The UVA Music department presents a colloquium by Alexis C. Lamb on Friday, February 20th at 3:30 pm, in Old Cabell Hall, room 107. The event is free and open to the public. This talk is titled Music and the Living Earth.
In her public talk, Music and the Living Earth, Alexis C. Lamb will share her journey exploring the relationship between human-made music and the music of the natural world. She will discuss approaches to listening, collaboration, play, and acceptance as creative processes, and how these practices may shape ecologically-engaged art to further conservation efforts. Alongside excerpts from her dissertation, Resonant Gratitude, written for chamber orchestra and the Living Earth, Lamb will present additional compositions and ongoing related projects, including Refugia Festival. Lamb hopes that in recognizing nature’s power, wisdom, and vulnerability through sound, we can turn that heightened awareness and appreciation into preservation and action.
Alexis C. Lamb (b. 1993) is a composer, percussionist, educator, festival founder, and arts administrator whose work aims to foster natural, historical, and societal relationships. Her music incorporates various media, such as oral histories, field recordings, improvisation, and community input. Lamb’s music has been regarded as “a pleasure in its own right” with “sparkling optimism throughout” (I Care If You Listen).
As a composer, Lamb has collaborated with numerous ensembles and individuals, including Third Coast Percussion, Aizuri Quartet, Opera Omaha, Albany (NY) Symphony, Camilla Tassi, Indiana University Percussion Ensemble, Matt Albert, Yale Philharmonia, and the Northern Illinois University World Steelband. As a percussionist, Lamb finds joy in improvising in natural soundscapes, listening to how the natural world responds to her human-made music. Her performance is highly influenced by the philosophies and Deep Listening practices of the late Pauline Oliveros. Lamb was also a performer with Arcomusical from 2013-2020. As an educator, Lamb’s work spans private lessons and curriculum m development to clinics and large classes. She is currently the University Programs Manager at University Musical Society, a Part-Time Lecturer at Eastern Michigan University, and she runs her own private composition studio.
Lamb earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Michigan, a Master of Music in Composition at the Yale School of Music, and two Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Percussion Performance from Northern Illinois University. When not working on music, she can be found playing board games with her wife at an overly competitive level, teaching new tricks to her dog and two cats, and fishing in every body of water she can find. She is originally from Denver, Colorado, and is currently based in Ypsilanti, Michigan. www.alexislamb.com