Vonn New: About
Biography
Vonn New is a composer, performer, and improviser of electro-acoustic ambient music who lives in Hyde Park, NY. She uses percussion, flutes, computers, environmental sounds, spoken words and anything else at hand to create sonic playgrounds for herself and her collaborators.
She is often found on hiking trails and city streets in the Hudson Valley with her audio gear, harvesting sounds for her next composition. Her most recent CD “Listening in Tongues” (June 2008) includes sounds of the echolocation cries of bats (processed to be audible to humans); tree frogs; birds; a steel drum being played with super balls; an air conditioner; and amateur astronomers grinding their own telescope lenses by hand.
Vonn’s previous CD releases include “Experiments in Truth” (2005) and “Dreaming in the Proximity of Mars”, the soundtrack to a belly dance ballet she composed and produced in 2003.
In addition to performing and recording solo, Vonn collaborates with a wide variety of artists. She is a member of the Woodstock-based trio “Hemingway’s Cat” with Lorah Yaccarino and Michael Mulvey. She also performs with improvisational video artist Diana Slattery. Before moving to New York State from Florida, she was the founder and music director of Loud Zoo, the Music and Dance Experiment, and a member of an electro-acoustic drone trio ZoOg.
Artist's Statement
"...this sorrow and rage will not inflame us to seek retribution; rather they will inflame our art... This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." Leonard Bernstein
The best answer to violence is love. As human beings enmeshed in a culture of systemic violence, injustice & oppression, the best way to remember love is to partake freely in the sacrament of beauty that surrounds us everyday - if we are able to look and listen deeply enough. Even if we live in urban environments, a shift in perspective is all that is needed to change the hum of an air conditioner into a devotion. By listening together, we begin to heal the separations that move us towards violence and to create peaceful community.
My overarching artistic ethic is to pay attention and notice the beauty around me - sometimes in unlikely places and then create pieces that make the beauty that I am perceiving apparent to others.
I'm primarily a musician & sound artist but I make frequent forays into poetry, visual art, performance art and commentary. Because I seek to use an integral approach to my art, it always starts with its feet in the physical world: for example, my sound pieces begin with acoustic sounds - either instrumental sounds that I play live or field recordings. I use acoustic percussion, flutes, voice, sound collage, electronics and Audiomulch to create sonic playgrounds for myself and others.
"Beginning in silence, holding only an instrument, listening within, observing a point for departure into the inner world of sudden creative expression, tapping the well to draw out a first sound in a musical exploration, that sound which then will be observed faithfully, and which then move with a life of it’s own into the next, and the next, growing naturally along an undetermined path, to be noticed as music becomes… " Ladonna Smith "Improvisation as Prayer"
Improvisation is of vital importance to my work. It is the most immediate direct way to listen for muses and create in the moment. Every piece I play is a combination of improvisation and preplanned structure.
Sometimes, moments of found beauty are fleeting and unpredictable, like the shadow of a bird racing across the crumbling pavement of a parking lot in the hot sun; but even in the world we humans have made for ourselves, they are still present - and infinitely abundant.
My Quaker Faith
I am a member of the Bulls Head-Oswego Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, New York Yearly Meeting. For me, being a Quaker is about listening deeply to the promptings of Spirit and following those leading in all aspects of life. What is special about being a Quaker is doing that in community with others and with their support, even though our specific theologies may differ. This practice is also manifest in my art, which always has elements of improvisation so that I can be open to and express the movement of Spirit in the moment. When I am faithful in doing this, I play better than I am actually capable of playing.
In my branch of Quakerism, there is no laity - we are all ministers. My ministry has been recognized by my meeting as one that involves traveling among Friends (this is what Quakers call each other) and in the wider world.
Here's the letter from my meeting (also called a Travel Minute) describing my work:
April 20, 2008
Dearest Friends,
This letter will introduce our cherished member and friend Vonn New. Her quiet, serious presence has become an important part of our meetings for worship and fellowship, and we hope that you will enjoy her presence among you.
We are happy to present you with this travel minute for Vonn, approved at our meeting for business on December 9, 2007:
Our beloved member Vonn New proposes to travel under the weight of her concern for a form of worship combining her creativity in music with worshipful silence. Under this leading, Vonn plans to visit Friends meetings and other groups to present workshops and concerts. We recognize her leading to this ministry. We unite in supporting her travel under the weight of this concern, and we commend her to your care.
Vonn is led to provide “meetings for listening” in which a worshipful community centers through listening and making music together. Vonn’s workshops provide friends of all levels of musical experience and ability with the listening skills and simple instruments needed to make rewarding music that comes directly from Spirit rather than from a songbook. This work is also a kind of peace-building as people of diverse backgrounds and theologies, even those in conflict with one another, can suspend their disagreements and create a joyful noise together!
We hope that you will take as much joy from Vonn’s gifts as we do, and we look forward to hearing from you.
In peace and fellowship,
For Bulls Head-Oswego Monthly Meeting
Julia Giordano, clerk
April 20, 2008
Minute approved by 9 Partners Quarterly Meeting June 22, 2008
Mary Foster Cadbury, clerk
Approved by New York Yearly Meeting July 26, 2008
Ernestine Buscemi, clerk
Collaborations
New content added daily. Please check back soon.
Support my Work
My work is only possible with the support of those who find it meaningful. If you appreciate what I'm doing, here are some ways you can help me sustain it:
Buy a CD. True, I let you stream my music here as much as you want - after all, I want it to be heard, but I bet you have a digitally-challenged friend who might like it. You get to make 3 people (your friend, you & me) happy with with one little purchase.
Tell your friends about my site, or link to it on your blog.
Invite me to come to your town for a workshop, concert, or house concert.
Offer feedback on the comments page. I want to hear your muses too.