Center for New Music announces 2019-20 season, Jennifer Walshe residency
The Center for New Music at BU College of Fine Arts School of Music weaves threads of experimental art world with Irish composer & visual/performance artist, events at ICA/Boston
For nearly three decades, the BU Center for New Music (CNM) at Boston University College of Fine Arts (CFA) School of Music has been a potent force for new music. This year, BU CNM brings dynamic figures from the contemporary music world to work with BU students and engage with the city of Boston’s groundbreaking arts venues for residencies that include performances, collaborations, and events that merge the realms of composition, improv, electronic music, and visual arts.
“This residency of Jennifer Walshe with guests MC Schmidt of Matmos and Wobbly will allow us to broaden beyond just our core focus on notated music into the worlds of video and performance art and live electronic improvisation,” says Joshua Fineberg, director of BU Center for New Music. “Walshe is one of the most stunning and unique artists working today, and both Wobbly and MC two of the very finest electronic artists. This exiting series of events should engage a broad swath of pubic, students, and professionals passionate about experimental art and we are very excited to bring these artists to Boston.”
The Center for New Music will host an artist residency in the fall with Splinter Reeds, the West Coast’s first reed quintet. The ensemble is committed to presenting top tier performances on the cutting edge of contemporary composition, showcasing the vast possibilities of the reed quintet, commissioning new works, and collaborating with fellow musicians and artists. Splinter Reeds will perform works written by BU composers specifically for the ensemble in a free concert on Tuesday, November 19 at BU College of Fine Arts.
Innovative Irish composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe, who blends composition, live improvisation, and electronics, will come to Boston as Composer-in-Residence at BU College of Fine Arts in early 2020. “Without a doubt, hers is the most original compositional voice to emerge in Ireland in the last 20 years,” claims The Irish Times. Her time at BU will feature guest residencies by leading electronic artists Wobbly and M.C. Schmidt (from Matmos), performances, master classes, and public lectures.
Walshe’s work has been performed and broadcast all over the world by renowned ensembles, and she has written many operas, ranging from XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!! (2003) for Barbie dolls and ensemble to Die Taktik, an opera commissioned by the Junge Oper Stuttgart, which received 14 performances in Stuttgart in 2012.
Walshe frequently performs as a vocalist, and many of her compositions are commissioned for her voice either as a soloist or in conjunction with other instruments. Since 2007 Walshe has developed Grúpat, a project in which Walshe has assumed twelve different alter egos – all members of art collective Grúpat – and created compositions, installations, graphic scores, films, photography, sculptures and fashion under these alter egos. Pieces by Grúpat members have been performed and exhibited all over the world. In 2009 Grúpat were the feature of a major retrospective at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, which coincided with the launch the book Grúpat by Project Press and the release of two CDs. This was followed in 2010 with a Grúpat solo exhibition titled NO IRISH NEED APPLY at Chelsea Art Museum New York. Walshe’s most recent project, Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde, involved the creation of an elaborate fictional history of the musical avant-garde in Ireland.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR NEW MUSIC
Schedule of Events 2019-2020
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE • Splinter Reeds
November 18-19, 2019
- Monday, November 18 – Workshop
7 – 10 pm - Tuesday, November 19 – Free Concert
featuring works written by BU composers for Splinter Reeds
BU College of Fine Arts Concert Hall • 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE • Jennifer Walshe
February 17 – March 1, 2020
“Without a doubt, hers is the most original compositional voice to emerge in Ireland in the last 20 years.” – Michael Dervan, The Irish Times
Walshe’s residency includes guest residencies (Feb. 24 – March 1) Wobbly and M.C. Schmidt, master classes, and public lectures.
February 16, 2019 – Sound Icon reads and records works by BU student composers for large ensemble
BU College of Fine Arts Concert Hall • 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
7:00 – 10:00 pm
February 21 – Sound Icon plays Jennifer Walshe
BU College of Fine Arts Concert Hall • 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
8:00 pm
Free Concert
- Jennifer Walshe
- Volunteer Chorus (revised version 2019) any duration, done as an installation, when the audience are coming in
- HYGIENE (2011) for violin, viola or cello, 8 performers and DVD.
- a sensitive number for the laydeez (2004) for viola, saxophone, percussion, piano.
- with Broken Symmetries by Joshua Fineberg
- and a new work from the BU student who wins the Sound Icon competition
February 27 – Works written by BU composers for Mivos Quartet
BU College of Fine Arts Concert Hall • 855 Commonwealth Ave., Boston
8:00 pm
Free Concert
February 28 – The Music and film of Jennifer Walshe
featuring Mivos Quartet, Jennifer Walshe, MC Schmidt and Wobbly
ICA/Boston • 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston
8:00 pm
$20 general admission; $10 ICA members + students
February 29 – in collaboration with non-event
Live electronic improv show featuring Jennifer Walshe, Wobbly and MC Schmidt
School of the Museum of Fine Arts Anderson Auditorium • 230 The Fenway, Boston
8:00 pm
$15 general admission, $10 students, Free for SMFA and BU students
Find more details at bu.edu/cfa/newmusic.