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Joan La Barbara

Joan La Barbara (born June 8, 1947 in Philadelphia, PA) is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright. She has worked with her husband Morton Subotnick since 1979, as well with many other contemporary composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Larry Austin, Peter Laurence Gordon, and the dancer Merce Cunningham. She has also worked with Kenneth Goldsmith. She also composed the music for the Sesame Street animated film “Signing Alphabet,” for electronics and voice. While she is known primarily for her vocal abilities and extended techniques, she is also an accomplished and respected composer.

Joan La Barbara (born June 8, 1947 in Philadelphia, PA) is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright. She has worked with her husband Morton Subotnick since 1979, as well with many other contemporary composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Larry Austin, Peter Laurence Gordon, and the dancer Merce Cunningham. She has also worked with Kenneth Goldsmith. She also composed the music for the Sesame Street animated film “Signing Alphabet,” for electronics and voice. While she is known primarily for her vocal abilities and extended techniques, she is also an accomplished and respected composer.

Sound
Sound: An Exhibition of Sound Sculpture, Instrument Building and Acoustically Tuned Spaces opened at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art in the summer of 1979 (and was also on view later that year at PS1 in New York). Curated by Bob Wilhite and Robert Smith, the exhibition surveyed the field of sound art. The forty-four participants were painters pivoted toward performance, conceptual artists attracted to time-based mediums, self-styled creators of environments, and musicians (formally…
The Early Immersive Music of Joan La Barbara
**Milestone recordings. Joan La Barbara's controlled experiments into the limits of the human voice took her beyond music** Joan La Barbara is one of great figures in the history of the American musical avant-garde – holding equal standing as an innovator, composer, and performer. She has defined the field of extended vocal technique for the better part of half a century, pushing our understanding of the sonic possibility of the human voice – drawing on its primal root, and thrusting it into the…
ShamanSong
Composer/performer Joan La Barbara (b 1947) has been an influential figure in experimental music since the early 1970s. She has devoted her career to the exploration of the human voice as a multi-faceted instrument. Going far beyond traditional boundaries, she has created works for multiple voices, chamber ensembles, music theater, orchestra and interactive technology. ShamanSong features three premieres of vintage La Barbara "sound paintings" of pensive beauty and spiritual resonance.  ShamanSo…
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