To listen to it streamed:
www.yellowstonepublicradio.org
Sunday, Feb. 26th at 11am MST.
Sunday, Feb. 26th at 10am PST
Sunday, Feb. 26th at 1 p.m. EST
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FEBRUARY 26th 2006 - Tune-in!
"An interview with composer Becky Allen will be airing on 70 public radio stations across the country on Sunday, on a new radio series called American MusicMakers. A survey or old and new works as well as music learned in her recent visit to Guinea, Africa will be broadcast, along with a conversation she had with host Will Everett who has a long-running radio show called Theme and Variations."
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• View a list of completed compositions
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As a composer, I find that much of my work is collaborative; particularly with visual artists and scientists. Since 1993, my music has appeared in works featured at the New Directors/NewFilms MOMA, The Rotterdam Film Festival, The Whitney Biennial, The New York Film Festival, the American Composer’s Forum, and EarJam IV at the RedCat CalArts Theater.
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On Set shots of "PineFlat". Click image to enlarge
• Click here to listen to Yellow Mix
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In the last several years, I have been collaborating with artists and scientists on a multitude of projects. I worked with Bill Viola as a sound designer on “The Raft” which is on display at the Athens Museum of Contemporary Art and well as a new piece “Mary” which will be premiered at the end of 2005. I also had the opportunity to sing on Mike Kelley’s upcoming opera premiering in Germany last fall. Since 2003, I have been collaborating with filmmaker and photographer, Sharon Lockhart on her upcoming film, “PineFlat”. For her film, I have been recording, editing and designing all of the sound and music from production to post-production. All of the sound was recorded outside in the Sierra Mountains on location at the film-shoot. I completed my work on the sound and music for the film recently and the film premiered in Balboa Spain December 2005 and is making its US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival January, 2006.
In 2005, I collaborated with two composers on a piece for the 35th reunion at California Institute of the Arts. The piece was a multi-media performance piece written and performed for three vocalists and barbecues (used as percussion instruments).
Another exciting collaboration in 2004 was with oceanographer and research scientist, John Helly. I collaborated with John Helly on the mapping of with oceanographic maps and data collected for buoys off of the Southern California Coast into graphs that would in turn be used as source for a musical composition. This collaboration between science, nature and music has largely inspired my proposal, “Flow”, for the Guggenheim this year.
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| • Click here to listen to Ocean Wave Swell Heights |
The piece that came out of my collaboration with John Helly, “Ocean Wave Swell Heights”, was premiered at the RedCat in downtown Los Angeles, June 2004 for EarJam IV. The piece was written for 8 female vocalists (four sopranos and four altos). The sopranos sang the music that I developed from the Santa Monica Buoy over a 9 1/2 hour span. The 4 sopranos, of which I was one, stood at the front of the stage and sang the wave swell heights as vocal slides with tight harmonies. The second group, standing at the back of the audience, sang the material derived from the second buoy’s wave swell plot points, from La Jolla California which was also taken from the same 9 1/2 hour span. The groups staggered their vocal slide swells, each at 15-second intervals for 10 minutes.
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Calls Live
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My second premier over the past couple of years was of “Calls”. “Calls” had its first live performance premier at the RedCat opening Gala, November 2003 with the Los Angeles Trumpet quartet. In 2001, the Swiss born curator, Moritz Kung, originally commissioned this work from me for the “The Lost Past” exhibition, which premiered June 15, 2002, and concluded on September 15, 2002. The subject of this group exhibition was “collective memory”. I was to create a new work that referenced the traditional fanfare played by firemen on bugles under the Menin Gate every evening since 1928, in remembrance of those who died in the Great War. The resulting piece, “Calls”, was partially based on borrowed phrases from the “Last Post” music. I also recorded birdcalls over the span of an hour at dawn at the Los Angeles Arboretum on a special 4 headed microphone. In the studio, I edited the birdcalls into repeatable and identifiable melodies. I then transcribed these melodies and rhythms and arranged the piece for the four trumpets. In the finished work, a quartet of trumpets began the variation of the fanfare and slowly introduced the birdcall melodies. Eventually, the trumpets began to mimic the birdcalls, and the fanfare subtly wove in and out of the bird/trumpet melodies. The piece played every hour and half hour in a rococo museum in Ieper, Belgium while the exhibit was open. The audience and the ringing of the church bells of the town itself played an important role as incidental sound within the piece. The exhibit was sponsored by Anno ’02 in cooperation with Stedelijke Musea Ieper and was well received in Europe.
In 2003, I collaborated with artist, Jennifer Hill, in creating sound and installation works that focused on using the shapes of city skylines as a compositional element. One of these pieces, “LA Skyline” was premiered at the American Composer’s Forum, Los Angeles Chapter’s “Twelfth Composer’s Salon”, May 18, 2003.
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Teatro Amazonas
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• Click here to listen to Teatro Amazonas
• Click here to listen to Time is a Dream
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In 1999, I was commissioned to write the film score for “Teatro Amazonas”, by Sharon Lockhart. The film was a live filming of the choir concert and therefore the premiere of the piece. The entire sound track focuses on the music and incidental sound that is heard through the film. The concert premiered at the baroque opera house, Teatro Amazonas, in Manaus Brazil. I worked directly with a 60-person choir from Manaus; the Choral Do Amazonas. The performance was recorded live the day of the shoot with a 60-person choir. I began the piece with a large chord cluster of all 60 voices at the start of the film. Then, slowly and imperceptibly, the clustered voices progress to a single note over the period of 24 minutes. As the music decays it slowly fuses into the incidental sounds made by the audience. This sound transference from music sound cluster to discrete sounds of coughs and rustling in chairs articulates the intended cultural exchange by the filmmaker. I based the score on a 3 dimensional cone’s mathematical formulas transposed into musical parameters over 24 minutes. The film premiered at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam and continues to show at international museums, film festivals and is distributed by the Arsenal in Berlin.
The above experiences have also opened doors to other exciting opportunities. While working with the Choral Do Amazonas, I was introduced to the score and performance “O Meio do Ceio”, a vocal piece from the Amazon region written in three different tribal languages. Inspired, I brought the score and recording back to the United States and started the World Music Choir at the Sangeet School of World Music and Dance in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Over the next two years, I directed, conducted, composed and transcribed the repertoire for the choir. We performed works from Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Bulgaria, the Canary Islands and other regions in and around Los Angeles.
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Proyekto Karmaloka CD cover
• Click here to listen to Eljardin Delamor
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In 2000, I was introduced to Prince Diabate, a master Kora player for Guinea, Africa. I have been a member of his ensemble since then, in which I sing in Malenke, Baga, and Susu as well as play flute. In September 2002, I was also invited to a master class with Bailo Boh, a traditional Fulani flautist.
This winter, Prince Diabaté, traveled to Guinea to record a new album and invited me to come and participate. I was fortunate enough to be invited to go to Guinea and learn new traditional instruments under the tutelage of traditional masters.
Guinea, Africa has large reserves of classical music that have yet to be discovered. The instruments that I studied were the “Peulh” flute, Malenke flute, Gongoman (Calabase-based instrument, played like an Mbira), La-la (a percussion instrument), Krin (a wooden drum) and vocal lessons.
As a performer and collaborator, I have also been working with my husband Leon Garcia (guitarist and composer), since 1999. We've formed a duo called "Karmaloka". We currently have a CD (now available through CDBaby.com)titled "Proyekto Karmaloka" and are working on our material for our next CD which we hope to record next summer. We have played festivals, clubs, coffee houses, and Ordinations. Some of our songs include: El Jardin del Amor, Time, Si la vida sigue igual, and The Ballad of Reading Freeway. We typically write custom music heavily influenced by Brazilian and Spanish styles, but occasionally throw in a cover, for example "Adios Maraquita Linda" a traditional Mexican song.
Also as a performer and singer, I had the pleasure of singing for Bill Brown in his T.V. scores for CSI:NY. In 2003, I sang on three exciting episodes.
CSI:NY episode 101 "Blink"
CSI:NY episode 104 "American Dreamers"
CSI:NY episode 105 "Grand Master"
I enjoy working and collaborating with other artists as well as doing solo commissions. I am also available for teaching and workshops. It you are interested in contacting me, please email me at becky@beckyallenmusic.com
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