Alice Shields

(1943-02-18) February 18, 1943
Manhattan, New York, United States

Education[edit]

Shields earned three degrees from Columbia University including the Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition,[3] studying with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Jack Beeson, Otto Luening and Chou Wen-Chung. She served as Associate Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and Director for Development of the Columbia University Computer Music Center. She has taught the psychology of music as Professor of Psychology at New York University and lectures on the psychology of music at institutions including the Santa Fe Opera, CUNY Center for Developmental Neuroscience, International Society for Research on Emotion, American Psychological Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Musical career[edit]

As a performer, Shields has been a professional opera singer, performing both traditional and modern roles with the New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera At-The-Forum, Washington National Opera, Clarion Music Society, Wolf Trap Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival and other opera companies. She was one of the first recipients of the George London award supporting the development of young opera singers.


During the 1990s she intensively studied and performed South Indian Bharata Natyam dance-drama as a vocalist, performing nattuvangam, a form of South Indian rhythmic recitation with the Swati Bhise Bharata Natyam Dance Company, at venues including the United Nations, Asia Society and Wesleyan University. All Shields' compositions since 2000 reflect her immersion in Indian classical music and drama. Since 2016 Shields has been involved in the study of Noh theater with Noh performer Mayo Miwa, with whom she has collaborated on works using aspects of traditional Noh Theater.


Alice Shields' work is published by the American Composers Alliance: composers.com/alice-shields, and is recorded on Koch International Classics, New World, CRI, American Composers Alliance Recordings, Tellus, Opus One and Albany Records.

JACK DUNNE'S’ REVENGE (1966) – opera in 1 act for 2 singers & chamber orchestra; libretto & choreography by Shields in Middle English and Renaissance English, on the death-obsessed writings of John Donne & medieval English plays

The ODYSSEY of ULYSSES the PALMIPED (Odyssey 1) (1968) – opera in 1 act for 2 singers, male chorus & 4 instruments; libretto by Shields based on Roger Gilbert-LeConte's Dada play The Odyssey of Ulysses the Palmiped

ODYSSEY 2 (1970) – opera in 1 act for 2 singers, male chorus, piano & percussion; libretto & choreography by Shields in Noh Theater style; based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Roger Gilbert-LeConte's Dada play "The Odyssey of Ulysses the Palmiped": two men aggress against each other

ODYSSEY 3 (1975) – opera in 1 act for 2 singers, male chorus & 21-piece chamber orchestra; libretto & choreography by Shields in Noh Theater style; on language from the Homeric Odyssey: Odysseus meets his son Telemachos without recognizing him, and tricks him

SHAMAN (1987) – opera in 1 act for 4 singers, chorus, 4 instruments & fixed audio media; libretto by Shields & Edward Barrett based on Native American shamanism

WRAECCA (1989) – opera in 1 act for 3 singers, cello & piano, based on & Anglo-Saxon poems; libretto by Shields, in which the god Odin manages to sacrifice himself

Gregorian Chant

KOMACHI AT SEKIDERA (1990) – opera in 1 act for soprano, alto flute & koto; libretto by Shields based on the Noh play

Sekidera Komachi

MASS FOR THE DEAD (1992) – opera in 1 act for 4 singers, chorus, 4 instruments & fixed audio media; libretto by Shields set in Latin, Greek and English, based on a ghost story & the

Requiem Mass

SHIVATANZ (1993) – opera in 1 act for mezzo-soprano and fixed audio media; libretto by Shields based on traditional Sanskrit hymn to the god Shiva, and poem to Devi in Hindi by Shields

APOCALYPSE (1994) – opera in 2 acts for 3 singers, chorus, dancers, electric guitar, electronic keyboard & fixed audio media; libretto by Shields based on Greek, Gaelic, and Sanskrit texts; choreography by Shields in style

Bharata Natyam

CRISEYDE (2010) – opera in 2 acts for 4 singers, ensemble of 3 singers & 14 solo instruments; the libretto by Shields is a feminist reworking of 's Troilus and Criseyde, sung in Middle English or in Shields' adaptation in Modern English.

Chaucer

ZHAOJÜN – The Woman Who Saved the World (2018) – opera in 1 act for soprano, baritone & 7 instruments; libretto by Shields, inspired by ancient Chinese poetry & plays: to stop environmental destruction & create universal peace, Zhaojün steps out of ancient times into the 21st century to confront the Emperor, the modern ruler of the world.

Farewell to a Hill, Atlantic Records (Finnadar), the first quadraphonic recording of electronic music – 1975

Wildcat Songs, Opus One Records #13 Stephanie Kurash, soprano; Paul Dunkel, piccolo – 1976

Neruda Songs, Opus One Records #83 Johanna Arnold, soprano; Andre Emilianoff, cello – 1983

Coyote, Composers Recordings Inc. CRI#495 From the electronic opera SHAMAN, with Shields' voice – 1984

Voices, Tellus #22 Created on the SUN computer, using sampled Gregorian chant – 1988

Rhapsody for Piano and Tape (Hommage to Brahms), Opus One Records #94 Yolanda Liepa, piano – 1984

Line of Apogee, New World Records #80389, composed assisting Vladimir Ussachevsky – 1991

El's Aria, Opus One records #90, aria for soprano, flute and fixed audio media from the opera SHAMAN – 1987

Apocalypse – An Electronic Opera New World Records #NWCR647, with Michael Willson, baritone; Alice Shields, mezzo-soprano & Jim Matus, electric guitar – 1993

Study for Voice and Tape, Dance Piece No.3, New World Records #80521, sung by Shields – 1997

Komachi at Sekidera, Koch International Classics #3-7503-2111 – 2001

The Transformation of Ani, New World Records #80644 (digital re-issue from 1970)- 2006

Organ Screaming & Dawn Wind, New World Records #NWCR670, from the opera Apocalypse, sung by Shields – 2007

Shenandoah – Three Electronic Works Albany Records #TROY699 – 2004

The Transformation of Ani, New World Records #NWCRL268 – 2010

Kyrelle, Albany Records #TROY1305, for violin & fixed audio media, with Airi Yoshioka, violin

White Heron Dance, ACA Recordings #USA-ACA193428351646; based on the Japanese Sagi Mai ritual: a human being experiences a moment of union with the sounds of nature – 2018

Cycle of Apples (2019), a collaboration between Shields and . The film includes the opera pieces Agnus Dei (1992), Criseyde's Dream (2008), Quartet for Piano and Percussion (2016), The River of Memory for trombone & electronics (2016).

Maha Al-Saati

White Heron Dance (2017), video with electronic music by Shields and computer animation by Mayo Miwa and Thomas Barratt. Created for experimental live dance collaboration with Noh Theater performer Mayo Miwa. Premiere: Association for the Promotion for the Promotion of New Music, National Opera Center, 2017.

Hier Spukt Es, Fragile Breakfast, and Sparkling Brains (1994), three computer animations and poems by Shields in German, on video. Created on Macromedia Director and KPT Bruce software. Premiere: February 17, 1996 at Harvestworks Benefit, Pseudo Gallery, Soho, NYC.

Bicycle Music (1977), electronic score for film on the work of sculptor Helene Brandt, using as musical instruments Brandt’s sculptures made out of bicycles along with the voices of audiences viewing her sculptures. Filmmaker: Tom Coyne. Premiere: State University of New York Stony Brook Staller Center for the Arts.

Line of Apogee (1968), electronic score composed with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening and Pril Smiley for psychedelic film by Lloyd Williams. Premiere: McMillin Theatre, Columbia University.

Incredible Voyage (1967), the first feature-length electronic score for television, composed with Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening and Pril Smiley for CBS-TV documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite in which a tiny camera inserted in the human body films the inner workings of the kidney, stomach, eye, etc.

Alice Shields official site

Video Archive

"Women in Sound Art: Seven Musical Micro-Portraits"

by Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner

"Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States: Crossing the Line "

"The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center"

"Women and music technology: pioneers, precedents and issues in the United States"

Sofer, Danielle (2018). . American Music. 36 (2): 135–162. doi:10.5406/americanmusic.36.2.0135. ISSN 0734-4392. JSTOR 10.5406/americanmusic.36.2.0135. S2CID 194883677.

"Breaking Silence, Breaching Censorship: "Ongoing Interculturality" in Alice Shields's Electronic Opera Apocalypse"

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