Join us Friday March 27 at 2:30pm, 320H Prentis for a presentation of work by visiting artist and scholar Lisa Renée Coons.
Lisa Renée Coons is a sound artist and educator based in Michigan. Her recent endeavors cross disciplines, media, and vocabularies – but all derive some amount of meaning from the artist(s) who realize the work and the role of the performing body. Narrative environment scores [triggered multimedia and live performer(s)] function as evolving aural/visual spaces in which performers speak, sing, play, and move. Fully staged and choreographed productions (like those created with Mark Dechiazza and Spektral Quartet, as well as the International Contemporary Ensemble) integrate physical and sounding gestures into thematic and developing materials. Her installations incorporate text, mixed media, archival material, and found objects; they are often offered as invitations to the participant to explore themes of power dynamics, moral ecology, narrative, resonance, and space. Most importantly, the work she makes is never hers alone - it is collaborative, exploratory, constantly evolving and rooted in dialogue.
She has been fortunate to work with a wide range of artists who challenge and inspire her over the years, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Spectral Quartet, Mark DeChiazza, The American Composers Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Collect/Project, Chris Graham, Shanna Pranaitis, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Illinois Modern Ensemble, Eric KM Clark, the New England Guitar Quartet, Hannah Addario-Berry, the NODES Project, Coalescence Percussion Duo, Violin Futura, Navitas, the Machine Project for the Hammer Museum of Los Angeles and the California E.A.R. Unit. She has held fellowships and residencies from Hartt School, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Other Minds Festival.
Lisa Renée Coons is an Associate Professor of Music Composition and Technology at Western Michigan University. She received her PhD from Princeton University and additional degrees from the SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Her residency at the Computer Music Center at Columbia University was generously supported by the Kalamazoo Artistic Development Initiative (KADI) Grant, the Irving S. Gilmore School of Music, and the Office of Faculty Development at Western Michigan University.
Lisa will be presenting four short works-in-progress created during her three weeks at the CMC. These works are ideally experienced via headphones and a smart phone, so please consider bringing your own to experience the piece as intended.
