CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Erin Gee, a composer known for her works that use nontraditional vocal techniques, is one of two composers to win the 2015 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gee, a University of Illinois professor of composition-theory, won the fellowship based on two new pieces that premiered in 2014.
"The two pieces were brand new, so it was very exciting to have them recognized," Gee said.
The compositions are part of Gee's "Mouthpiece" series, which she began in 1999 with a composition for a solo voice. The piece does not use words, but rather a diverse array of vocal sounds, such as pops, clicks, sung tones and whistles. She often performs her pieces as the vocalist, but they are not written exclusively for her voice. Since that first piece, Gee has written an opera, "SLEEP," which premiered at the Zurich Opera House. She also writes compositions for voice and orchestras, and voice and ensembles, as well as for other vocalists.
One of her new pieces for which she won the fellowship, "Mouthpiece XXII," was written for a string quartet and was premiered by the Arditti Quartet, one of the pioneer string quartets for new music. The work was commissioned for the quartet's 40th anniversary and was performed at a music festival in Austria in October 2014.
The other piece recognized with the fellowship award is "Mouthpiece XX: Mathilde of Loci Part 2," a composition for voice, orchestra, actor and video. Gee worked with her brother, Colin Gee, who was the actor and director, choreographer and dramaturge. The two call the work a "concert-opera," and it is the continuation of the inner psychological narrative in "Mouthpiece XIII: Mathilde of Loci Part 1." This second part premiered in Vienna in January 2014, performed by the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna.
"There are musicians on stage, an actor in a nonspeaking role and video. It's a hybrid form. You have a concert element on stage, and also a theatrical element," Gee said. "It presents interesting challenges in what is theater and what is narrative, and what is human and nonhuman in these mouthpiece sounds."
Gee's music has also been used for the video game app "Blek." A collection of sounds accompanies the action of the game.
Gee's numerous awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Rome Prize, and the UNESCO Picasso-Miró. Her upcoming commissions include working with leading ensembles and performers of new music in the U.S., Austria and the U.K.