Pamela Z

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Pamela Z
Pamela Z (c. 2003)
Pamela Z (c. 2003)
Background information
Born1956 (1956)
Buffalo, New York
GenresAvant-garde, contemporary classical, experimental, electroacoustic
Occupation(s)Composer, performer
Instrument(s)Voice, electronics
LabelsStarkland, Innova, Bridge
Websitepamelaz.com
Pamela Z performing at the University of Colorado's ATLAS Institute, Boulder in 2012

Pamela Z (born 1956) is an American

Max on a MacBook Pro as a means of layering, looping, and altering her live vocal sound.[2] Her performance work often includes video projections and special controllers with sensors that allow her to use physical gestures to manipulate the sound and projected media.[3]

Z's solo albums are Echolocation (1987), and

McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
.

In addition to being a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist in Residence, Z has received a

ASCAP Music Award (for 17 years), the MAP Fund (twice), and an NEA, and Japan/US Friendship Commission Fellowship. Her work and performances have been reviewed in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, East Bay Express, the Wire, and the Washington Post
, among other places.

Early life and education

Born in

University of Colorado at Boulder[1] in 1978, where she studied classical voice. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she worked as a singer-songwriter
on voice and guitar throughout Colorado under the name Pam Brooks.

Career

Brooks began experimenting with digital delay and reverb to process her voice in the early 1980s and started composing works involving live looping.[4]

In 1984 she relocated to San Francisco where she legally changed her last name to Z and became active in the San Francisco Bay Area contemporary music and performance art scene. Throughout the late 1980s and the '90s, she continued to create solo voice and electronics performances, and gained visibility through her appearances in area new music performance venues, theaters, and art galleries. She began touring her work nationally and internationally and, by 2000, she was performing regularly in New York City, Europe, and Japan. Z has performed in such festivals as

La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, and Pina Bausch Tanztheater's Festival in Wuppertal
, Germany.

In addition to her solo voice and electronics works, Z has composed chamber works commissioned by contemporary music soloists and ensembles such as Kronos Quartet, the Bang on a Can All Stars, Eighth Blackbird,[1] flautist Claire Chase, the New York string quartet ETHEL, Del Sol Quartet, the California EAR Unit, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Orchestra of St. Luke's.

In 2013 she was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet to produce a new work, "And the Movement of the Tongue," at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. San Francisco Chronicle's music critic Joshua Kosman described the work as "witty and beautifully touching" and "encapsulat[ing] the vivacity" of San Francisco.[5]

The next year she created the soundscape for Jo Kreiter's “Multiple Mary and Invisible Jane,” a free 30-minute show that took place on an 80-foot wall of

ODC Dance
), and Mary Armentrout.

In 2022 Z was one of several composers commissioned by soprano Julia Bullock to create new work for her History's Persistent Voice for the San Francisco Symphony.[7]

In addition, she has composed and recorded film scores for independent filmmakers including Barbara Hammer, Lynne Sachs, Jeanne C. Finley and John Muse.

Recordings

Studio recordings of several of Pamela Z's signature pieces appear on her 2004 solo CD,

Mendi + Keith Obadike, and ‘’Geekspeak’’, which appears both on Sonic Circuits IV, a 1996 Innova Recordings compilation and on Bitstreams, a Whitney Museum collection of works from a 2001 sound exhibition curated by Stephen Vitiello. Z also recorded a track for Meredith Monk
’s 2012 tribute CD Monk Mix– performing a voice and electronics arrangement of Monk’s ‘’Scared Song’’.

In 2021, her reissue of ‘Echolocation’ was included in the New York Times's list of "5 Classical Music Albums to Hear Right Now." Seth Colter Walls wrote, "Given her skill at live looping and solo concertizing, it’s a treat to hear her in bandleader mode.... Bridging ... diverse reference points, as ever, is Z’s own virtuosic vocal technique, which incorporates both her bel canto training as well as her eclectic listening, across genres."[8]

Visual art work

Pamela Z has created fixed-media sound works for radio and new media installations for art galleries. Her 21-channel sound installation, Simultaneous, and performances of the accompanying multimedia chamber work were presented at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York) as part of her 2023 Studio Residency.[9] She had a solo exhibition at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois in 2010,[10] the performance component of which she played at Theater Artaud in San Francisco the same year.[11] Other exhibition spaces include Savvy Contemporary (Berlin), the annual New Music Festival at the Fine Arts Center Galleries at Bowling Green State University in 2013,[12] and the Chico University Art Gallery (Chico, California).

Z's installations have been shown in group exhibitions including Walkmen at the Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum in

McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina in 2002 and 2012.[17]

Narration work

Z is also known for her narration work in independent film and television. Her voice appears in several documentaries including Sam Green's The Weather Underground (2002), Hrabba Gunnarsdottir's Alive in Limbo, and the Bay Area PBS affiliate KQED's 2003-2016 weekly arts television program, Spark.

Honors and awards

Z has received the

honorable mention
in the Digital Musics Category. In 2017, she was a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist in Residence.

In 2018, the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference established the “Pamela Z Award for Innovation”, an annual prize for recognition of “researchers who are positively contributing to bringing more diversity to the NIME community”.

Discography

Solo albums

Compilations

  • Pearls, the Gem of the Sea on " Komotion International Vol. 11", compilation, 1991, Spirit Records, LP, CD, CS
  • State on "State of the Union", compilation produced by Elliott Sharp, 1992, Arrest, CD
  • In Tymes of Olde (Z) and Obsession, Additiction and the Aristotelian Curve (Z and Imhoff) on "From A to Z" compilation, Starkland, 1993, CD
  • Bald Boyfriend performed by The Qube Chix on "Dice" compilation, 1993, Ishtar, CD
  • Geekspeak on "Sonic Circuits IV" compilation, 1996, Innova Recordings, CD
  • Parts and Questions/Trip on "Dice 2" compilation, 1996, Ishtar, CD
  • Caught on "Emergency Music" compilation, CRI, 1998, CD
  • Live/Work on "IMMERSION" compilation, Starkland, 2000, 5.1 surround DVD-audio ST-2010
  • Geekspeak on "Bitstreams", compilation curated by Stephen Vitiello, Whitney Museum of American Art, 2001, CD
  • 50 for Charles Amirkhanian on "Homo Sonorus" compilation, Kunstradio, 2001, CD
  • No. 3 on "Visions", compilation, (2002) EMIT Series, CD
  • Pop Titles 'You' on "Deep Wireless 2: New Adventures in Sound Art," 2005, CD
  • Declaratives In First Person on "Crosstalk: American Speech Music" compilation produced by Mendi & Keith Obadike, Bridge Records, 2008, CD

Tribute CDs

  • Movements I, II, & III (Peter Kowald), Kowald, Gottschalk, and Z on "Global Village Trio", Free Elephant, 2004, CD
  • Postcard From Heaven (John Cage), Victoria Jordanova: harps, Z: voices, Arpaviva, 2006, CD
  • Scared Song (Meredith Monk), composer, Monk, arr. & performer, Z on "Monk Mix", House Foundation for the Arts, 2012, CD

On others' albums

Bibliography

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e f Fancher, Lou (15 June 2022). "Pamela Z Speaks Out: The multifaceted artist riffs on electronic music". East Bay Express.
  2. ^ Garrett, Charles Hiroshi. ‘’The Grove Dictionary of American Music’’, “Pamela Z”, Oxford University Press, 2013
  3. ^ Wilson, Stephen. ‘’Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology’’ Leonardo/The MIT Press 2002, pp. 745-746
  4. ^ Malloy, Judy. ‘‘Women, Art, and Technology’’ “Pamela Z: A Tool is a Tool”, Leonardo/MIT Press 2003, pp. 350
  5. ^ Kosman, Joshua (22 February 2013). "Kronos Quartet review: YBCA finale".
  6. ^ "Flying without a net, Kreiter takes on homeless women". San Francisco Examiner. 12 September 2014.
  7. ^ "Julia Bullock raises 'History's Persistent Voice' at San Francisco Symphony". San Francisco Examiner. 11 May 2022.
  8. ^ a b c "5 Classical Music Albums to Hear Right Now". New York Times. 30 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Exhibitions > Studio Residency Pamela Z Jul 8-Aug13,2023". MoMA.
  10. ^ "Baggage Allowance". Krannert Art Museum.
  11. ^ "Pamela Z explores baggage on many levels". San Francisco Examiner. 20 May 2010.
  12. ^ "Groundbreaking artists highlight BGSU New Music Festival". Bowling Green State University.
  13. ^ "Pamela Z …and on your left…". gruenrekorder.de. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  14. ^ "SONIC GESTURES INSTALLATION OPENING". pamelaz.com.
  15. ^ "Exhibitions > BitStreams Mar 22–June 10, 2001". Whitney Museum.
  16. ^ "side by side/in the world". San Francisco Arts Commission.
  17. ^ "Alumni Artists > Pamela Z". McColl Center.
  18. ^ "5 Classical Music Albums to Hear Right Now". New York Times. 29 July 2021.

External links

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