music and sound

I am a musician - I am a classically trained pianist and also a jazz pianist, as well as a singer. I have vocal music directed for musicals, and arranged for a capella and choral voices. I am also very passionate about the role of sound in theatre and sound really drives my work - as a sound designer for The Seagull, I commissioned and collaborated on original string compositions with an incredible team to add to the atmosphere of the show, which I then mixed live during the performances. I used the sounds primarily to build and break tension during scenes. Sound is perhaps the thing I'm most interested in when devising! And, my dissertation at Oxford was entitled Screams, Song, and Soundscapes: Affective Embodiment of Voice and Sound in Receptions of the Agamemnon's Cassandra Scene. I looked at 3 contemporary performances of Cassandra and how they used sound, screams, and music, and, in short, argued that in order for the scene to be effective and affective, Cassandra's sound had to come from the performers body and be bodily felt by the audience. This Cassandra research culminated in a show at the Providence Fringe Festival entitled Cassandra Sounds/Visions, which won a Fringe Award for Best Instrumental Piece. The piece featured rhythm and percussion, screams, string compositions mixed with glass sounds, and live glass sounds and projections. The incredible ensemble of Sofia Tazi, Jenna Benzinger/JB, and Angela Nieves and I created all of these elements together. 

 

I also have been a musician/actor onstage, most recently as a pianist in the ensemble of Once at The Wilbury Theatre Group.