Judy Dunaway (born 1964, in
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
) is a conceptual sound artist, avant-garde composer, free improvisor and creator of sound installations who is primarily known for her sound works for latex
balloons
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...
. Since 1990 she has created over thirty works for balloons as sound conduits and has also made this her main instrument for improvisation.
Background
Judy Dunaway has presented her compositions, improvisations and installations for balloons throughout North America and Europe at many venues including
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
Out-of-Doors,
REDCAT
Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts center for innovative visual, performing and media arts in downtown Los Angeles, located inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Opened in November 2003 ...
, the SoHo Arts Festival, the Alternative Museum, the
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States.
The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...
,
Performance Space 122
Performance Space New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profitable arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building.
Origin
The former eleme ...
, Roulette, Experimental Intermedia,
Soundlab
Soundlab was a collective of artists, both sound and visual, that started in the East Village, New York City around the mid 1990s. The founding members were Howard Goldkrand, Beth Coleman and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky. The collective include ...
, the
New Museum of Contemporary Art
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...
, the
Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted contemporary classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon. Called "the cou ...
Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, Podewil, Diapason, Galerie Rachel Haferkamp and
ZKM
The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...
. She has performed as a balloon player in compositions by
John Zorn
John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...
and
Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figures ...
, and in improvisations and/or collaborations with the
FLUX Quartet The FLUX Quartet is an American string quartet dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1998 and is based in New York City. The group is renowned for its performances of Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. ...
, performance artist
Annie Sprinkle
Annie M. Sprinkle (born Ellen F. Steinberg on July 23, 1954) is an American certified sexologist, performance artist, former sex worker, and advocate for sex work and health care. Citing: Sprinkle has worked as a prostitute, sex educator, femi ...
, Fluxus artist
Yasunao Tone
(b. 1935) is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Tokyo, Japan and working in New York City. He graduated from Chiba University in 1957 with a major in Japanese Literature. An important figure in postwar Japanese art during the sixties, he was acti ...
, video artist Zev Robinson, visual artists
Nancy Davidson and
Ken Butler, percussionists
John Hollenbeck and Matt Moran, the Illuminati big band, DJ Singe (Beth Coleman), and numerous others. Her works for balloons include electronic and multi-media works,
sound installations
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
, and works that incorporate more traditional instrumentation such as string quartet, chorus and Japanese koto.
Awards include a recording grant from the Aaron Copland Fund of the
American Music Center
New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media program ...
, a commission from the
American Composers Forum
The American Composers Forum is an American organization that works for the promotion and assistance of American composers and contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum and is based in Saint Paul, Minn ...
's Composers Commissioning Fund, an artist/researcher-in-residency at
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie
The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...
, a recording residency at
Harvestworks
Harvestworks is a not-for-profit arts organization located in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by artists supporting the creation and presentation of art works achieved through the use of new technologies. The Harvestworks TEAM Lab (Technology ...
/Studio Pass, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts,
Meet the Composer
New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media progra ...
and the Kalliste Foundation. Ms. Dunaway has published two articles in Musicworks magazine about her work with balloons: A History of the Balloon as a Sound Producer in Experimental Music (Fall 2001), and, Orchestration and Playing Techniques for Balloons as Sound Producers (Spring 2002). Ms. Dunaway's scores are published b
Material Press (Frankfurt)
Dunaway has a Ph.D. in Music Composition from
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...
, where she studied with analog electronic music composer
Daria Semegen
Daria Semegen (born June 27, 1946) is a contemporary American composer of classical music. While she has composed pieces for traditional instruments – her ''Jeux des quatres'' (1970), for example, is scored for clarinet, trombone, cello, and pi ...
and multi-media artist Christa Erickson, and a M.A. in Experimental Music from
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...
(Connecticut) where she studied with composer
Alvin Lucier
Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Mi ...
. She also holds a B.S. in Music Education from Hunter College (New York City). In academic year 2004-2005 she was full-time Visiting Faculty in Sound at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Art History Department at
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation’s oldest art schools, the only publicly funded independent art school ...
.
Dunaway has also created other works, often to do with social activism or cultural critique. In late 2006 Dunaway founded
S.W.I.R.L. a not-for-profit educational website for audio art and activism concerning the rights of
sex workers
A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker"
According to one view, sex work is d ...
. Other works by Ms. Dunaway include
Affirmative Action, a political multi-media piece utilizing sensor-activated projections as visual music, commissioned by percussionist Russell Greenberg; Sensation, a composition for audience presented at the Mixed Messages Festival where it was conducted by
Jackie 60 Award-winner
Baby Dee
Baby Dee (born 1953) is an American performance artist, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio.
Early career
In the 1970s, Baby Dee began her musical career as a street performer, but soon decided to take work as an ...
; Duo for Radio Stations, simulcast on
WFMU
WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, in ...
(New Jersey) and
WKCR
WKCR-FM (89.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the station traces its history back to 1908 with the fir ...
(New York);
and the score for
Diane Torr
Diane Marian Torr (10 November 1948 – 31 May 2017) was an artist, writer and educator, particularly known as a male impersonator and for her drag king, "Man for a Day" and gender-as-performance workshops. For the last years of her life, Torr l ...
's performance art piece Crossing the River Styx, the "high decibel music"
that instigated the closing of the Franklin Furnace performance space in 1990.
Notes
Discography
Mother of Balloon Music(
Innova Recordings
Innova Recordings is the independent record label of the non-profit American Composers Forum based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1982 to document the winners of the McKnight Fellowship offered by its parent organization, the Minneso ...
2006) - Compositions and improvisations for balloons by Judy Dunaway. Featuring performances by the FLUX Quartet, Ryuko Mizutani, Damian Catera and Judy Dunaway.
Shar: Pop Music(Outer Realm Records 2001). Avant-noise-rock with balloons (Judy Dunaway), bass (Ilja Komarov) and drums (Trixa Arnold).
Judy Dunaway: Balloon Music(
Composers Recordings, Inc.
Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI) was an American record label dedicated to the recording of contemporary classical music by American composers. It was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore, and Oliver Daniel, and based in New York City.
...
/CRI (now part of
New World Records
New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.Yasunao Tone
(b. 1935) is a multi-disciplinary artist born in Tokyo, Japan and working in New York City. He graduated from Chiba University in 1957 with a major in Japanese Literature. An important figure in postwar Japanese art during the sixties, he was acti ...
and Dan Evans Farkas.
“The Alt.coffee Tapes”(Katahdin Recordings) - Balloon improvisation with Matt Moran and John Hollenbeck.
* “New York Guitars” compilation (
Composers Recordings, Inc.
Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI) was an American record label dedicated to the recording of contemporary classical music by American composers. It was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore, and Oliver Daniel, and based in New York City.
...
/CRI,1995) - “Fifty 210” (for electric guitar and Yamaha Fifty 210 amplifier) - Electric guitar composition.
*
John Zorn's Cobra: Live at the Knitting Factory (Knitting Factory Works 1994) - Balloon, guitar and vocal improvisations in the context of the John Zorn composition “Cobra.”
* “Judy Dunaway and the Evan Gallagher Little Band” (AMF 1993/Lilly Myrtle Music 2002) - Art-rock compositions.
* “Judy Dunaway” (Lost 1991) - Avant-garde folk songs and free-improvisations.
Further reading
Musicworks Magazine Winter, 2002, “My Beautiful Balloon, Part II: Orchestration and Playing Techniques for Balloons as Sound Producers,” by Judy Dunaway, pp. 40–46.
Musicworks Magazine Fall, 2001, “My Beautiful Balloon, Part I: A History of the Balloon as a Sound Producer in Experimental Music,” by Judy Dunaway, pp. 14–21.
* "Getting Physical (New York Guitars: Loren Mazzacane Connors, Didkovsky, Phil Kline, John King, Judy Dunaway; Emergency Broadcast Network)" by
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann (born November 21, 1955, in Dallas, Texas) is an American professor of music, critic, analyst, and composer who has worked primarily in the New York City area. As a music critic for ''The Village Voice'' (from 1986 to 2005) and ...
,
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
, October 10, 1995 (Vol. XL No. 41, p. 66).
* "Pop! Goes the Music," by
Kyle Gann
Kyle Eugene Gann (born November 21, 1955, in Dallas, Texas) is an American professor of music, critic, analyst, and composer who has worked primarily in the New York City area. As a music critic for ''The Village Voice'' (from 1986 to 2005) and ...
,
Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the creat ...
, August 8, 1995 (Vol. XL No. 32, p. 67).
External links
Official Website of Judy DunawayBy Kyle Gann, Arts Journal, March 8, 2005
Kyle Gann, official website.
by Dennis Bathory-Kitsz from Kalvos & Damian New Music Bazaar radio program (audio).
Avant-Garde Music for Toys, 'Playing' in New Yorkby Adam Phillips, Voice of America, April 1, 2009 (audio).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunaway, Judy
1964 births
Living people
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
American women classical composers
American classical composers
Stony Brook University alumni
Wesleyan University alumni
American experimental musicians
American sound artists
Women sound artists
Massachusetts College of Art and Design faculty
21st-century American composers
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century American composers
21st-century American women musicians
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers
American women academics