[ISEA97] Artists Statement: Jeffrey Krieger & Henry Gwiazda – Themythofacceptance

Artists Statement

Performed by Jeffrey Krieger on e-cello. In themythofacceptance (1991), using extensive sampling techniques, I attempt to create an expressive sound world through the juxtaposition of domestic, urban, animal, and human as well as more traditional musical sounds. For me, images of everyday objects and everyday sounds possess a certain mythology when they are combined and juxtaposed in surprising ways. They release a powerful impression of contemporary thought. My hope is to make sense of our aural environment through this fusion/fission of sound.

Themythofacceptance started as a work that made a comparison between the mindless virtuosity that sometimes occurs in both classical and popular musics to athletic events. These sounds are combined throughout the beginning of the piece, but gradually change into sounds that to me reflect the nature of why we work and struggle and the myth of acceptance we hope to achieve.

The work is written for electronic cello, with pitch transposer and a pre-recorded tape consisting of sampled sounds. Themythofacceptance was written for Jeffrey Krieger and commissioned by a grant from the Jerome Foundation administered by the Minnesota Composers Forum.

  • Jeffrey Krieger (USA) Award-winning performer and CRI recording artist Jeffrey Krieger is among a new generation of solo recitalists who have incorporated technology (the computer and video) as well as an electronic cello (built by Vermont craftsman Tucker Barrett) into performance. He plays the more conventional-looking cello as principal cellist of the Hartford Symphony. Mr. Krieger was a recipient of a 1993 Solo Recitalist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts which allowed extensive touring in the U.S.A., and a 1996 State of Connecticut Commission on the Arts Artist Fellowship. He performs in locations ranging from elementary and preparatory schools, to universities, music festivals, alternative performance spaces and museums. Mr. Krieger has premiered over forty works for the electronic cello, several of which have won National Prizes. He has been granted funding support from the Canada Council, Minnesota Composers Forum, the Jerome Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Fromm Foundation, among others. Mr. Krieger has a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Hartt School of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the Yale School of Music.
  • Henry Gwiazda (USA) was born in 1952 in New Britain, Connecticut. His first musical experiences were in numerous garage bands. He received degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Hartt School of Music, and the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati. His works have been performed by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony,the Red River Dance Company and the Mahkahta Dance Theatre in Fargo, ND. He has received six Standard Awards Panel Grants from ASCAPand commissions from the Minnesota Composers Forum, the American Dance Festival, the Barlow Foundation and two McKnight Fellowships. Performed on electric instruments, his recent music combines a diverse musical background with an intense interest in the latest technology and aesthetic thought. As a solo performer, he has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe. He has performed at New Music America (1989),The Kitchen, Performance Space 122,The Knitting Factory, Roulette, iEAR Studios (Troy), Music Gallery (Toronto), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Democrazy (Ghent), Monty (Antwerp), Het Apollohuis (Holland), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), New Langton Arts (San Francisco), The Sonic Disturbance Festival (Cleveland), and many more.