Zeena Parkins & Laetitia Sonami

The electro-acoustic composer / improviser Zeena Parkins and sound artist / performer / instrument builder Laetitia Sonami will perform a new collaborative work as well as new solos.
Zeena Parkins - harps and objects
Laetitia Sonami - electronics (the Spring Spyre)
“[Parkins'] pioneering, playful and searching approach to her chosen instrument, the harp, has once again repositioned it firmly in the experimental world, reinventing the instrument as a tool for free improv and avant jazz creations.” -The Quietus
"For all Sonami’s dazzling high-tech wizardry, it’s her graceful human form that holds us spellbound; no computer chip could caress the air with such finesse or produce such beautiful noise."
-The Chicago Reader
“It's impossible to say in advance exactly what this rare appearance on the other Coast is even likely to sound like!” -_Wobbly
New York-based electro-acoustic composer/improviser/educator, Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices. Through the use of expanded playing techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing she has helped to re-situate and re-define the instrument’s capacities. Concurrently, Parkins self-designed a series of one-of-a-kind electric instruments. She leans into the harp’s physical limitations pushing into its impossibilities. In her compositions, Parkins utilizes collections, lists, recombination, historic proximities, geography, tactility, and movement. Sonic presence, history, and personality is revealed in feedback, overtones, timbral shifts, gestural intervals, perception, and residues. Honors include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Composition, a Foundation of Contemporary Arts Fellowship to Artists, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and three New York Performance Awards for her work with dance (“The Bessie”). Parkins holds the Darius Milhaud Chair in Composition, at Mills College.
zeenaparkins.com
Laetitia Sonami is a pioneering sound artist and performer known for her innovative use of technology. Sonami studied with Eliane Radigue in the late seventies and soon after moved to the United States to continue her studies with Joel Chadabe, David Behrman and Robert Ashley. A pioneer in wearable technology, she created the lady’s glove in 1991 and performed world-wide with this unique instrument for 25 years. She has since been applying machine learning to real time audio synthesis with her most recent instruments the Spring Spyre and the lady’s ball. Sonami’s work often explores themes of presence and the relationship between body and technology. Her performances are known for their meditative, immersive qualities. She has exhibited and performed her work at major international festivals and venues and has also taught and mentored many young artists in the field.
sonami.net