen Festival Prize,
and the Judith Lang Zaimont Prize. She has worked with the Radio Symphony
Orchestra Vienna, the Latvian Radio Chamber Choir, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble
Recherche and Ensemble Surplus, among others. In 2005, she was a guest
artist at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village where she returned
to teach and perform in 2006. The Wittener Tage für Neue Musik, Klangspuren,
Musikprotokoll, Steirischer Herbst, Klangriffe, Zürich Tage für
Neue Musik, the Look and Listen Festival, Vienna Mozartjahr 2006, Diskurs
Festival, the MATA Festival, Nuovo Consonanza, and the 4020 Festival have
featured Ms. Gee's works.
Her forthcoming
opera, SLEEP, will premiere at the Zürich Opera House on January
25th 2009, and will be followed by a premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
on the Green Umbrella Series, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In November
2009, Erin Gee will perform with the American Composers Orchestra in Zankel
Hall at Carnegie Hall.
http://www.focaldesigns.com/eringee
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