Anne LeBaron

LeBaron's composition in instrumental, electronic, and performance realms embraces a wide range of media and styles. Frequently combining tonal and atonal techniques, she has utilized elements of blues, jazz, pop, rock, and folk music in such scores as the opera The E. and O. Line (1993), American Icons (1996) for orchestra, and Traces of Mississippi (2000) for chorus, orchestra, poet narrators, and rap artists. She has also used American literary sources with Devil in the Belfry (1993) for violin and piano, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, and Is Money Money (2000), a setting of Gertrude Stein texts for soprano and chamber ensemble. Among her multicultural compositions are Lamentation/Invocation (1984) for baritone and three instruments, using Korean-derived gestures and long sustained tones for the voice; Noh Reflections (1985) for string trio, which draws upon the music of Japanese Noh theater; Breathtails (2012) for baritone, string quartet, and Japanese shakuhachi; and her large-scale celebration of Kazakhstan, The Silent Steppe Cantata (2011) for tenor Timur Bekbosunov, women's chorus, and an orchestra of traditional Kazakh instruments, premiered at Congress Hall in Astana. Writing about LeBaron's 1989 Telluris Theoria Sacra (for flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion, and piano), musicologist Susan McClary notes that the work "...points to LeBaron's more pervasive interest in music's ability to mold temporality, immersing the listener in a sound world in which time bends, stands still, dances, or conforms to the mechanical measure of the clock". Theater has played an important role in LeBaron's music, with such scores as Concerto for Active Frogs (1974) for voices, three instruments, and tape, and the harp solos I Am an American... My Government Will Reward You (1988) and Hsing (2002). She has also composed a series of monodramas for female voice and chamber musicians: Pope Joan (2000), Transfiguration (2003), Sucktion (2008), and Some Things Should Not Move (2013). LeBaron's operas The E. and O. Line (and the shorter version, Blue Calls Set You Free), Croak (The Last Frog) (1996), and Wet (2005) were all collaborative works that led her to develop the genre she terms "hyperopera": "an opera resulting from intensive collaboration across all the disciplines essential for producing opera in the 21st century – in a word, a 'meta-collaborative' undertaking". With her hyperopera Crescent City (2012, libretto by Douglas Kearney), LeBaron went a step beyond the nineteenth-century concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (the united/total/universal artwork that synthesized architecture, scenic painting, singing, instrumental music, poetry, drama, and dance), championed by Richard Wagner. A more lateral, inclusive, and intensive collaboration of artists occurs with hyperopera, breaking down the usual hierarchical structures of traditional opera, which define and limit the roles of individuals on creative and production teams. The genre of hyperopera involves the collaborations of a diverse group of artists, which pierce the regimented boundaries of the roles of creators, performers, designers, and producers. In the postmodern tradition of redefining opera, also seen in the work of Robert Ashley, Meredith Monk, and Robert Wilson, LeBaron replaced the Wagnerian orchestra with smaller and more specialized forces of instruments and electronic sound for Crescent City, with musicians who move readily among stylistic genres, just as the vocalists do. The opera's theatrical action is refracted through a prism of video work, lighting effects, and performance freedoms and simultaneities. For its world premiere production in Los Angeles in 2012, Crescent City also engaged six visual artists to participate in the collaborative process by designing and building set pieces as various locales in the opera. Prior to the full production of Crescent City, LeBaron composed Phantasmagoriettas from Crescent City, performed by the LOOS Electro Acoustic Media Orchestra and soloists from Los Angeles during the Dag in de Branding Festival in the Hague in 2007.

• Unearthly Delights (2020). Ashley Wiest, Stephanie Aston, sopranos; Andy Dwan, baritone; Chris Stoutenborough, Jim Sullivan, clarinets; Julie Feves, Jon Stehney, bassoons; Anne LeBaron, Alison Bjorkedal, harps; Nic Gerpe, Mark Robson, pianos; Cory Hills, percussion; Pasha Tseitlin, Mark Menzies, violins; Erik Rynearson, Linnea Powell, violas; Charlie Tyler, cello; Eric Shetzen, contrabass; Nicholas Olof Jacobson-Larson, Nick Deyoe, conductors. Innova Recordings 026. • Routes, Paths, Courses (2019). Present Quartet (Ellen Burr, flutes; Anne LeBaron, harp and electronics; Jeff Schwartz, bass; Charles Sharp, clarinets, alto sax, piri, electronics). pfMENTUM PFMCD131. • Crescent City (2014). Maria Elena Altany, Lillian Sengpiehl, Ji Young Yang, sopranos; Gwendolyn Brown, contralto; Timur Bekbosunov, Ashley Faatoalia, Jonathan Mack, tenors; Cedric Barry, bass-baritone; Marc Lowenstein, conductor. Innova Recordings 878. • Floodsongs. Included on Floodsongs (2014). Solaris Vocal Ensemble; Giselle Wyers, conductor; Phil Curtis, electronic sound. Albany Records TROY1468. • 1, 2, 4, 3 (2010). Anne LeBaron, harp, electronics, percussion; Kiku Day, shakuhachi; Wolfgang Fuchs, contrabass clarinet; Georg Graewe, piano; Kristin Haraldsdottir, viola; Chris Heenan, alto saxophone; Earl Howard, electronics; Leroy Jenkins, amplified violin; Ronit Kirchman, violin, mouth whistle; John Lindberg, bass; Torsten Müller, bass; Kanoko Nishi, koto; Paul Rutherford, trombone; Nathan Smith, clarinets. Innova Recordings 236. • Pope Joan, Transfiguration (2007). Kristin Norderval, soprano; Mark Menzies, conductor; Lucy Shelton, soprano; Rand Steiger, conductor. New World Records 80663–2. • Is Money Money. Included on To Have and to Hold (2007). Dora Ohrenstein, soprano; Sequitur; Paul Hostetter, conductor. Koch International Classics 7593. • Los Murmullos. Included on Rumor de Páramo (2006). Ana Cervantes, piano. Quindecim Recordings 164. • Concerto for Active Frogs. Included on Raudelunas 'Pataphysical Revue (2003). Adrian Dye, solo voice; Anne LeBaron, percussion and tape; Roger Hagerty, oboe and musette; Jack Reese, species; Frog Chorus (Janice Hathaway, Nolan Hatcher, Craig Nutt, LaDonna Smith, Theodore Bowen, Johnny Williams, Mitchell Cashion). Alcohol ALRP1CD • Sacred Theory of the Earth. (2000) Atlanta Chamber Players, David Rosenboom, conductor; Paula Peace, piano; Christopher Pulgram, violin; Amy Porter, flute; Anne LeBaron, harp. New World/Composers Recordings NWCR 865. • Southern Ephemera. Included on Dance of the Seven Veils (1996). New Band. Music & Arts 4931. • The Musical Railism of Anne LeBaron (1995). New Music Consort, Theater Chamber Players of Kennedy Center; Anne LeBaron, Leon Fleisher, Claire Heldrich, conductors. Mode Records 42. • Dish. Included on Urban Diva (1993). Dora Ohrenstein, soprano. New World Records|New World/Composers Recordings NWCR 654. • Phantom Orchestra (1992). The Anne LeBaron Quintet (Frank London, trumpet; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Davey Williams, electric guitar; Gregg Bendian, drums, vibraphone, percussion; Anne LeBaron, harp with electronics): "Bouquet of a Phantom Orchestra," "Human Vapor," "Superstrings and Curved Space," "Bottom Wash," "Top Hat on a Locomotive," "Loaded Shark." Ear Rational ECD 1035. • Rana, Ritual & Revelations (1992). New Music Consort, Linda Bouchard, Claire Heldrich, Anne LeBaron, conductors; Theater Chamber Players of Kennedy Center, Anne LeBaron, conductor. Mode Records 30.

• Year — Award — Sponsor — Ref. • 1981-1982 — Fulbright Full Scholarship — U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through an annual appropriation by the U.S. Congress. • 1981 — NEA Fellowship — National Endowment for the Arts • 1991 — John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship — Guggenheim Memorial Foundation • 1996 — Alpert Award in the Arts — Herb Alpert Foundation • 1997 — Fromm Foundation Commission — Harvard University • 2000, 2005 — Bellagio Composer Residency — Rockefeller Foundation • 2007, 2011 — MAP Fund Award (Multi-Arts Production Fund) — Rockefeller Foundation • 2008 — ArtsLink Award for The Silent Steppe Cantata — ArtsLink, grant to support the creation of Silent Steppe Cantata in Kazakhstan • 2009 — LA Dept. of Cultural Affairs Cultural Exchange International Grant — Los Angeles Department of Culture Affairs; funding of SIlent Steppe Cantata in Kazakhstan • 2014 — Opera America Toulmin Foundation Discovery Grant — Opera America • 2017 — USArtists International Grant — Grant to support appearance as featured international artist, Totally Huge New Music Festival, Perth, Australia • 2018 — Bogliasco Study Center for the Humanities and the Arts fellowship — Bogliasco Foundation • 2023 — Davise Fund Commission — UCLA Library

• “What to Think About What to Wear,” Center for New Performance 20th Anniversary Publication, 2024. • "Anne LeBaron - Surreal Confluences" in John Palmer - Conversations, 2nd Edition, published by Vision Edition, 2023. • “Sonic Ventures in Post-Truth Surrealism: Raudelunas, the Rev. Fred Lane, and Huxley’s Last Trip”, Keynote address for the Totally Huge New Music Festival, 2017. • “Luminous Imagination: Thereafter, Transparence, and Wonders,” and “Timbral and Spatial Ambiguities in the Mesmerizing Music of John Palmer" in Looking Within – The Music of John Palmer, ed. by Sunny Knable, published by Vision Edition, 2021. • “Return to Source: Contemporary Composers Discuss the Sociopolitical Implications of Their Work,” Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 25, 2015. • "Composing Breathtails" in Current Musicology, 2014. • Crescent City: A Hyperopera" in International Alliance for Women in Music Journal, 2013. • "Down the Rabbit-Hole of Innovation" in UCLA Center for the Study of Women Special Issue: Writing About Music, 2010. • "The American Composer's Place in the New Grove II", NewMusicBox, 2002. • "Reflections of Surrealism in Postmodern Musics" in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, Lochhead, Judy and Auner, Joseph, eds. Routledge, 2002.