Pamela Z is a composer/performer and media artist working primarily with voice, live electronics, sampled sound, and video. A pioneer of live looping, her performances combine experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, digital processing, and custom-designed wireless instruments that allow her to manipulate sound with physical gestures. In addition to her solo work, she has been commissioned to compose scores for dance, theatre, film, and chamber ensembles including Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, the Bang on a Can All Stars, Julia Bullock with SF Symphony, and the LA Philharmonic New Music Group. Her interdisciplinary performances have been presented at venues including The Kitchen (NY), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (SF), REDCAT (LA), and MCA (Chicago), and her installations have been presented at such exhibition spaces as MoMA (NY), the Whitney (NY), SAVVY Contemporary (Berlin), and the Krannert Art Museum (IL). She is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke Artist Impact Award, and the MIT McDermott Award, as well as further distinctions from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, United States Artists, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Pamela Z’s five-day residency as a Distinguished Visiting Practitioner will feature a range of campus engagements, including a lecture-demonstration and a recital, both free and open to the public. The residency is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, with additional support from the Departments of Music, Mathematics and Computer Science, and the Prior Performing Arts Center. 

In addition to this Lecture-Demonstration event, please join us for Z’s public performance at The Prior on October 2:

Pamela Z: Recital
Thursday, October 2, 8pm
Luth Concert Hall
Prior Performing Arts Center
Free