Elisabeth Kelvin – Voice, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Saxophone, Xaphoon (Pocket Sax), and Visual Art.
Imagine: You open your eyes, ears, and mind to a different world: Light, Shadow, Sound, Silence. You turn one way towards the warmth, brightness, fresh air and flowers of the natural environment. You turn the other way and the shadows the dark, brooding, interior of chaos. Which way will impel you to chase your self-awareness? You crave the transparency of freedom, the sound of solitude, the new, even while knowing the palimpsest of a creative process holds you in the shadows of the old ways. Chasing Traces of the essentials in life, you sense incandescence, move towards it, and dance! It nourishes:
The inner urge to pursue, chase, contact, shadow-box, coordinate, discover The grace to be creative.
The message is simple: In creative freedom sound and visual art align to immerse the performer and her audience in a subtle dialogue of inquisitive thoughts. Shape-shifting between distance and proximity like switching accents or hats. Each whisper traces. Each gesture by the performer reveals. As if to gently ask:
who?
how?
The desire? To share our story.
This combines projections of original graphic score/artwork, randomized pre-recorded sounds, and improvised responses for voice, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophones in a way that engages with the virtual audience in an innovative way. Participating in the KunstbeTrieb space would once again fulfil an ongoing need: to further develop an improvised style of engagement with an instrument, visuals, and a body that invites questions into the center of the current performance realm as it is transformed via the internet. The aim is to explore the way instruments sound from multiple positions thus generating an unaffected and inquisitive approach to multidisciplinary live, live-streaming, and recorded performance. Much of Elisabeth’s commitment to music and art is borne out of a concentration on contemporary techniques for woodwind instruments and modern principles in visual arts. It is anticipated that the result will be combine of pre-recorded sounds and visuals (at times the primary material, and at others times, the traces) with an online presentation of a significant story of an awakening, told with passion, reminding us how incredible it is simply being alive when we connect to the space in which we live and the people whom we love. Seamlessly integrating sound, movement, and graphic score/artwork into live performance, sometimes a single haunting line simply says all that music can ever say.
List of past and planned presentations of the submitted project
Chasing Traces is a project under development and leads on from my previous performances at KunstBetrieb. Additionally, there are some past and future related projects presented within these organizations:
Nadalokal – Cook, Eat, Clean Festival
Artsreact Collaborative Project
Raw Matters
Midleton Arts Festival 2020
Statement of why the project should be part of KunstbeTrieb Call for Entries 2021.
As well as regarding non-traditionally presented and improvised creative works as temporary and ephemeral, Chasing Traces responds to the future of our earth in a wider philosophical way. As a reaction to the complicated perceived vested interests of corporate government – for example, widespread global inaction on human rights, gender discrimination, and catastrophes related to climate change including the recent Corona Virus Pandemic – many people feel powerless. A creative approach proposes a modest and workable alternative to give one a sense that yes, we can do something to make an impact by unpretentiously engaging with our world. Ask direct questions. Attend to our surroundings.
The key to Chasing Traces is not only the way the musician responds closely to her instruments in any environment, but that the sensitivity of her responses to actual and virtual stimuli. Rather than straining to garner absolute control, the artist is guided to be directly involved as a vital part of an improvised aural and visual space, unfolding little by little and observable in realtime. The audience is afforded the opportunity to register the quietest and most subtle sounds and movements, as well as witness the tracing of an unfolding transdisciplinary process. An unvoiced gesture, a breath, or the scrape of a reed near the microphone become as much a part of the chase as the instrumental sounds tracing through the air. Chasing Traces counters life’s complexities by offering a simple glimmer of hope that together we may seek and find a quiet space residing within in order to share our own glowing grace to be creative.
Weblinks
The following links provide examples of music that inhabits similar music and art realm to the proposed performance, and Elisabeth’s biography can also be found there.
Elisabeth Kelvin – Musician and Artist Website
Respire Anew Music
Art and Music for the Brave
Biography English/German
Elisabeth Kelvin (saxophone, clarinet, voice) works interdisciplinary as clarinetist and saxophonist, performer, composer and visual artist.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (Applied Music – Clarinet), Michigan State University, MI, USA (1999), and a Bachelor of Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, NSW, Australia (1987).
While in living in the USA and Australia (1988 – 2015), Elisabeth held various teaching positions, including MSU Department of Integrated Studies, Victorian College of the Arts, Tasmanian University Conservatorium of Music, Tamworth Conservatorium of Music and had numerous engagements as a clarinetist, including Willoughby Symphony, Mosman Musical Society, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Lansing Symphony Orchestra.
Her extensive concert activity in the USA, Europe and Australia, most recently at the Währinger Improv Festival (Vienna), V:NM Festival Graz/Vol.12 (Graz), Wiener Festwochen, ISOS “Spirals” Concert Series (Amsterdam), among others. Elisabeth performed with internationally renowned musicians such as bassoonist Lorelei Dowling (Klangforum Wien) as part of St. Ruprecht’s New Music Series, as well as at the V:NM Festival (Graz).
In 2017, she began a three-year long solo performance art project presented in Amsterdam at ISOS and at the COOK, EAT and CLEAN/Smoke and Mirrors Saloon Festival, which culminated in the Raw Matters (Vienna) performance series. In 2019 she participated in the Vienna premiere of Breathcore in collaboration with the Belgium-based new music ensemble Ictus at the Wiener Festwochen, and premiered solo and contemporary chamber works at the ISOS Spirals Concert Series (Amsterdam), and Lärm Music Festival (Vienna). In 2019 – 2020 Elisabeth participated in collaborative social media projects with international arts organizations REACT (Melbourne), MAF (Cork), Valek (Vienna) and Kunstbetrieb (Vienna). Her recent short film “Bad Bird Nightmare” was nominated for both the 2021 Lift-off International Film Festival Award and the First Sessions Award. Currently, Elisabeth is a member of several ensembles including the Vienna Improvisers Orchestra, Trio Amacord+ (Vienna) and Ozmosis (Ireland).
Numerous solo and group exhibitions as a visual artist in Australia, USA and Austria, including Salerno Gallery (Sydney), Contemplor Galerie (Vienna), Reinlgalerie (Vienna), Historisches Volksmuseum Konstante Art Fair (Vienna). The exhibitions always incorporate a related performance element.
During the COVID-19 crisis, she initiated the online multimedia improvisation projects Monday Night C19 Improv Sessions and Art in the Age of Isolation to explore new ways of multidisciplinary performance.
website: www.elisabethkelvin.wordpress.com
Elisabeth Kelvin (Saxophon, Klarinette, Stimme) arbeitet interdisziplinär als Klarinettistin und Saxophonistin, Performerin, Komponistin und bildende Künstlerin.
Sie hat einen Doctor of Musical Arts (Applied Music – Clarinet), Michigan State University, MI, USA (1999), und einen Bachelor of Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, NSW, Australien (1987),
Während ihrer Aufenthalte in den USA und Australien (1988 – 2015) hatte Elisabeth verschiedene Lehraufträge, u.a. am MSU Department of Integrated Studies, Victorian College of the Arts, Tasmanian University Conservatorium of Music, Tamworth Conservatorium of Music und hatte zahlreiche Engagements als Klarinettistin, u.a. bei Willoughby Symphony, Mosman Musical Society, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra und Lansing Symphony Orchestra.
Ihre umfangreiche Konzerttätigkeit in den USA, Europa und Australien, zuletzt u.a. beim Währinger Improv Festival (Wien), V:NM Festival Graz/Vol.12 (Graz), Wiener Festwochen, ISOS “Spirals” Concert Series (Amsterdam). Elisabeth konzertierte mit international renommierten Musikern wie der Fagottistin Lorelei Dowling (Klangforum Wien) im Rahmen der St. Ruprecht’s New Music Series, sowie beim V:NM Festival (Graz).
2017 begann sie ein dreijähriges Solo-Performance-Kunstprojekt, das sie in Amsterdam bei ISOS und beim COOK, EAT and CLEAN/Smoke and Mirrors Saloon Festival präsentierte und das in der Performance-Reihe Raw Matters (Wien) gipfelte. 2019 nahm sie an der Wiener Erstaufführung von Breathcore in Zusammenarbeit mit dem in Belgien ansässigen Neue-Musik-Ensemble Ictus bei den Wiener Festwochen teil und brachte Solo- und zeitgenössische Kammermusikwerke bei der ISOS Spirals Concert Series (Amsterdam) und dem Lärm Music Festival (Wien) zur Uraufführung. In den Jahren 2019 – 2020 nahm Elisabeth an kollaborativen Social-Media-Projekten mit den internationalen Kunstorganisationen REACT (Melbourne), MAF (Cork), Valek (Wien) und Kunstbetrieb (Wien) teil. Ihr aktueller Kurzfilm “Bad Bird Nightmare” wurde für den Lift-off International Film Festival Award 2021und für den First Sessions Award nominiert.
Zahlreiche Einzel- und Gruppenausstellungen als bildende Künstlerin in Australien, USA und Österreich, darunter Salerno Gallery (Sydney), Contemplor Galerie (Wien), Reinlgalerie (Wien), Historisches Volksmuseum Konstante Art Fair (Wien). Die Ausstellungen beinhalten immer auch ein damit verbundenes Performance-Element.
Derzeit ist Elisabeth Mitglied mehrerer Ensembles, darunter das Vienna Improvisers Orchestra, Trio Amacord+ (Wien) und Ozmosis (Irland).
Während der COVID-19-Krise initiierte sie die Online-Multimedia-Improvisationsprojekte Monday Night C19 Improv Sessions und Art in the Age of Isolation, um neue Wege der multidisziplinären Performance zu erkunden.
website: www.elisabethkelvin.wordpress.com
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