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Tania Chen | |
---|---|
Born | England |
Genres | Free improvisation, sound art |
Occupation | Musician |
Instrument | Piano |
Years active | 1990s – present |
Website | http://www.taniachen.com |
Tania Caroline Chen is a composer, improviser, and sound artist utilizing piano and found sounds. She has worked in Northern California, New York, and London. She is known for performing the works of composers such as Cornelius Cardew (Recording), John Cage, Earle Brown (recording), Morton Feldman, Chris Newman, and David Toop David Toop (recording).
She has also collaborated with musicians including improviser and composer Steve Beresford (with whom she recorded 'Ointment'), composer Andrew Poppy (concert), pianist John Tilbury, bassist John Edwards, drummer Mark Sanders and harpist Rhodri Davies. She has also collaborated with the film-maker Jayne Parker.
She has performed throughout the US, UK, Asia and Europe, at venues including Tate Modern, GaleGates (Brooklyn, NYC), The Hamburger Bahnhof Museum (Berlin), the Purcell Room, where she gave a complete performance of John Cage's Music of Changes Books I-IV, and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum.
Recent concerts include Cornelius Cardew for BBC Radio 3 (Concert program and listing) and a performance of Satie's Vexations for the "Sleep" Installation at the Tate Modern 27 & 28 May 2007, alongside Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Joshua Rifkin.
Originally trained as a classical pianist, she studied (amongst others) with Stephen Coombs, Professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as taking masterclasses with Artur Pizarro. Her piano career took a turn towards contemporary music in the late 1990s, when she studied with noted pianist John Tilbury, and became noted for her performances of composers such as John Cage and Morton Feldman, amongst others. She was subsequently awarded an M(Mus) at Goldsmiths College, University of London, with distinction. During this time she also took part in a masterclass with Mstislav Rostropovich(link).
David Eugene Tudor was an American pianist and composer of experimental music.
Steve Beresford is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected experimental music, explaining why he had "discontinued composing in an avantgarde idiom" in his own programme notes to his Piano Album 1973.
Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music and classicist.
AMM was a British free improvisation group that was founded in London, England, in 1965. The group was initially composed of Keith Rowe on guitar, Lou Gare on saxophone, and Eddie Prévost on drums. The three men shared an interest in exploring music beyond the boundaries of conventional jazz, as in free jazz and free improvisation. AMM never achieved widespread popularity, but have been influential in improvised music. Most of their albums have been released by Matchless Recordings, which is run by Eddie Prévost. In a 2001 interview, Keith Rowe was asked if "AMM" was an abbreviation. He replied, "The letters AMM stand for something, but as you probably know it's a secret!"
Howard While Skempton is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist.
John Tilbury is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.
Roger Robert Woodward is an Australian classical pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and human rights activist. He is widely regarded as a leading advocate of contemporary music.
The Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in the spring of 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton.
Musics was a music-related magazine that was published from 1975 to 1979.
Stephen Whittington is an Australian composer, pianist, teacher and writer of music.
Edwin John Prévost is an English percussionist who founded the free improvisation group, AMM.
Indeterminacy is a composing approach in which some aspects of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter's free choice. John Cage, a pioneer of indeterminacy, defined it as "the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways".
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
Piano and String Quartet is a composition by American avant-garde composer Morton Feldman. It was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and pianist Aki Takahashi, who premiered the piece at the 7th annual New Music America Festival in Los Angeles and released a studio recording in 1993.
Maya Dunietz, is an Israeli musician and artist, combining a solo career with collaborations with renowned musicians: Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tilbury, Habiluim, and many others. Her works are exhibited in venues such as Centre Pompidou Paris, Athens Onassis Center, Frac Paca, CCA Tel Aviv and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art.
Rhodri Davies is a harp player working within the field of free improvisation. He was one of the most prominent members of the London reductionist school of improvised music that was active in the late 1990s and early 2000s and which has been described as being "extremely influential over the last decade".
Another Timbre is a record label, based in Sheffield and known for its releases of free improvisation, experimental and contemporary classical music. It was founded by television sound recordist Simon Reynell, who also engineers and produces most of the label's recordings.
Five Pianos is a composition for five pianists composed in 1972 by American composer Morton Feldman. The piece is scored for five pianos and one celesta performed by the fourth pianist; the performers are also required to hum specific notes throughout the composition. It was first performed in Berlin on July 16, 1972, as part of the Berliner Musiktage festival, with the composer as one of the humming pianists.
Piece for Four Pianos is a musical composition for four pianos by American composer Morton Feldman. It was finished in 1957.