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An autobiographical docu-musical about growing up in East New York. The artist describes, creates and inhabits remembered environments, situations and persons. Musical fragments, characterizations, accents, and sound images evoke the ethnically diverse neighborhood from the 1960s to the present: Hirsch's Russian schoolmate's living room; the home of her own working class Jewish family; synagogue; high school; rallies against the Vietnam War; drugs. The music was co-composed and performed with David Weinstein. Winner of the 1993 PRIX FUTURA, Berlin. Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
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BiographySHELLEY HIRSCH (New York, NY) an accomplished vocalist/ performer/composer whose original compositions, staged musical works, improvisations and collaborations have been presented in concert halls, museums, clubs, galleries, theaters and on television across America and Europe. Hirsch is a three-time artist-in-residence at STEIM (Amsterdam) and at Harvestworks/Studio PASS in New York City, and a recipient of a DAAD fellowship to live and work in Berlin, Germany. Hirsch can be heard on over 25 CDs including "Haiku Lingo", a duo CD/LP with her longtime collaborator, keyboardist David Weinstein. She has created three works for NEW AMERICAN RADIO: #39 (1991), The Vidzer Family (1991), and O Little Town of East New York (1992), which won a First Prize in the Åke Blomstroem competition at the prestigious international radio and TV competition, PRIX FUTURA, Berlin, 1993. Hirsch will create a new work, Jerry, for NEW AMERICAN RADIO's Fall 1996 edition.
Other Radio Works#39 (8:13) (1991)A text by Angela Carter sung and spoken by Hirsch in an intricately composed environment of multilayered vocals and electronically processed sound effectsdesigned to evoke the jungle environment of Carter's text. . . With keyboards played by David Weinstein. A co-commission of Harvestworks, Inc., the Wexner Center for the Arts, and NEW AMERICAN RADIO. The Vidzer Family (1991) A portrait of a family with roots in Russia, who traveled to South America and ended up in Brooklyn's East New York in the1960s. The work includes interview materials that are intricately interwoven into a poetic performance text and embedded in a richly textured sound score of singing, vocalization and synthesizer music created by Hirsch with keyboards played by David Weinstein. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO |