Alice Shields

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Alice Shields
Born (1943-02-18) February 18, 1943 (age 81)
Manhattan, New York, United States
Genres Electronic, Opera, instrumental, classical
Occupation(s) Composer
Website aliceshields.com

Alice Shields (born Alice Ferree Shields, Manhattan, New York, February 18, 1943) is an American classical composer. She is one of the pioneers of electronic music, [1] and is particularly known for her cross-cultural operas. [2]

Contents

Her work is influenced by non-Western forms of music drama including Indian Bharata Natyam and Japanese Noh Theater, and has been performed by the New York City Opera VOX Festival of New American Operas, the Akademie der Künste and SAVVY-Contemporary in Berlin, the Venice Biennale, NYC-Electroacoustic Music Festival, American Chamber Opera Company, The Composers Chamber Theater, The American Virtuosi Baroque Opera Co., Association for the Promotion of New Music, New York Consort of Viols, American Composers Alliance, Ensemble Pi, Iktus Percussion, Dance Alloy (Pittsburgh), and the Arangham Dance Theater (India).

Education

Shields earned three degrees from Columbia University including the Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition, [3] studying with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Jack Beeson, Otto Luening and Chou Wen-Chung. She served as Associate Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and Director for Development of the Columbia University Computer Music Center. She has taught the psychology of music as Professor of Psychology at New York University and lectures on the psychology of music at institutions including the Santa Fe Opera, CUNY Center for Developmental Neuroscience, International Society for Research on Emotion, American Psychological Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Musical career

As a performer, Shields has been a professional opera singer, performing both traditional and modern roles with the New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera At-The-Forum, Washington National Opera, Clarion Music Society, Wolf Trap Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival and other opera companies. She was one of the first recipients of the George London award supporting the development of young opera singers.

During the 1990s she intensively studied and performed South Indian Bharata Natyam dance-drama as a vocalist, performing nattuvangam, a form of South Indian rhythmic recitation with the Swati Bhise Bharata Natyam Dance Company, at venues including the United Nations, Asia Society and Wesleyan University. All Shields' compositions since 2000 reflect her immersion in Indian classical music and drama. Since 2016 Shields has been involved in the study of Noh theater with Noh performer Mayo Miwa, with whom she has collaborated on works using aspects of traditional Noh Theater.

Alice Shields' work is published by the American Composers Alliance: composers.com/alice-shields , and is recorded on Koch International Classics, New World, CRI, American Composers Alliance Recordings, Tellus, Opus One and Albany Records.

Musical works

Opera

Instrument or Voice with Electronics

Vocal and Instrumental

Electronic / Fixed Audio Media

Discography

Filmography

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References

  1. ↑ Pool, Jeannie G. (1979). "America's Women Composers: Up from the Footnotes". Music Educators Journal. 65 (5): 28–41. doi:10.2307/3395571. ISSN   0027-4321. JSTOR   3395571. S2CID   143442149.
  2. ↑ "Unsung Stories: Women at Columbia's Computer Music Center: Alice Shields (Part 1) on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Columbia Composers". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
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