I’m playing a solo set on the bill with Paige and Haruhi for the fourth stop on their tour around the South and Midwest!
Visible Records, Charlottesville, 8pm
Flyer by Madeline Stocking
Trash Cats (Alex Christie and Kittie Cooper) is going on tour with Heather Mease!
Friday, August 16 @ Visible Records in Charlottesville with Resuscianne
Sunday, August 18 @ Red Room in Baltimore with Rachel Beetz
Monday, August 19 @ Rhizome in Washington, D.C. with The Modern Yonnie Remix (Becky Brown)
About Trash Cats:
Charlottesville-based noise duo Trash Cats frequently perform amalgamations of some (or all) of the following things: saxophone, guitar, cassette tapes, DIY circuits, pedals, drum machines, lightbulbs, masks, contact mics, batteries, wires, knobs, strings. Electronic and electric. Trash and cats. Alex Christie and Kittie Cooper. Lock up your cats, Trash Cats is coming to town!
Trash Cats’ first album is here!!!
Listen and buy the album on bandcamp
Trash Cats' debut album featuring live and studio recordings. Guitars, saxophones, homemade synthesizers, drum machines, circuit bent toys, and various electronic instruments collide in improvised and semi-improvised experiments.
Released through Hiccup Records
Friday, July 12, 2024
7:30 PM 8:30 PM
Friction Quartet premieres new works by Walden School Young Musicians Program faculty.
This includes my new work for 2 violins, viola, and fixed media the sound of water was with them wherever they went.
More info here.
Performance of my work the lightest things float to the top adapted for fixed media and accompanied by live improvisation by Bent Frequency (full program below!)
Tickets: $10/$5 students at the door
Join us for the SEAMUS Atlanta Conference (The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States)
https://www.eyedrum.org/calendar-events-performances-art-music/seamus-atlanta-adam-mirza-and-bent-frequency-present-forest-in-a-city#:~:text=Forest%20in%20a%20City%20is,new%20music%20ensemble%20Bent%20Frequency.
Forest in a City is a sound installation and immersive performance using wooden speaker-objects and featuring live performances by members of Atlanta new music ensemble Bent Frequency. The event imagines a new urban soundscape, a heterogenous combination of works and audio artifacts by SEAMUS composers that reflect on the nature of ongoing development within cities like Atlanta (“the city in a forest”). The installation will appear as an indoor “forest” of 8 wooden panels used as speaker-objects spread around the performance space. These panels were made by local Atlanta luthier, DJ Betsill, using wood from an 800-year-old “Sinker Cyprus” log found preserved in a swamp on the Georgia coast. Similar to John Cage’s Musicircus, multiple pieces (acoustic and electronic), will be played simultaneously in the gallery space. We are inspired by Giorgio Magnanensi’s current practice using wooden panels with transducers (https://giorgiomagnanensi.com/soundgarden-2022), as well as David Tudor’s Rainforest IV and Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet.
The event will take place at Eyedrum, one of Atlanta’s oldest experimental arts presenters, currently located in a former industrial/railroad building near downtown Atlanta.
Composers presented: Iddo Aharony, Jeremy Castro Baguyos, Nicholas Cline, Kittie Cooper, Alex Christie, Garrison Gerard, David George Haskell, Holland Hopson, Daniel Karcher, Kerrith Livengood, Giorgio Magnanensi, Scott L. Miller, Adam Mirza, John Moeller, and Daniel Smith
Performers:
Jan Berry Baker, saxophone
Stuart Gerber, percussion
South Bend, IN, Spring 2024
I will be performing my work its being is in it alone at the opening concert.
More info about PMF here.
View the festival trailer here.
Come make tape loops with Trash Cats (Alex Christie and Kittie Cooper) in the UVA Wilson Maker Studio! This event is part of the SEAMUS (Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States) Distributed National Conference.
I’m participating in a few ways!
Cassette Tape Loop workshop (co-taught with Alex Christie): see separate event
Presentation of Medieval Ghost Tales of Byland Abbey at Cinema SEAMUS
Performing with Trash Cats!
More info at seamusonline.org.
Ear Infection is infecting ears once again! This time to celebrate the release of our album, Monster Energy. We’ll be performing with Tomb Cat, Radon Abatement, and Order as a benefit for music (and new acoustic treatments!) at Visible Records. Come on out! And listen to our album while you’re at it, too.
Ear Infection is Alex Christie, Kittie Cooper, Kevin Davis, Jordan Perry, Steve Snider, and Travis Thatcher.
Trash Cats has a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Shy Boy” on compilation album meat scenes 2023 ~ at world's end.
Listen and buy the album here!
cover art by Nicky Alonso
Featuring:
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, curator, electronics
Mauricio Pauly, electronics
Aidan Edwards, clarinet
Sina Ettehad, kamancheh, violin
Matthew Ariaratnam, guitar
Aram Bajakian, guitar
Katheryn Petersen, accordion
Atley King, vibraphone
Eliot Doyle, drums
Parsa Nazeri, visuals
Video description of Sound Palace 1 curated by Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi: https://youtu.be/14sXUc__9Mo?si=_w2XJzAkwLviULkk
Sound Palace 4, curated by Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, is a sonic exploration of pop, electronica, jazz, new music, noise, light and visuals at VCC Broadway Auditorium (Building A) on Saturday, October 14, 2023.
Presented by Hard Rubber New Music, Sound Palace is a series of six concerts featuring musicians from diverse cultures and creative practices selected by one of three Sound Palace curators.
Sound Palace evolved out of Mixtophonics, a monthly workshop series from 2018 to 2020 that featured musicians from wildly different backgrounds and musical genres. By combining electronics, projection artists, dance grooves, noise artists, drummers, and world-class improvisers, Sound Palace creates a unique, exciting and experimental sound world, exploratory yet fun and accessible, experimental yet entertaining. Sound Palace is for new audiences and new vibrant members of the creative community.
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi (b. 1997 Tehran, Iran) writes for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles, creates electroacoustic and audiovisual works, and performs electronic music. Her work has been performed at Ars Electronica Festival, Festival Ecos Urbanos, Tehran Contemporary Sounds, AudioVisual Frontiers Virtual Exhibition, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Yarn/Wire Institute, Ensemble Evolution, New Music on the Point, wasteLAnd Summer Academy, EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet, Iranian Female Composer Association, Music on Main, Vancouver New Music, and Media Arts Committee and SALT New Music Festival. Kimia is currently pursuing The Doctor of Musical Arts program in Composition at Stanford University.
I will be presenting my MFA thesis work the lightest things float to the top for the Music + Sound department undergraduate seminar. Performance to be followed by a short Q&A.
Saturday, September 23, 2023 | 11:00 AM
Room 4350 – SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W. Hastings ST., Vancouver
https://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/events/kittie-cooper-s-mfa-defence--the-lightest-things-float-to-the-to.html
the lightest things float to the top is an intermedia instrument and solo performance for sound, light, and objects. This instrument comprises several containers of various sizes and qualities that are filled with found objects. The found objects are put into motion using motors hidden inside the containers. The objects’ movements are then amplified sonically using microphones and live electronic processing, and are amplified visually as moving lights and shadows projected onto the walls of the performance space. In this work, I reimagine lights and shadows from my living spaces as an intermedia instrument for performance, and I explore the hidden memories and vibrancy of everyday objects and spaces. Patterns of the everyday, and their minute variations, provide the creative material and a gentle form for this semi-improvised performance.
For tickets, click HERE
Presented as part of MFA Graduating Festival Autofictional at Simon Fraser University.
the lightest things float to the top is a solo performance with sound, light, and objects by MFA candidate Kittie Cooper. Kittie’s sound art practice centers around found sound and found objects, and amplifying the memories held by these things. Through her work, the lightest things float to the top, Cooper takes a similar approach to composing light and shadow—reimagining lights from familiar spaces as an intermedia instrument. These performances are the first in the series developed by Kittie.
“She fancied that the rooms brightened as she came in; stirred, opened their eyes as if they had been dozing in her absence. She fancied, too, that, hundreds and thousands of times as she had seen them, they never looked the same twice, as if so long a life as theirs had stored in them a myriad moods which changed with winter and summer, bright weather and dark, and her own fortunes and the people's characters who visited them.” — Orlando, Virginia Woolf
“What is heard by the listener is changed by listening and changes the listener.” — Quantum Listening, Pauline Oliveros
Friday, July 8, 2023
7:30 PM 8:30 PM
TAK Ensemble premieres new works by Walden School Young Musicians Program faculty.
This includes my new work for piano and percussion a substance less palpable than air.
Remixes, recompositions, deconstructions of early and avant-garde electronic music.
released May 5, 2023
Mastered by Matias Vilaplana in Charlottesville, VA
Design by Heather Mease
Tape photos by Hojun Yu
Includes my track gasses (and goldfish) expand to fill their containers.
Listen and buy the album here!
Air Date: April 26, 2023 on Repeater Radio
Listen here.
Prior to the prevalence of electronic sound in the mainstream, electronic music-making was primarily a practice of researchers, specialists, and avant-garde composers within state-sponsored facilities like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in Cologne and within private universities in the States like the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. This special episode of Semibegun, a preview of the upcoming tape release "Stockhausen Serves the Worms," presents an hour of remixes, recompositions, and deconstructions of music made in these facilities. Pieces by Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varèse, and György Ligeti reimagined by fantastic contemporary musicians including Bridget Ferrill, Matias Vilaplana, Amber Bouchard, and Onokio.
[including an excerpt of my piece gasses (and goldfish) expand to fill their containers]
Check out Semibegun’s other episodes here!
Two days of new music, art, artist presentations, and installations
February 3, 2023 - 12:00pm to February 4, 2023 - 12:00pm
Rotunda Dome Room
Free
I am performing my composition and instrument its being is in it alone both as a live performance and as an installation—where you can try the instrument yourself!
My piece gasses (and goldfish) expand to fill their containers will also be played as a set of pieces from the album Stockhausen Serves the Worms, put together by Heather Mease.
Find more info about the event here.
The Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) program in the Department of Music will present their annual festival of new music and art, artist presentations, and installations on February 3 and 4. This year’s festival will feature CCT faculty, staff, and graduate students as well as other members of the UVA and Charlottesville art-making communities. The festival will take place in the Dome Room of the Rotunda from noon on Friday 2/3 until noon on Saturday, 2/4. Performances and presentations will include surround sound electronic music, performances on custom-built instruments, lecture-presentations, video art, audio-visual installations, and more. The featured guests for Technosonics 2023 are Erica Gressman and Andy Slater.
Air Date: October 29, 2022 on Repeater Radio
Listen here.
Copied down in a manuscript by the hand of a monk around the turn of the 15th century, the Byland Abbey Ghost Stories depict encounters between medieval residents of Yorkshire, both from this life and the next. In most of the tales, the ghosts appear to the living as shapeshifters seeking absolution to escape from purgatory, ending with the ghost resting in peace after a bit of dialogue with the one doing the conjuring. In this rendition of tales I, III, V, and IX, James Joyce provides a spectacular performance as narrator and electronic accompaniment is provided by Kittie Cooper, Alex Christie, and Heather Mease. Narrated by James C. Joyce.
Story selection, curation, mastering, and more by the one and only Heather Mease.
Check out Semibegun’s other episodes here!
https://iawm.org/2022_conference/
I will be presenting my work its being is in it alone as part of the virtual listening gallery for the IAWM conference. Tune in here here.
More info about the conference:
Hosted by Oregon State University on their campus between June 2 through 4, 2022, the International Alliance for Women in Music, in association with OSU’s College of Liberal Arts and the Office of Academic Affairs, the conference will be an in-person event with virtual satellite events from across the globe.
This conference will bring together people (women AND men) who celebrate Women in Music and challenge, and transform our future with cutting-edge music, music technology, and innovative scholarship resulting in increased visibility, opportunities, and connections. We are creating a collective and community-based cultural happening to elevate, celebrate, and situate female and female identified creatives in music with all kinds of experiences, from all different places and music-making spaces.The submissions included those taking risks to chart new ground, unheard voices advocating for sound practitioners and makers; those reimagining equity and inclusion in the world of making music and curation, and those reaching back to advocate for students, friends, colleagues, and the next generation.
Calling all FCAT Students! Interested in conference and presentation opportunities but unsure if you have the skills to start? Join us Wednesday, May 25th, 2:30 - 4:00pm PST on Zoom. This workshop led by SCA graduate students, Shauna-Kaye Brown and Kittie Cooper will cover how you can:
· Find your voice and feel confident in a conference setting
· Turn your work into a polished presentation
· Find some opportunities to start sharing your work
This workshop will count towards gaining credit on your Co-Curricular Record. *The Zoom link will be shared by email the morning of the workshop.*
This presentation is hosted by the Faculty of Communication, Arts, and Technology at Simon Fraser University.
Who doesn’t love a good Ear Infection? We’re tearing it up at The Bridge PAI on May 11.
Ear Infection is Alex Christie, Kittie Cooper, Kevin Davis, Jordan Perry, Steve Snider, and Travis Thatcher.
Enter from the parking lot door beside loading bay with SFU sign.
Performances start at 7:15 PM.
Returning to the SCA Visual Art Studios at 611 Alexander, please join us for a Spring exhibition of works and performances from SCA MFA and PhD students, including Torien Cafferata, Alexandra Caprara, Kittie Cooper, Lauren Crazybull, Mena El Shazly, Lauraine Mak, Salome Nieto, Simon Lysander Overstall, Edward Sembatya, Cody Tolmie, Douglas Watt, and Shervin Zarkalam.
I will be performing the lightest things float to the top, which will also be set up as an installation for the rest of the event.
Don’t miss our publication too! You can see my contribution at the link above (Ikea Manual).
The School for the Contemporary Arts recognizes that we are on the unceded and occupied territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
More info here.
Watch the full show here!
More info and links to SFU sites here. I collaborated on sound with a team for this work.
SFU Credits and Write-Up:
This multi-cam capture was recorded in April of 2022 and showcases the interdisciplinary collaboration between SCA Dance, Music + Sound, Theatre Production and Design, and Film.Ghost Forest was performed on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish people of the Musqueam, Sqamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.
Taken from Being a Beast, by Charles Foster, Ghost Forest examines how we move through this place, traces of movement from the past, and the navigation of our changing landscapes. Built from a central score, the team of artists focused on walking, psychogeographical navigation, embodied archives, and vast landscapes.
Dancers: Emily Bosak, Abby Blanchard, Sydney Bluck, Alexandra Clancy, Natasha Dennison, Greer Harper, Desiree James, Olivia Johnson, Sarah Kennedy, Zaarah Lopez, Myah McCarthy, Fiona McCreadie, Jessica McKeown, Breyanna Oldham, Julianna Oke, Elyza Samson, Marin Smith, Emma Tweedie, Shaolin Temrick-Young, Kaitlyn La Vigne, Mikela Vuorensivu, Anna Wang-Albini, & Paige Wichers
Choreographers: Justine Chambers, NiNi Dongnier, Rob Kitsos, & the dancers
Music & Sound Director (Faculty): Mauricio Pauly
Music Ensemble (performers / composers): Alex Abahmed (live and recorded sound mixing), Kittie Cooper, Nic Savoie, Rohini Soedhwa, and Stella Da Yun Song
Filmed and edited by: Joey Malbon
As part of advertising for Ghost Forest, I created sound for a 15-minute looping installation for sound, projection, and paper, on display the week of the show in the lobby of the SFU School for Contemporary Arts. The track used sounds of the dancers recorded by Alex Abahmed and Nic Savoie. More melodic and synthy sections (approximately one minute each time) are by Lauren Toporowski, who also created animations for the projection (shown below) and for the final show.
More info and links to SFU website here.
Music Literacy for Students with Visual Impairments: Presented by Kittie Cooper
Presentation Abstract: The purpose of my presentation is to provide an overview of the benefits of music literacy—reading and writing braille and print music—for students with visual impairments and multiple disabilities. There is a stereotype that students who are blind and visually impaired can learn everything through listening, but in reality all music students with visual impairments can benefit from learning to read and write music alongside their sighted peers. I will share teaching strategies that promote musical literacy from my own work experience and research: for example use of graphic and tactile pre-notation, movement and composition/performance activities that support literacy, and other strategies for teaching music braille and print music to students with visual impairments. TVIs often feel overwhelmed by helping students learn to read and write music, so I will also provide resources that can help TVIs support their students in accessing music curricula. As a TVI who specifically teaches music, I have had to create my own curricula for helping my students access musical notation, and have found ways to make these teaching strategies accessible even for TVIs or families who know nothing about music themselves.
*postponed from 2020 due to COVID-19
mumei TEN : residues, is mumei’s latest endeavour to interact with people all over the globe. This project invited seven artists and composers: Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, Christian Kesten, Cao Thanh Lan, Steffi Weismann, Rebekah Alero, Carolyn Chan and Rasha Ragab, to create a postcard piece, which we then randomly sent out to 180 participants.
For this project, I realized a score by Rasha Ragab and photos of my realization were on display at KM28 gallery in Berlin. You can find documentation of my realization here.
Performances: Ryoko Akama, Koen Nutters, and Steffi Weismann
