My creative work is balanced between composition and performance as a contemporary music pianist. My compositions are inspired by multi-disciplinary interests: Gerhard Richter paintings, Beckett’s radio play Embers, films of Rouben Mamoulian, James Brown brass riffs, a Bach chorale. The incorporation of these external influences ranges from direct quotation to structural abstraction. For example, in the five pieces of a recent hour-long series of chamber works, Cineshape, I musically adapted particular camera techniques (close-up, fade out, zoom in, wide angle), modeled formal designs (montage, climax/denouement, divided screen), and reworked particular motifs from five iconic films. I then collaborated with video artist and fellow Pitt professor, Aaron Henderson, to create new visual materials, which were processed live in concert with a string quartet, flutist, percussionist and myself on piano. My solo piano piece Falling was a direct response to a poem by Brian Philip Katz and my First Lines for flute and piano reflects the openings of 11 poems by various women poets. Neither of these pieces uses an actual (spoken or sung) voice, but instead the words led to the development of original non-textual musical ideas. I am very grateful for this summer stipend, which provided time and focus to bring my creative interests into direct interaction with my teaching. I have offered music and dance collaboration classes at each of the three institutions I have taught (Bennington College, Northwestern University and Pitt way back in 2011). This time around, I wanted to broaden the focus beyond these two disciplines and incorporate students and faculty from other departments at Pitt—particularly studio arts, theatre arts, film studies and creative writing. As a performer myself, I focused on performance and performativity, particularly how we (as creative artists from different disciplines) present our works to audiences. Furthermore, it goes without saying that I felt some urgency to make up for the lack of public performance for the last 2+ years and also of (in-person) collaborative conversations and workshops. Incorporating dance into the course necessitated looking outside Pitt. Staycee and Herman Pearl are doing astounding, relevant work in both music and sound in Pittsburgh and I have had many positive interactions with them over the past few years. Once we decided to work together (and the funding was in place), we met every few weeks to determine the direction of the class: the themes, works to study, in-class exercises and assignments, guest artists, the flow of the course. We spent much time researching pieces/articles/interviews by dozens of interdisciplinary artists to find the ones we wanted the students to experience. We talked through many ideas for creative assignments—probably enough for a 2-year course! I also researched (and reached out to) people all around Pitt who are engaged in performative work—both students and faculty. The curriculum design is a case study of the values of the class itself— to successfully collaborate, we contribute, communicate, compromise, and do so with curiosity and consideration for others. (I never said I was a poet…). The work of this class will continue in the spring with a public performance of new works developed by the students and dancers from the Staycee Pearl Dance Project. Beyond that, I feel that I am just starting to have conversations with people from around the university who have similar interests. I hope that Pitt can continue to develop projects with the SPDP, who have been a true joy to collaborate with, and to build further experiences informed by creativity, interdisciplinary, and performance.

Syllabus: 

Dr. Amy Williams
Music