Mary Oliver (violinist)
Encyclopedia
Mary Oliver is an American
performer on violin
, viola
, and Hardanger fiddle
, in the areas of New Music
, free improvisation
, and avant-garde jazz
.
She currently lives in Amsterdam
, where she is professor at the Hogeschol voor Kunst and musical director of the Magpie Music Dance Company.
in violin and viola at San Francisco State University
and at Mills College
. In 1993 she obtained a doctorate from the University of California, San Diego
in Theory and Practice of Improvisation
(Constellations in Play: A Model of Improvisation), which substantially informed her methods as a performer.
she performs as much composed as improvised music, giving first performances of works by, for example, Richard Barrett
, John Cage
, Chaya Czernowin
, Morton Feldman
, Brian Ferneyhough
, Liza Lim
, George Lewis
and Richard Teitelbaum
. Oliver is a member of the Nieuw Ensemble
, SONOR
and KIVA, as well as the ICP-Orchestra.
She has performed with, among others, Ab Baars, Sean Bergin
, Tobias Delius
, Scott Fields
, Ig Henneman
, Tristan Honsinger
, Achim Kaufmann, Joëlle Léandre
, Thomas Lehn
, George Lewis
, Misha Mengelberg
, Phil Minton
, Michael Moore
and Evan Parker
. She has received invitations to perform at festivals all over the world, such as the North American New Music Festival, Xenakis Festival in Buffalo, New York
, Darmstadt Summer Course, Donaueschingen Festival
and Ars Electronica
(Linz
).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
performer on violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
, and Hardanger fiddle
Hardingfele
A Hardanger fiddle is a traditional stringed instrument used originally to play the music of Norway. In modern designs, the instruments are very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings and thinner wood...
, in the areas of New Music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
, and avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
.
She currently lives in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, where she is professor at the Hogeschol voor Kunst and musical director of the Magpie Music Dance Company.
Education
Oliver studied for her Master of Fine ArtsMaster of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in violin and viola at San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
and at Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
. In 1993 she obtained a doctorate from the University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
in Theory and Practice of Improvisation
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
(Constellations in Play: A Model of Improvisation), which substantially informed her methods as a performer.
Career
As a soloistSolo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
she performs as much composed as improvised music, giving first performances of works by, for example, Richard Barrett
Richard Barrett (composer)
Richard Barrett is a British composer.-Biography:Barrett began to study music seriously only after graduating in genetics and microbiology at University College London in 1980 . From then until 1983 he took private lessons with Peter Wiegold...
, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Chaya Czernowin
Chaya Czernowin
Chaya Czernowin is an Israeli composer, and Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University....
, Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
, Brian Ferneyhough
Brian Ferneyhough
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...
, Liza Lim
Liza Lim
Liza Lim is an Australian composer.Lim writes concert music as well as music theatre and has collaborated with artists on a number of installation and video projects...
, George Lewis
George Lewis (trombonist)
George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971, and is a pioneer of computer music.- Biography :Lewis graduated from Yale University with a...
and Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Teitelbaum is an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. Born in New York, he is a former student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono. He is best known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performance. For example, he brought the first moog synthesizer to Europe...
. Oliver is a member of the Nieuw Ensemble
Nieuw Ensemble
The Nieuw Ensemble was founded in 1980 in Amsterdam. It has a unique instrumental structure, using plucked instruments such as mandolin, guitar and harp in combination with wind, string and percussion. Ed Spanjaard has been the principal conductor since 1982...
, SONOR
SONOR Ensemble
SONOR was UCSD's Resident Contemporary Music Ensemble. Performing between 1977 and 2006, the group presented 37 concerts. Members included UCSD Faculty such as Philip Larson, Edwin Harkins, Carol Plantamura, János Négyesy, John Fonville, Robert Zelickman, Steven Schick, Charles Curtis, Aleck Karis,...
and KIVA, as well as the ICP-Orchestra.
She has performed with, among others, Ab Baars, Sean Bergin
Sean Bergin
Sean Bergin is an avant-garde jazz saxophonist and flautist originally from South AfricaBergin was born in Durban on June 29, 1948. He is saxophonist, flautist, composer, educator and bandleader....
, Tobias Delius
Tobias Delius
Tobias Delius is a musician who plays the tenor saxophone & clarinet.-Music career:Delius began playing saxophone in 1980 in Germany...
, Scott Fields
Scott Fields
Scott Fields , is a guitarist, composer and band leader. He is best known for his attempts to blend music that is composed and music that is written and for his modular pieces...
, Ig Henneman
Ig Henneman
Ig Henneman is a Dutch composer and bandleader. She was born in Haarlem, Netherlands, and took music lessons as a child. She studied viola and violin in Amsterdam and Tilburg, and composition with Robert Heppener....
, Tristan Honsinger
Tristan Honsinger
Tristan Honsinger is a cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. He is perhaps best known for his long-running collaboration with free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and guitarist Derek Bailey....
, Achim Kaufmann, Joëlle Léandre
Joëlle Léandre
Joëlle Léandre is a double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation....
, Thomas Lehn
Thomas Lehn
Thomas Lehn is a German-born piano and synthesizer player active in free improvisation and contemporary music.Lehn has recorded with Marcus Schmickler, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Phil Minton, Phil Durrant, Radu Malfatti, Axel Dörner, Cor Fuhler, Gerry Hemingway and is a member of the electronic...
, George Lewis
George Lewis
George Lewis may refer to:*George Lowys or Lewis , mayor of Winchelsea*George Lewis , track and field athlete from Trinidad and Tobago*George Lewis , New Orleans jazz clarinettist...
, Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg
Misha Mengelberg is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.-Biography:...
, Phil Minton
Phil Minton
Phil Minton is a jazz/free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter.Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook's group, Daniil Kharms and Joseph Brodsky with Simon Nabatov, and extracts from James Joyce's...
, Michael Moore
Michael Moore (saxophonist and clarinetist)
Michael Moore is an American-born jazz musician and composer who has resided in the Netherlands since 1982.- Background and career:...
and Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
. She has received invitations to perform at festivals all over the world, such as the North American New Music Festival, Xenakis Festival in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, Darmstadt Summer Course, Donaueschingen Festival
Donaueschingen Festival
The Donaueschingen Festival is a festival for new music that takes place every October in the small town of Donaueschingen...
and Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica is an organization based in Linz, Austria, founded in 1979 around a festival for art, technology and society that was part of the International Bruckner Festival. Herbert W. Franke is one of its founders. It became its own festival and a yearly event in 1986. Its director until 1995...
(Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
).
Critical acclaim
Mary Oliver is referred to as an internationally acclaimed Amsterdam violinist. To quote the Austin Music Co-op website, "Her premieres of new works by John Cage, Richard Barrett, Brian Ferneyhough, and Iannis Xenakis speak to the level of virtuosity she has achieved. Her equally brilliant work as an improviser is a rarity in the ranks of first-rate classical interpreters."Partial discography
- Witchfiddle ICP 038
- ICP-Orchestra, Oh,My Dog! ICP 040
- ICP-Orchestra, Aan en Uit ICP 042
- Ig Henneman Strijkkwartet, Pes Wig 05