PROFILE:
Over 25 years of experience making, playing and researching wind instruments. Experience and credentials in performances and lectures; ceramic work and exhibitions; the acoustics of musical instruments; original research into Pre-Columbian musical instruments, resulting in several published articles; and teaching a variety of related subjects to all ages.
BA, English, UC Berkeley & New York University; MA, Psychology, Pepperdine University.
AWARDS:
City of Los Angeles, Dept. of Cultural Affairs: Artist in Residence Grants
McKnight Visiting Composer's Project Grant, Minnesota
The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals and Exhibitions: travel grant to Audio/Art Festival in Krakow, Poland
City of Los Angeles Dept. of Cultural Affairs: Artist in Communities Grant, solo & ensemble performances citywide, featuring the didjeridu and the neon didjeridu.
California Arts Council: Touring Roster
California Arts Council: Artist in Schools and Social Institutions
NEA Craft Project Grant: research throughout Mexico on Pre-Columbian musical instruments
ARTIST ACTIVITIES: Making and playing ceramic wind instruments: flutes, pipes, ocarinas, whistles, trumpets, clay-doos, musical bowls, sound sculptures, and more.
Lectures:
Wats:on Festival for Interdisciplinary Artists, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; PA
Music in Clay, Metropolitan Museum, New York
Looking at Art with Artists; Music in Clay, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Music in Clay, Universities of California at Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego
Exhibitions:
Musical Mud, American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California
Sounds Like Art, Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco
Ellipsis Arts Winter Gardens, New York City, New York
Fa So La Brmm Bzzz Tck Sa, El Camino College, Torrance
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Articles:
From Mud to Music: Making and Enjoying Ceramic Musical Instruments, Baird & Hall, American Ceramic Society, Carbondale, OH, Book/CD, featured instrument builder/performer
Movers & Shakers: the 40 most exciting soulful artists of 2003, Jon Spayde; Utne Arts Extra
"Harmonic Combinations: Sound Sculptures by Susan Rawcliffe," Susan Rawcliffe, Ceramics Monthly, Vol. 45, #8
Gravikords, Whirlies and Pyrophones: Ellipsis Arts, #3530, book & CD, Bart Hopkin "The Flutes and Sound Sculptures of Susan Rawcliffe;" Susan Rawcliffe
Experimental Musical Instruments, Vol. 11, #2; cassette #XII
"I flauti precolombiani de Susan Rawcliffe," Gianluigi Gasparetti; Deep Listenings #2, Rome, Italy
upcoming, Musical Wizards, documentary video project, the Johnson Group, McLean, VA, featured instrument builder/performer
Musical performances on artist's instruments and didjeridus:
JUAN DARIEN, Broadway show at Lincoln Center, Vivian Beaumont Theater, Julie Taymor, director, Elliot Goldenthal, composer; also Off-Broadway & on tour
AudioArt Festival, Krakow, Poland; Pipeline Festival, Podewil; Berlin, Germany Logos Foundation, Gent, Belgium
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
New Langton Arts, SF, CA
The Magic of Music, The Music of Magic, Los Angeles Theatre Center
The Knitting Factory, NYC
New Music America, Houston, TX
Cedar Cultural Center, Mpls, MN
performances with Don Buchla, Brad Dutz, Alex Cline, Ron George, Vinny Golia & more
Recordings:
2 MANY AXES, Susan Rawcliffe, Scott Wilkinson, Brad Dutz; pfMentum MANY AXES, as above; eponymous CD Studio recordings, television & commercials
Films:
Michael Shepard, composer Jeff Dana
War at Home, composer Basil Poledouris, didjeridu & flutes
The Island of Dr. Moreau, composer Gary Chang, didjeridu
PERSONAL ETHNIC, with Alex Cline, percussion
RESEARCH INTO PRE-HISPANIC CLAY FLUTES:
Articles:
"Complex Acoustics in PreColumbian Flute Systems," Susan Rawcliffe, in: Musical Repercussions of 1492, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992; Experimental Musical Instruments, Vol. VIII #2, cassette #VIII, 1992; National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts Journal Vol. 14, 1993-4.
"Sounding Clay: Pre-Hispanic Flutes," Susan Rawcliffe, Orient-Archäologie Band 8, Studien zur Musikarchäologie III; Ellen Hickmann & Ricardo Eichmann, Eds. Verlag Marie Leidorf Gmbf, Rahden/Westf, Germany, 2003.
upcoming: "Eight Pre-Columbian West Mexican Flutes in Fowler Museum" to be published by The Cotsen Archaeology Institute, UCLA
Lectures:
Complex Acoustics in Pre-Columbian Flutes; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
International Study Group of Musical Archaeology‹twice: Berlin & Blankenburg, Germany
American Association for the Advancement of Sciences‹twice
Acoustical Society of America‹three times
National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts
Construction Practices in Pre-Hispanic Flutes: the Acoustical Society of America, & the Iberoamerican & Mexican Congresses of Acoustics: joint meeting, Cancun, Mexico
TEACHING, WORKSHOPS AND SEMINARS:
City of Los Angeles, Dept. of Cultural Affairs: Artist in Residence at Park Western/Harbor Math Science Magnet Elementary School- ceramics, musical instruments and performance
McKnight Visiting Composer's Project Grant, Minnesota: workshops for adults and high school students in making and playing ceramic musical instruments, plus lectures, performances and radio broadcasts
Chatham College & Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA: workshops in making and playing ceramic musical instruments, plus lectures
Chatham College & Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Pittsburgh, PA: Artist in Residence
California State University at Dominguez Hills: Methods for teaching art & music
Ceramics Instructor, Visiting Artist: Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
California Arts Council, Artist in Schools and Social Institutions at the Exceptional Children's Foundation: making music & musical instruments with retarded adults
California Institute for Men, Chino, CA: Arts in Corrections, World Music and the Didjeridu.
Music Center on Tour, Education Dept.: K-5 Artist-Specialist in making simple musical instruments, elementary acoustics & ceramics
Performing Tree, Los Angeles: K-6, Master Artist-Instructor in ceramics, making and playing simple musical instruments & children's performances
Arts Alaska, Artist in Residence in Unalaska and Shungnak: K-adult, workshops in music and musical instruments, didjeridu & making clay flutes; performances, teacher inservices