Jennifer Walshe
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Walshe is an Irish
composer
, vocalist and artist
.
with John Maxwell Geddes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
, Kevin Volans
in Dublin and graduated from Northwestern University
(Evanston, IL
) with a doctoral degree in composition in June 2002. Her chief teachers at Northwestern were Amnon Wolman
and Michael Pisaro
. In 2003-2004 Jennifer was a fellow of Akademie Schloss Solitude
, Stuttgart
; during 2004-2005 she lived in Berlin
as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm
. From 2006 to 2008 she was the composer-in-residence in South Dublin County for In Context 3. In 2007 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
, New York. In 2008 she was awarded the Praetorius Music Prize for Composition by the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur.
Jennifer’s work has been performed all over the world by ensembles such as Alter Ego, ensemble récherche, Ensemble Resonanz, Apartment House, ensemble Intégrales, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Schlagquartett Köln, Crash Ensemble
, Con Tempo Quartet, Trio Scordatura, Ensemble Ascolta
, Champ d’Action, ensemble laboratorium, ensemble surplus, the Rilke Ensemble, the Irish Chamber Orchestra
, the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble, Bozzini Quartet, Callino Quartet, Ensemble 2000, Concorde, Kaleidoscop, Black Hair, Continuum, Ensemble Musica Nova, ensemble chronophonie, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Wind Quintet, the Hebrides Ensemble, Psappha, and Q-02 among others. She has received commissions from organizations including Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), Westdeutscher Rundfunk
(WDR), Sudwest Rundfunk (SWR), the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, Maerzmusik, Musik der Jahrhundert, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
, Dresdener Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik, Wien Modern, the Dresden Semperoper
, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, the Project Arts Centre
and the National Concert Hall
, Ireland, as well as commission awards from the New Music Scheme of the Arts Council of Ireland
and the Scottish Arts Council
. In 2003-04 Jennifer was composer-in-residence at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork
. In 2000 Jennifer won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, and received first prize in the SCI/ASCAP 2002 Commission Competition. In July 2002 she returned to Darmstadt to lecture in composition at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. Her work was shortlisted for the 2002 and 2003 Gaudeamus Foundation
composition prize.
In addition to her activities as a composer
, Jennifer frequently performs as a vocalist, specialising in extended techniques. Many of her recent compositions were commissioned for her voice in conjunction with other instruments, and her works have been performed by her and others at festivals such as RTÉ Living Music (Dublin), Båstad Kammarmusik Festival (Sweden), Ultraschall (Berlin), Ars Musica
(Brussels), Steirischer Herbst, Wien Modern, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
, Donaueschinger Musiktage
, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Late Music Festival (York), Hamburger Klangwerktage, Gaida (Lithuania
), BMIC Cutting Edge, Composer’s Choice (Dublin), SoundField (Chicago) the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt, Stockholm New Music, BELEF (Belgrade), Traiettorie (Parma), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), SPOR (Denmark), Frau Musica Nova
(Cologne), Performa (New York), Electric Eclectics (Canada), Reihe 0 (Austria), Ergodos (Dublin) and Music at the Anthology (New York). Jennifer is also active as an improviser, performing regularly with musicians in Europe and the U.S.
Recent projects of note include Grúpat, a two-year project in which Walshe assumed nine different alter egos - all members of art collective Grúpat - and created compositions, installations, graphic scores, film
s, photography
, sculpture
s and fashion
under these alter egos. Pieces by Grúpat members have been performed and exhibited all over the world, most notably at the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival; Kilkenny Arts Festival; the Museum of Arts & Design, New York; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
; New Langton Arts
, San Francisco; Ultrasound Festival, Tel Aviv
and Festival Rümlingen, Switzerland
. In February 2009 Grúpat were the feature of a retrospective at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, which coincided with the launch of the book Grúpat by Project Press and the release of two CDs featuring Jennifer’s music written under her Grúpat alter egos.
2002 unbreakable line. hinged waist. for flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello
2002 theme from, for violin and piano (with walkie-talkies )
2003 minard/nithsdale, for string quartet and two boomboxes
2004 THIS IS WHY PEOPLE OD ON PILLS / AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, for variable ensemble (2 to 10 instruments and/or voices)
2004 a sensitive number for the laydeez, for alto saxophone, viola, piano, percussion and video
2006 passenger, for chamber orchestra
2011 metta, for 9 musicians
2000 as mo cheann
2001 warm/cold
2001 NOW WASH YOUR HANDS
2001 ná déan NÍL CEAD
2001 moving in/love song/city front garden with old men
2002 here we are now
2002 Happiness is a Warm Gun
2002 dirty white fields
2002 been in a room and a room and a room and a room
2003 XXX_Live_Nude_Girls!!!, opera for 2 female voices, 2 pupeteers, 2 camera operators, accordion, CD, clarinet, trombone, trombone - libretto: Jennifer Walshe
2003 he wants his cowboys to sound like how he thinks cowboys should sound
2004 The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Conductor
2004 Kommander Kobayashi Journal #17: set phasers on KILL!, opera for 2 male voices, 3 females voices, CD, cello, trombone, piano, slides, video, viola - libretto: Jennifer Walshe, Sven Holm, Sebastian Bark, Tobias Dusche
2005 G.L.O.R.I.-
2007 Physics for the Girl in the Street
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
composer
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...
, vocalist and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
.
Biography
Jennifer Walshe was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1974. She studied compositionMusical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
with John Maxwell Geddes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...
, Kevin Volans
Kevin Volans
Kevin Volans is a composer associated with the post-minimalist movement in contemporary composition. He was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa on July 6, 1949, and even though he has spent most of his life outside his native country, is the best known South African composer active today.In...
in Dublin and graduated from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
(Evanston, IL
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
) with a doctoral degree in composition in June 2002. Her chief teachers at Northwestern were Amnon Wolman
Amnon Wolman
Amnon Wolman composes music and texts for miscellaneous instruments along with the computer. He holds a doctorate degree in music composition. His catalogue of compositions includes works involving computer generated and processed sounds, symphonic works, vocal and chamber pieces for different...
and Michael Pisaro
Michael Pisaro
Michael Pisaro is a guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for variable instrumentation...
. In 2003-2004 Jennifer was a fellow of Akademie Schloss Solitude
Akademie Schloss Solitude
The Akademie Schloss Solitude is a foundation under public law. The main aspect of the Akademie is to promote mainly younger, particularly gifted artists by means of residency fellowships and also by organizing events and exhibitions by its residents...
, Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
; during 2004-2005 she lived in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm
German Academic Exchange Service
The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....
. From 2006 to 2008 she was the composer-in-residence in South Dublin County for In Context 3. In 2007 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts , originally known as Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City founded by artists Jasper Johns , John Cage, Elaine de Kooning and others in 1963. FCA offers financial support and recognition to contemporary...
, New York. In 2008 she was awarded the Praetorius Music Prize for Composition by the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur.
Jennifer’s work has been performed all over the world by ensembles such as Alter Ego, ensemble récherche, Ensemble Resonanz, Apartment House, ensemble Intégrales, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Schlagquartett Köln, Crash Ensemble
Crash Ensemble
Crash Ensemble is an Irish new music ensemble, founded in 1997 by composer Donnacha Dennehy, conductor and pianist Andrew Synott and clarinettist Michael Seaver. It played its first concert in Dublin in 1997...
, Con Tempo Quartet, Trio Scordatura, Ensemble Ascolta
Ascolta
- Early years :The orchestra was formed in 2003 by seven musicians. It is based in Stuttgart. They played their first public performance at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik music festival.- Current composition :...
, Champ d’Action, ensemble laboratorium, ensemble surplus, the Rilke Ensemble, the Irish Chamber Orchestra
Irish Chamber Orchestra
The Irish Chamber Orchestra is a Irish classical music ensemble, administratively based at the University of Limerick. The ICO primarily gives concerts at the University Concert Hall, Limerick and at the RDS Concert Hall, Dublin...
, the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble, Bozzini Quartet, Callino Quartet, Ensemble 2000, Concorde, Kaleidoscop, Black Hair, Continuum, Ensemble Musica Nova, ensemble chronophonie, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra is Scotland's national chamber orchestra, based in Edinburgh. One of Scotland’s five National Performing Arts Companies, the SCO performs throughout Scotland, including annual tours of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and South of Scotland. The SCO appears...
Wind Quintet, the Hebrides Ensemble, Psappha, and Q-02 among others. She has received commissions from organizations including Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
(WDR), Sudwest Rundfunk (SWR), the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, Maerzmusik, Musik der Jahrhundert, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival is held in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It has a repertoire of cutting-edge jazz, orchestral, choral and electroacoustic performances, along with film, dance and music theatre...
, Dresdener Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik, Wien Modern, the Dresden Semperoper
Semperoper
The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and the concert hall of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden . It is located near the Elbe River in the historic center of Dresden, Germany.The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841...
, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
The Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe, Germany is an interdisciplinary art museum and research institution focusing on new media....
, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, the Project Arts Centre
Project Arts Centre
Project Arts Centre is a multidisciplinary contemporary arts centre located in Dublin's Temple Bar that showcases cutting-edge visual art and performance....
and the National Concert Hall
National Concert Hall
The National Concert Hall is a concert hall located on Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin, Ireland, close to St. Stephen's Green, and is the principal national venue for classical music concerts in Ireland....
, Ireland, as well as commission awards from the New Music Scheme of the Arts Council of Ireland
Arts Council of Ireland
The Arts Council of Ireland was founded in 1951 by the Government of Ireland to encourage interest in Irish art and channel to funding from the state to Irish artists and arts organisations...
and the Scottish Arts Council
Scottish Arts Council
The Scottish Arts Council is a Scottish public body that distributes funding from the Scottish Government, and is the leading national organisation for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland...
. In 2003-04 Jennifer was composer-in-residence at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
. In 2000 Jennifer won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, and received first prize in the SCI/ASCAP 2002 Commission Competition. In July 2002 she returned to Darmstadt to lecture in composition at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik. Her work was shortlisted for the 2002 and 2003 Gaudeamus Foundation
Gaudeamus Foundation
The Gaudeamus Foundation and Contemporary Music Center is a renowned center for contemporary music. The Gaudeamus Foundation organizes and promotes contemporary musical activities and concerts both in the Netherlands and abroad...
composition prize.
In addition to her activities as a composer
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...
, Jennifer frequently performs as a vocalist, specialising in extended techniques. Many of her recent compositions were commissioned for her voice in conjunction with other instruments, and her works have been performed by her and others at festivals such as RTÉ Living Music (Dublin), Båstad Kammarmusik Festival (Sweden), Ultraschall (Berlin), Ars Musica
Ars musica
Founded in 1989, Ars Musica is an annual contemporary music international festival that takes place in Brussels during several weeks, usually in March. Nowadays, Ars musica is one of the biggest world festival for contemporary music...
(Brussels), Steirischer Herbst, Wien Modern, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
The Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik is a music festival for contemporary chamber music, jointly organised by the town Witten in the Ruhr Area and the broadcasting station Westdeutscher Rundfunk...
, Donaueschinger Musiktage
Donaueschingen Festival
The Donaueschingen Festival is a festival for new music that takes place every October in the small town of Donaueschingen...
, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Late Music Festival (York), Hamburger Klangwerktage, Gaida (Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
), BMIC Cutting Edge, Composer’s Choice (Dublin), SoundField (Chicago) the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt, Stockholm New Music, BELEF (Belgrade), Traiettorie (Parma), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), SPOR (Denmark), Frau Musica Nova
Frau musica nova
Frau Musica Nova was a conference held in November 1998 at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, focusing on historical and living women composers. The conference consisted of both academic paper sessions and concerts, including a newly commissioned work by Pauline Oliveros....
(Cologne), Performa (New York), Electric Eclectics (Canada), Reihe 0 (Austria), Ergodos (Dublin) and Music at the Anthology (New York). Jennifer is also active as an improviser, performing regularly with musicians in Europe and the U.S.
Recent projects of note include Grúpat, a two-year project in which Walshe assumed nine different alter egos - all members of art collective Grúpat - and created compositions, installations, graphic scores, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s and fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
under these alter egos. Pieces by Grúpat members have been performed and exhibited all over the world, most notably at the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival; Kilkenny Arts Festival; the Museum of Arts & Design, New York; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
The Contemporary Arts Museum – Houston is a not-for-profit institution in Houston, Texas, dedicated to presenting the contemporary art of our time to the public....
; New Langton Arts
New Langton Arts
-About:New Langton Arts was a not-for-profit arts organization focusing on contemporary art founded in 1975 in San Francisco, California. Part of the first wave of alternative art spaces in the US, New Langton Arts was a leader in exhibiting new media forms in art, and involving artists in the...
, San Francisco; Ultrasound Festival, Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
and Festival Rümlingen, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. In February 2009 Grúpat were the feature of a retrospective at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, which coincided with the launch of the book Grúpat by Project Press and the release of two CDs featuring Jennifer’s music written under her Grúpat alter egos.
Ensemble
2000 like glass in a mirror on a window pane, for wind quintet2002 unbreakable line. hinged waist. for flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello
2002 theme from, for violin and piano (with walkie-talkies )
2003 minard/nithsdale, for string quartet and two boomboxes
2004 THIS IS WHY PEOPLE OD ON PILLS / AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, for variable ensemble (2 to 10 instruments and/or voices)
2004 a sensitive number for the laydeez, for alto saxophone, viola, piano, percussion and video
2006 passenger, for chamber orchestra
2011 metta, for 9 musicians
Vocal and choral
1999 exercise2000 as mo cheann
2001 warm/cold
2001 NOW WASH YOUR HANDS
2001 ná déan NÍL CEAD
2001 moving in/love song/city front garden with old men
2002 here we are now
2002 Happiness is a Warm Gun
2002 dirty white fields
2002 been in a room and a room and a room and a room
2003 XXX_Live_Nude_Girls!!!, opera for 2 female voices, 2 pupeteers, 2 camera operators, accordion, CD, clarinet, trombone, trombone - libretto: Jennifer Walshe
2003 he wants his cowboys to sound like how he thinks cowboys should sound
2004 The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Conductor
2004 Kommander Kobayashi Journal #17: set phasers on KILL!, opera for 2 male voices, 3 females voices, CD, cello, trombone, piano, slides, video, viola - libretto: Jennifer Walshe, Sven Holm, Sebastian Bark, Tobias Dusche
2005 G.L.O.R.I.-
2007 Physics for the Girl in the Street