Composer Blogs@Sequenza21.com
Composer/keyboardist/producer Elodie Lauten creates operas, music for dance and theatre, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music. Not a household name, she is however widely recognized by historians as a leading figure of post-minimalism and a force on the new music scene, with 20 releases on a number of labels.

Her opera Waking in New York, Portrait of Allen Ginsberg was presented by the New York City Opera (2004 VOX and Friends) in May 2004, after being released on 4Tay, following three well-received productions. OrfReo, a new opera for Baroque ensemble was premiered at Merkin Hall by the Queen's Chamber Band, whose New Music Alive CD (released on Capstone in 2004) includes Lauten's The Architect. The Orfreo CD was released in December 2004 on Studio 21. In September 2004 Lauten was composer-in-residence at Hope College, MI. Lauten's Symphony 2001, was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. In 1999, Lauten's Deus ex Machina Cycle for voices and Baroque ensemble (4Tay) received strong critical acclaim in the US and Europe. Lauten's Variations On The Orange Cycle (Lovely Music, 1998) was included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best works of the 20th century.

Born in Paris, France, she was classically trained as a pianist since age 7. She received a Master's in composition from New York University where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical music with Ahkmal Parwez. Daughter of jazz pianist/drummer Errol Parker, she is also a fluent improviser. She became an American citizen in 1984 and has lived in New York since the early seventies

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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Under and Above Ground

Are events a thing of the past? I find that people are less interested in going to an ‘event’. Everyone is laying low. It takes more effort to ‘draw’ people. Even the promise of something for free is made less attractive by the time, energy and cost of getting somewhere at night. In the sixties and seventies, events, happenings, parties were everything. Some people would change their entire life overnight as a result of a chance encounter at one of those events, and that’s something I actually have experienced in the early seventies. Certain meetings would entail a whole new phase. We are now very far from this kind of freedom. Everything around us has become so tightly structured. Communications, even though they seem facilitated by email and the internet actually are becoming more complex, because every time you need to get in touch with somebody, you have to use both telephone and email (and possibly snail mail as well) and even that is not so efficient. How many times have you called someone’s cell phone because you need to get in touch with them right away but all you get is another voice mail. I really miss the days when people just picked up their phones. I still do, by the way.