Walshe, Jennifer
Entry updated 30 November 2024. Tagged: Music, People.
(1974- ) Irish composer, vocalist and artist, much acclaimed for often unclassifiable installations and musical theatre works, marked by an irreverent and witty investigation of her chosen texts and sources. Several of her pieces verge on the uncanny, such as XXX Live Nude Girls (2003), in which Barbie dolls act out teenage girls' darkest fantasies. Her ongoing Mars series begins with Mars I (2022) "for two singers, ensemble, live electronics, video and robots", which tells of two women on an expedition to Mars. Some Notes on Martian Sonic Aesthetics, 2034-51 (2023) has musicians playing the role of a chamber ensemble sent to Mars to bring culture to the colonists (see Colonization of Other Worlds), and beaming performances back to Earth. Walshe's wit is a sharp as ever (the colonists would much rather have Drugs than art), and gives more thought to the science than most sf-inspired music: Walshe approached NASA to discover how sound waves would travel in a carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere, and the strings are performed as if under high Gravity. [CWa]
Jennifer Walshe
born Dublin, Ireland: 1 June 1974
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