MIXOLOGY INTERVIEW WITH BETSEY BIGGS
On May 11th at Roulette’s MIXOLOGY FESTIVAL 2010, Brooklyn/Providence based composer and artist Betsey Biggs presents SIX4SEVEN (FIELD) is an evening length multimedia work for piano, synthesizers, found sounds and video, a new arrangement of an old work. A hallucinogenic landscape of quiet yet insistent music, colorful, dusty and forgotten animations, sounds from far away. A lush, grainy exercise in hyperminimalism. Six patterns in seven time, creating a field as they go.
ROULETTE: Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
BETSEY BIGGS: SIX4SEVEN (FIELD) is an evening length multimedia work for electric piano, found sounds and video, a new arrangement of an old work. A hallucinogenic landscape of quiet yet insistent music, colorful, dusty and forgotten animations, sounds from far away. A lush, grainy exercise in hyperminimalism. Six patterns in seven time, creating a field as they go.
This is the latest iteration of a piece that seems to have nine lives — and it was the first real piece I ever wrote, for my first composition teacher, Pauline Oliveros. The original work, for prepared piano, was an hour long, and this will be its first performance at its intended length.
R: Are there working artists today with whose work you identify, or rather, who do you consider to be your peers?
BB: There are so many artists in so many disciplines. If I had to name a few inspirational folks I’d say Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Morton Feldman, Yoko Ono, Janet Cardiff, Spencer Finch, Christina Kubisch, Marina Abramovic.
R: What are some defining characteristics of the musical scene you would fit yourself into? What elements of your scene differentiate it from what has come before, or what is happening now?
BB: My work is really eclectic and I try to connect with everyone from every time. Sounds trite but it’s true!
R: What was the last music you listened to?
BB: An old dance anthem by Phoenix, “If I Ever Feel Better.” Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Mostly, my own piece for this show, which is really all I’ve listened to in the past few weeks!
R: Chocolate, Vanilla or Rocky Road?
BB: Mint chip. (Yay, it must be summer!)
R: What is music?
BB: Music is attention to what you hear, inside and out, and possibly reenactment of such.
R: Do you consider yourself more a composer or a performer?
BB: More a composer – of experience.
R: Is there an event or experience that led you to start in experimental media?
BB: Studying at Mills College in the late nineties, I was exposed to so many wonderful composers and artists who were willing to bend not only genre boundaries, but the boundaries among media.
R: Who do you see as instrumental in your development as an artist?
BB: First of all my primary teachers: Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith, Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey, Perry Cook, as well as the Bang on a Can folks. My talented colleagues at Mills, Princeton, and Brown, as well as in the incredibly rich new music scene of New York. Finally, I would be amiss if I didn’t mention Suzanne Fiol, the visionary founder of ISSUE Project Room, who always believed in me and nurtured my career from the very beginning.
R: What is interesting to you about your own work?
BB: The diversity, and the relationships among sound, image, place and memory.
R: Do you do other things aside from music?
BB: Of course – although I also subscribe to the idea that all life is music if you listen.
