Talk at the Museum of Craft and Design

Next week I'll be speaking at San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Design about my work with sound in Antarctica.

Designing with Sound: Recording Antarctica
Museum of Craft and Design Speaker Series Event

499 Castro Street (at 18th Street)
Wednesday, November 17
6:30 - 8 PM
Free to members of MCD. $10 non-members, $5 students


I will share stories and images from my Antarctic music project, play samples of field recordings from Palmer Station, and demonstrate several of my Antarctic-object instruments.


The presentation will be followed by a visit to the exhibition Transference, a glass and sound installation by Andy Paiko and Ethan Rose.

* My next performance of Antarctic compositions will be Tues, December 7th in Berkeley, CA.

New Penguin Bone Instruments

The Coracoids - Adélie penguin coracoid bones mounted in driftwood and amplified via a contact microphone wedged in the wood. The coracoid is part of the penguin's shoulder girdle and is the pivot upon which its wings turn. I have been bowing the coracoids to produce eerie, howling sounds in my new piece White on White, which evokes the rapid decline of the Adélie colonies near Palmer Station.

The Octobone - is constructed from Adélie penguin femurs and tibias, again mounted in driftwood. The instrument is miked via a hydrophone embedded inside the underside of the wood. We have been playing the Octobone percussively and making sounds that blend with recordings of brash ice melting underwater.

I didn't want to damage the bones in either of these two instruments (if they broke, replacing them would likely take several years and a lot of grant-writing). So, instead of screwing or gluing them into the base, the bones are fitted into holes carved in the wood, and strapped and wedged in place with thick thread and tiny shims. After a few carving mishaps that resulted in minor injuries I discovered work gloves and refined my technique. Now my woodworking should involve less cursing and blood. Yay! More bone instruments coming soon.

Climbing on the Antarctic Peninsula

This past austral summer a French climbing team made a number of ascents of peaks along the Antarctic Peninsula, including a couple of mountains on Smith Island and Brabant Island that I sailed past on my trip.

Read about their expedition here: http://aaj.americanalpineclub.org/climbs-and-expeditions/antarctica/antarctic-peninsula/2009-10-antarctic-peninsula-summary-by-d-gildea/
Extensive photos from their adventures are posted at http://nomansland.project.free.fr/NomanslandProject-Portfolios.htm

And yes, I'm jealous!

Penguin Pieces - Live this Saturday

My ensemble and I will be performing a set of my Antarctic compositions live this Saturday night in San Francisco at the Lab as part of the Soundwave 4: Green Sound Festival. We will be premiering new works inspired by Adélie penguins, scored for natural-object instruments in combination with field recordings from Palmer Station, Antarctica. This time, our instruments will be penguin bones and nesting stones, Antarctic limpet shells, rocks from Breaker Island and more.

Our concert has received a nice write-up in the SFWeekly and is a featured event. Check out the article here: http://www.sfweekly.com/events/animosity-in-the-illuminated-forest-2070655/

Please note- we are playing first so don't be late or you could miss our set. Also, many of the shows in this festival have sold out so I recommend either arriving early or purchasing advance tickets.

Animosity in the Illuminated Forest
Featuring performances by composer Cheryl E. Leonard, multi-media artist Elise Baldwin, Norwegian artist Elin Øyen Vister

BUY TICKETS: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/107343
Festival Page: http://www.projectsoundwave.com/2010/july31/
Festival website: http://www.projectsoundwave.com/

Date: Saturday July 31st, 2010
Location: The Lab, 2948 16th Street, San Francisco
Time: 7:30 Doors, 8:00 Show
Tickets: $10-15 sliding scale

Infoline: 415.320.6685 or fest@projectsoundwave.com

Artists:
Cheryl E. Leonard www.allwaysnorth.com & www.musicfromtheice.blogspot.com
Elise Baldwin http://www.clattertrap.com/
Elin Øyen Vister http://childofklang.wordpress.com & http://www.myspace.com/childofklang

Composer Cheryl E. Leonard performs music voicing the catastrophic decline of Adélie penguin colonies near Palmer Research Station in Antarctica. She will be joined onstage by A.L. Dentel, Felix Macnee and Cliff Neighbors, who will play amplified natural objects (including bones, shells and stones from Antarctica) together with field recordings from Palmer Station.

Multimedia artist Elise Baldwin presents her intermedia piece Chimera, part of the Ambit series, a group of live audiovisual turntable performances. The series focuses thematically on the circular nature of memory and the decomposition of physical presence over time.

Norwegian Sound Artist Elin Øyen Vister summons the sounndscapes and the decline of the pelagic seabirds Kittywakem Puffin and Guillemot in the Røst Archipelago in Northern Norway to our shores. With extensive time, research and recordings in the area, Vister investigates a haunting reality for the species.

Artist Talks Q&A will follow performances.

ANIMOSITY IN THE ILLUMINATED FOREST is part of Soundwave Festival ((4)), entitled GREEN SOUND running June 6 to August 13 2010. GREEN SOUND explores the natural world and environmental sustainability through innovative, interactive and experiential performances and exhibitions by over 75 local and international musicians from across the sonic spectrum (experimental to classical to popular music), sound artists, visual artists and filmmakers.

Live on Internet Radio + Touch the Gear Expo

I'll be performing live on the UB Radio Salon on DFM Radio Television International, Wednesday July 14, 4-6 pm US Pacific Time.

The UB Radio Salon is two hours of live improvised music/sound art. This week guest artists Rob Wortman and I will join hosts ninah pixie and das of Big City Orchestra to explore the theme WATER ON STONE. Although our focus is not Antarctica, I will be playing my Antarctic rocks and mixing in several of my unreleased Antarctic field recordings. Tune in: http://www.dfm.nu

Archives of past UB Radio Salons (including an Antarctic-themed show I did with Anka Draugelates on 2/18/09) can be found at: http://www.ubuibi.org/radio.html.

On Sunday July 18th the Outsound New Music Summit presents the Touch the Gear Expo, in which a wide range of San Francisco Bay Area musicians allow you to try out their unusual instruments and sound-making devices/set-ups. I'll be there with a selection of my natural-object instruments including several Antarctic instruments. Here is your chance to play penguin bones, limpet shells and stones from Antarctica, plus California pinecones, driftwood, bark and more.

Touch the Gear Expo
Sunday July 18, 2010 7-9 pm
San Francisco Community Music Center
544 Capp Street at 20th Street
San Francisco
FREE!

Reminder: My next concert of Antarctic music compositions will be Saturday July 31st at the Lab in San Francisco, as part of the Green Sound Festival.

Photos from April 17th Performance

Here are some images from our April 17th performance in 23five's Activating the Medium Festival at the Lab in San Francisco. Our next show will be July 31st in San Francisco.

Live video closeups of the instruments were projected behind us during the set

A.L. Dentel, Cliff Neighbors and Cheryl Leonard perform the wind piece "Greater Than 20 Knots"

Cheryl plays stone slabs from Breaker Island in "Brash Ice"

Felix Macnee on limpet shells and penguin bones in "Point 8 Ice"

Ann hangs icicles during the final piece

Ann and Cliff play beakers and petrie dishes along with drips from the melting icicles

By the end of the show the stage is covered with instruments

Photos by Randy Yau, except the last two which I took.

Penguin Pieces July 31st

My next Antarctic music concert will be July 31st in ME'DI.ATE's Green Sound Festival at the Lab in San Francisco. I'll be presenting a set of pieces inspired by Palmer Station's Adélie penguins, including several world premieres.