Wendy Mae Chambers

Wendy Mae Chambers("b" January 24 1953) is an American composer, currently living in New York City, New Orleans, and Harvey Cedars, NJ. Chambers studied at Barnard College from 1971 – 1975, where she received her B.A. in music, where she studied with Kenneth Cooper, Nicholas Roussakis, Jack Beeson and Charles Wuorinen. She earned her M.A. in composition at Stony Brook University in New York, where she studied between 1975 – 1977.

Her large-scale music events were inspired by the work of Christo and Andy Warhol, and the desire to reach an audience beyond traditional new music audiences. In addition, she knew John Cage well and her work, 12 squared for ten percussionists (1994) is a voodoo tone poem written in his memory. By staging works outside the concert halls and into the public sphere, she has succeeded in bringing her music outside the domain of specialists and academics.

Currently she is working on a musical system and set of compositions based on the "I Ching" ("Book of Changes"), an ancient Chinese text, which led Cage to the develop the technique of "chance operations" in the 1950s.

Works

Large Scale Works and Events " – instrumentation, place, and year of premier"

*REAL MUSIC – for 9 cars (1978)
*STREET MUSIC – for 30 musicians and coordinated radio broadcast based on the theme from “Cose *Encounters” (1978)
*THE KITCHEN – for 9 performers on pots and pans and 3 performers preparing food (1978)
*MUSIC FOR CHOREOGRAPHED ROWBOATS for 24 musicians in rowboats Central Park, NYC (1979)
*BUSY BOX QUARTET – for 4 crib toys (1980)
*CLEAN SWEEP – for 9 vacuum cleaners (1980)
*PRIME TIME – for 9 televisions (1980)
*THE VILLAGE GREEN – for 3 marching bands, town siren, and guns (1980)
*ONE WORLD OF PERCUSSION – for 50 percussionists and solo tibetan horn (1981)
*PLUCK – for 30 harps (1984)
*SOLAR DIPTYCH – for 30 trumpets (1985)
*MARIMBA – for 26 marimbas (1985)
*LIBERTY OVERTURE New York Harbor, NYC (1986)
*QUILL – for 6 harpsichords and surround sound tapes of bird calls (1987)
*SYMPHONY OF THE UNIVERSE – Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC (1989)
*THE GRAND HARP EVENT – for 30 harps Cathedral of St. John the Divine (1984)
*A MASS FOR TROMBONES – requiem for 77 trombones Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC (1993)
*TWELVE SQUARED – for 12 percussionists (1994)
*TEN GRAND – for 10 grand pianos Lincoln Center Fountain Plaza, NYC (1994)
*RAZZMATAZZ – for solo contrabass with time portals (1995)
*NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS – for 16 percussionists (2005)

Chamber Works, Small Ensemble Pieces, and Solo Instrument Works

*POPCORN – for percussion quartet (1977)
*MINIATURES – for piano 4 hands (1983)
*SUITE FOR TOY PIANO (1983)
*z-1 MOMENTS – for solo harp (1985)
*MEDITATION AND AIR – for flute and harp (1992)
*SERENADE – for trumpet and vibraphone (1992)

*ECLIPSE – for solo violin (1994)
*SOLARSONICS – for solo viola (1994)
*PSALMS OF THE BUTTERFLY – for violin and viola (1995)
*BLUES for solo violoncello (1995)
*MANDALA – for toy piano (1997)
*MANDALA – for solo clarinet (1997)
*MANDALA – for percussion quartet (1997)
*ENDANGERED SPECIES SONG CYCLE – for mezzo soprano, harp & percussion (1997)
*ANTARCTICA SUITE – for solo piano (1999)
*SONGS FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES for percussion, harp and baritone – parts 2 – (1999, 2000)
*SONGS FOR VOODOO ON THE BAYOU (2006)
*OCEANIC VARIATIONS – for piano solo (1992)

*SET FOR PERCUSSION QUARTET (1985)

Commissions

*MARIMBA! (26 marimbas) – Kennedy Center, Washington DC (1986); Percussive Arts Society
*SOLAR DIPTYCH (30 trumpets) – Central Park, NYC (1985); New Wilderness Foundation

References and Links

Watson, Bruce. 1999. "Concerto for Pencilina and Sewer Flute." "Smithsonian". 30(1): 105–114.
Wendy Mae Chambers' website: http://www.wendymae.com/index.html