Ellen Fullman

All Music Guide:

Ellen Fullman is an artist, musician, and sculptor of sound. Combining her longtime loves of sound and form into new artistic directions is something Fullman pursues by design and by chance. After graduating with a B.F.A. in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute, one of her first performances was 1980's "Streetwalker," in which she wore her "Metal Skirt Sound Sculpture" for New Music America in Minneapolis. Not long after, Fullman noticed the haunting, seemingly endless tones made by long, vibrating wires. This accidental discovery sparked one of her longest-running projects, the Long String Instrument. The instrument consists of 100 wires, with 90-foot-long bass strings and 30- to 60-foot-long treble strings, all tuned with just intonation. It is played by three performers rubbing the strings gently, bringing out its eerie sound. Not surprisingly for such an ambitious project, it took a while to develop and record this instrument; Fullman's first recording with it was 1985's Long String Instrument, released by the Dutch label Apollo Records. Change of Direction was released in 1999.

While the Long String Instrument has been one of the main projects of Fullman's career, she has pursued many other works during that time. In 1986, she received a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; some of her other awards and grants include NEA Visual Artists Fellowship in New Genres in 1989 and 1990, and a New Forms Regional Initiative project grant for her collaboration with vocalist Tina Marsh in 1992. Fullman's other collaborations include a 1986-1989 composer/choreographer project with choreographer Deborah Hay, "The Man Who Grew in Common Wisdom," in Austin, TX, and an appearance on Poi Dog Pondering's 1992 album Volo Volo.

She continues to collaborate with the Deep Listening Band, and her albums Body Music and Staggered Stasis appear on their Deep Listening label. Fullman currently teaches composition classes and leads sound meditations at her Candy Factory studio in Austin.

Wikipedia:

Ellen Fullman (1957– ) is a composer, instrument builder, and performer. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Known for the 70-foot (21-meter) long string instrument, an instrument tuned in just intonation and played with rosin-coated fingers.

Biography and work

Fullman studied sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute before moving to New York in the early 1980s. In Kansas City she created and performed in an amplified metal sound-producing skirt and wrote art songs which she recorded in New York for a small cassette label. In 1981, she began developing the Long String Instrument at her studio in Brooklyn, consisting of dozens of metallic strings played with rosin-coated fingers and producing a chorus of organ-like partials. This instrument has been compared to the experience of standing inside an enormous grand piano. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has collaborated with such luminary figures as composer Pauline Oliveros, choreographer Deborah Hay, the Kronos Quartet, and Francis-Marie Uitti.

Recognition

Fullman has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies including: a McKnight Visiting Composer Residency from American Composers Forum (2010), Artist-In-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts (2008); Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant (2008); Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission/NEA Fellowship for Japan (2007); DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program residency (2000); Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship (1999); and Meet the Composer, Reader's Digest Consortium Commission (1993). Her recent performance with Austin New Music Co-op at the Seaholm Power Plant was given a Critic's Table Award for Best Chamber Performance, 2009-2010.

Fullman has performed in numerous festivals, art spaces, and museums, including: New Albion at Bard SummerScape, a Norway tour presented by NY Musik, Instal, Glasgow, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Festival van Vlaanderen, Brussels, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Other Minds, San Francisco, Romanische Sommer Köln, Columbia University, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Walker Art Center, ISCM World Music Days, and New Music America 1980, 1984 and 1986. Her music has been represented in exhibits including: The American Century; Art and Culture, 1950–2000, Whitney Museum of American Art; Listening, Pompidou Center (2004); and Volume: Bed of Sound, P.S.1 (2000).

Peter Esmonde directed a documentary film on Fullman's work, 5 Variations on a Long String. The film is currently making festival rounds. Using archival footage, Fullman edited Suspended Music, a documentary film on her collaboration with Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band, which premiered at the Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley (2004). Fullman wrote an article on her work for MusikTexte (Cologne 2002), subsequently published in MusicWorks (Toronto 2003). She has been interviewed for NPR's Morning Edition, the Wire and Signal to Noise. Releases include: Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buzzarté (Deep Listening Institute), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2008 by The Wire (London) and awarded an Aaron Copeland Fund for Music Recording Program Grant; Ort, recorded with Berlin collaborator Konrad Sprenger (Choose Records), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2004 by The Wire; Suspended Music, in collaboration with Deep Listening Band (Periplum); Change of Direction (New Albion); and Body Music (XI).

Fullman's commissioned works include: Post Futurist Reverie, for the project: Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners, curated by Luciano Chessa and presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a piece for Trimpin's Klavier Nonette, an installation of nine MIDI-controlled toy pianos. Fullman has presented numerous lectures on her work including: the Songlines series, Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College; and Improv:21 a lecture series presented by Rova:Arts, San Francisco. Forthcoming performances and projects include: Issue Project Room, Propensity of Sound series, May 22, 2011; and a split LP release with Eleh on Important Records.