Ellen Fullman
Encyclopedia
Ellen Fullman is a composer
, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee
, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area
. Known for the 70-foot (21-meter) long string instrument
, an instrument tuned in just intonation
and played with rosin-coated fingers.
before moving to New York in the early 1980s. In Kansas City she created and performed in an amplified metal sound-producing skirt and wrote art songs which she recorded in New York for a small cassette label. In 1981, she began developing the Long String Instrument
at her studio in Brooklyn, consisting of dozens of metallic strings played with rosin-coated fingers and producing a chorus of organ-like partials. This instrument has been compared to the experience of standing inside an enormous grand piano. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has collaborated with such luminary figures as composer Pauline Oliveros
, choreographer Deborah Hay
, the Kronos Quartet
, and Francis-Marie Uitti.
(2010), Artist-In-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts
(2008); Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant (2008); Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission/NEA Fellowship for Japan (2007); DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program residency (2000); Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship (1999); and Meet the Composer, Reader's Digest Consortium Commission (1993). Her recent performance with Austin New Music Co-op at the Seaholm Power Plant was given a Critic's Table Award for Best Chamber Performance, 2009-2010.
Fullman has performed in numerous festivals, art spaces, and museums, including: New Albion at Bard SummerScape, a Norway tour presented by NY Musik, Instal, Glasgow, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Festival van Vlaanderen, Brussels, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Other Minds, San Francisco, Romanische Sommer Köln, Columbia University, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Walker Art Center, ISCM World Music Days, and New Music America 1980, 1984 and 1986. Her music has been represented in exhibits including: The American Century; Art and Culture, 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art; Listening, Pompidou Center (2004); and Volume: Bed of Sound, P.S.1 (2000).
Peter Esmonde directed a documentary film on Fullman's work, 5 Variations on a Long String. The film is currently making festival rounds. Using archival footage, Fullman edited Suspended Music, a documentary film on her collaboration with Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band, which premiered at the Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley (2004). Fullman wrote an article on her work for MusikTexte (Cologne 2002), subsequently published in MusicWorks (Toronto 2003). She has been interviewed for NPR's Morning Edition, the Wire and Signal to Noise. Releases include: Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buzzarté
(Deep Listening Institute), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2008 by The Wire (London) and awarded an Aaron Copeland Fund for Music Recording Program Grant; Ort, recorded with Berlin collaborator Konrad Sprenger (Choose Records), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2004 by The Wire; Suspended Music, in collaboration with Deep Listening Band (Periplum); Change of Direction (New Albion); and Body Music (XI).
Fullman's commissioned works include: Post Futurist Reverie, for the project: Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners, curated by Luciano Chessa and presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a piece for Trimpin's Klavier Nonette, an installation of nine MIDI-controlled toy pianos. Fullman has presented numerous lectures on her work including: the Songlines series, Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College
; and Improv:21 a lecture series presented by Rova:Arts, San Francisco. Forthcoming performances and projects include: Issue Project Room, Propensity of Sound series, May 22, 2011; and a split LP release with Eleh on Important Records.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
. Known for the 70-foot (21-meter) long string instrument
Long string instrument
The long string instrument is an instrument where the string is of such a length that the fundamental transverse wave is below what we can hear as a tone . If the tension and the length result in sounds with such a frequency the tone becomes a beating frequency ranging from a short reverb to...
, an instrument tuned in just intonation
Just intonation
In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
and played with rosin-coated fingers.
Biography and work
Fullman studied sculpture at the Kansas City Art InstituteKansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
before moving to New York in the early 1980s. In Kansas City she created and performed in an amplified metal sound-producing skirt and wrote art songs which she recorded in New York for a small cassette label. In 1981, she began developing the Long String Instrument
Long string instrument
The long string instrument is an instrument where the string is of such a length that the fundamental transverse wave is below what we can hear as a tone . If the tension and the length result in sounds with such a frequency the tone becomes a beating frequency ranging from a short reverb to...
at her studio in Brooklyn, consisting of dozens of metallic strings played with rosin-coated fingers and producing a chorus of organ-like partials. This instrument has been compared to the experience of standing inside an enormous grand piano. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has collaborated with such luminary figures as composer Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
, choreographer Deborah Hay
Deborah Hay
-Life and work:Deborah Hay was born in 1941 in Brooklyn. Her mother was her first dance teacher and directed her training until she was a teenager. Hay moved at age 19 to Downtown, Manhattan in the 1960s, where she continued her training with Merce Cunningham and Mia Slavenska...
, the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, and Francis-Marie Uitti.
Recognition
Fullman has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies including: a McKnight Visiting Composer Residency from American Composers ForumAmerican Composers Forum
The American Composers Forum is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion and assistance of American composers and their music. It was founded in 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States...
(2010), Artist-In-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts
Headlands Center for the Arts
Situated in a campus of artist-renovated military buildings in the Marin Headlands, Headlands Center for the Arts hosts an internationally recognized Artist in Residence Program, interdisciplinary public programs, and subsidized studio rentals for Bay Area artists of all disciplines.- Mission and...
(2008); Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant (2008); Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission/NEA Fellowship for Japan (2007); DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program residency (2000); Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship (1999); and Meet the Composer, Reader's Digest Consortium Commission (1993). Her recent performance with Austin New Music Co-op at the Seaholm Power Plant was given a Critic's Table Award for Best Chamber Performance, 2009-2010.
Fullman has performed in numerous festivals, art spaces, and museums, including: New Albion at Bard SummerScape, a Norway tour presented by NY Musik, Instal, Glasgow, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Festival van Vlaanderen, Brussels, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Other Minds, San Francisco, Romanische Sommer Köln, Columbia University, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Walker Art Center, ISCM World Music Days, and New Music America 1980, 1984 and 1986. Her music has been represented in exhibits including: The American Century; Art and Culture, 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art; Listening, Pompidou Center (2004); and Volume: Bed of Sound, P.S.1 (2000).
Peter Esmonde directed a documentary film on Fullman's work, 5 Variations on a Long String. The film is currently making festival rounds. Using archival footage, Fullman edited Suspended Music, a documentary film on her collaboration with Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band, which premiered at the Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley (2004). Fullman wrote an article on her work for MusikTexte (Cologne 2002), subsequently published in MusicWorks (Toronto 2003). She has been interviewed for NPR's Morning Edition, the Wire and Signal to Noise. Releases include: Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buzzarté
Monique Buzzarté
Monique Buzzarté is a composer, trombonist, and activist who coordinated a worldwide effort on behalf of the International Alliance for Women in Music , leading to the admission of women as members of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1997.Specializing in contemporary music, she has commissioned works...
(Deep Listening Institute), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2008 by The Wire (London) and awarded an Aaron Copeland Fund for Music Recording Program Grant; Ort, recorded with Berlin collaborator Konrad Sprenger (Choose Records), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2004 by The Wire; Suspended Music, in collaboration with Deep Listening Band (Periplum); Change of Direction (New Albion); and Body Music (XI).
Fullman's commissioned works include: Post Futurist Reverie, for the project: Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners, curated by Luciano Chessa and presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a piece for Trimpin's Klavier Nonette, an installation of nine MIDI-controlled toy pianos. Fullman has presented numerous lectures on her work including: the Songlines series, Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
; and Improv:21 a lecture series presented by Rova:Arts, San Francisco. Forthcoming performances and projects include: Issue Project Room, Propensity of Sound series, May 22, 2011; and a split LP release with Eleh on Important Records.
External links
- Ellen Fullman
- Epitonic.com: Ellen Fullman featuring a track from Change of Direction
- surround sound DVD