Leila Bordreuil: Solo Performance

Leila Bordreuil continues her ISSUE residency Friday, December 16th with an evening of spatialized music in solo and large ensemble formats. The evening opens with Bordreuil performing a solo amplified cello set using a multichannel set-up of different types of speakers and guitar amplifiers. An assemblage of microphones placed on various parts of the cello create unique sound distortion possibilities that transform the cello into a polyphonic instrument -- enhancing the instrument’s diversity of timbres.

Following, Bordreuil premieres “Memory City,” a new piece for large ensemble combining elements of standard notation, structured improvisation, chance composition, and a three dimensional narrative through sound-spatialization. Sound content is based upon each player’s personal sonic memories of urban environments, creating an immersive soundscape of abstracted personal experiences.The performance features Nate Wooley (trumpet), Anne Guthrie (French horn), Chris McIntyre (trombone), Michael Foster (saxophone), Ben Bennet (percussion) and Leila Bordreuil (cello).

Leila Bordreuil is a Brooklyn-based cellist and composer from France. Her cello playing is often improvised, and focuses on the relationship between the human body and the inherent sonic qualities of her instrument. Essential to her musical aesthetic is the expression of humans’ neuro-somatic imperfections, which she chooses to magnify through extreme amplification of very quiet playing, revealing microscopic gestures that are otherwise inaudible to the human ear. Her composed works draw from a similar aesthetic but also focus on sound through space and the distortion that arises from spatially organized sound sources. Leila’s collaborative projects include duos with Michael Foster and Tamio Shiraishi, a trio with Sean Ali and Joanna Mattrey, and the no-wave band “Signal Break” with Austin Jullian (Sediment Club) and Evin Huguenin (Sects). She has performed at the Whitney Museum, The Kitchen, The Stone, MoMA PS1, Roulette, the Performa Biennale, Ftarri (Tokyo, JP), the Heresy Series for Women in Sound (Manila, PHL), and many basements across the U.S.