ALISON ISADORA

Biography Alison Isadora

Alison Isadora (Wallace) was born and bred in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in 1962. Education She began her violin studies according to the Suzuki-method. She studied political philosophy and music (violin with Gavin Saunders, composition with Jack Body, gamelan with Alan Thomas) at the Victoria University of Wellington. In 1986 she came to ...
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Biography Alison Isadora

1962

Alison Isadora (Wallace) was born and bred in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in 1962.

Education

She began her violin studies according to the Suzuki-method. She studied political philosophy and music (violin with Gavin Saunders, composition with Jack Body, gamelan with Alan Thomas) at the Victoria University of Wellington. In 1986 she came to The Netherlands and studied violin with Vera Beths at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. From 1989 till 1994 she studied composition with Theo Loevendie, Klaas de Vries and Gilius van Bergeijk. She followed courses at Gaudeamus (1990) and STEIM (Women artists on technology, 1991). From 2000 till 2003 she studied theatre at DasArts.

Activities

She performs as a violinist with, among others, the Willem Breuker Kollektief, gamelan ensemble Gending, Xenakis Ensemble, the Maarten Altena Ensemble and her own group The Electric Aardvark.

Compositions

Isadora wrote compositions for numerous Dutch ensembles, such as the Nieuw Ensemble, (Sgraffitio) and the Maarten Altena Ensemble (The fire within). In the last years she has become increasingly interested in the possibilities of connecting music to other disdiplines, and in the ways realtime electronics can assist this process. Her first foray into this arena in 1995 was the music-theatre work Hoofdwas, for midi-controlled washing-machine, live electronics and mezzo-soprano which she created together with Jan Bas Bollen (with whom she forms the duo SYNC). Since 2002 Isadora has been working on a series of pieces concerned with issues of cultural identity. In 2003 the work Speaking Rites was premiered during the Gaudeamus Music Week - an installation and audio walk in which interviews with Dutch citizens from various cultural extraction were presented in interactive environment. Her latest work is an installation connecting Chinese goldminers in 19th century New Zealand with current day Chinese dealing with e-waste sent by the west.


2006

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Audio/Video Alison Isadora