Villa Aurora Grant Recipients | 2012

Jul, Aug, Sep

Chiyoko Szlavnics | Composer

Chiyoko Szlavnics
Chiyoko Szlavnics
1967
Born in Toronto
Since 1993
Compositions for solo instruments to chamber orchestra
1997 – 1998
Residence at Akademie Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart
1999 – 2000
Seminars with Walter Zimmermann, UdK Berlin
2010
Joseph S. Stauffer Prize, Canada
2011 – 2012
Assistant professor of Walter Zimmermann, UdK, Berlin

Chiyoko Szlavnics (b. 1967, Toronto) has composed works ranging from solo instruments to chamber orchestra since 1993. She studied composition with James Tenney in Toronto, was in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart) from 1997-8, and attended Walter Zimmermann′s seminars at the HdK (now the UdK) in Berlin.

Her recent body of compositions are based on drawings which are translated into musical notation using the Just Intonation ratio system as a harmonic and microtonal basis. The resulting acoustical phenomena are surprising: through her particular choice of pitch material and extended glissandi, a transparent (glassy) surface of pure intervals is often set into motion by rippling beating. Her compositions feature clusters, beating, unexpected harmonies, as well other auditory experiences, such as difference tones, and what Szlavnics likes to call ″audible harmonic nodes″. All of these phenomena are structured by the forms and dynamics inherent in the original drawings.

Szlavnics has also produced numerous multi-channel sound installations, created works for contemporary dance and theatre, video and film. In 1995 & 1997, she co-curated Art in Open Spaces, a Toronto performance series highlighting outdoor public art sites and spaces in the city′s downtown core, through the commissioning and production of new music and choreographies.

Her compositions have been performed and presented by a variety of ensembles, venues, and on radio in Europe and North America.

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