Photo by ioulex
The Spinning Piece (working title) is a new collaboration between composer Julia Wolfe and cellist Maya Beiser. The work marks the first individual collaboration between these two artists. Since their early days of working together in the context of Bang on a Can, both Wolfe and Beiser have emerged as two of the most significant women artists in the field. Each has forged an identity that has impacted the new music scene and redefined the concert world. In recent large scale works, Wolfe has embraced issues in American labor history. Beiser has ignited the concert world with her one-woman productions as well as more elaborate multi-media presentations.
In The Spinning Piece Wolfe turns her attention to women in the workforce, but in a more intimate setting – the spinning of thread. Drawing from histories as well as legend and tales, the new work explores iconic imagery and issues surrounding the spinning of thread. Created as a one-woman show for cellist Maya Beiser, The Spinning Piece will incorporate layers of recorded cello, singing and speaking, as well as sounds from a great variety of spinning tools. Inspired by traditionalists such as weaver/songster Norman Kennedy, Wolfe and Beiser take the trade into the realm of new sound combinations, rhythms, and textures to create a contemporary homage to this simple and fine labor.
- $23,000 to support The Spinning Piece (working title) (MAP 2015)
- $4,368 to general operating support for Maya Beiser and Julia Wolfe
- $5,000 to general operating support for fiscal sponsor, Bang on a Can, Inc.
