Annea Lockwood

After working with Annea Lockwood on her ‘For Ruth’ commission and ‘Annea Lockwood: A Film About Listening’ documentary as part of Counterflows at Home 2021, it gives us great pleasure to welcome her in person to Counterflows this year.

Aotearoa New Zealand-born American composer Annea Lockwood (b. 1939) brings vibrant energy, ceaseless curiosity, and a profound sense of openness to her music. Lockwood’s lifelong fascination with the visceral effects of sound in our environments and through our bodies—the way sounds unfold and their myriad “life spans”—serves as the focal point for works ranging from concert music to performance art to multimedia installations. Annea has worked with the sonic potential of glass and drowned, buried and burned pianos; created sound maps of the Hudson and Danube rivers; made work dedicated to prisoners of Guantanemo Bay; collaborated with a wide variety of sound artists, experimental composers and ensembles and so much more. Her work hasn’t slowed down, and she still writes new work and collaborates to this day.

Annea will be in attendance throughout the festival. Alongside a discussion between Annea and Kate Molleson and a screening of Sam Green’s ‘Annea Lockwood: A Film About Listening’, a selection of her work will be performed at Counterflows:

– bayou-borne (2016), a piece dedicated to Annea’s friend Pauline Oliveros based a map of the six bayous converging near Houston, Texas. This will be performed by an ensemble of Nate Wooley, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, Fritz Welch, Angharad Davies, Diljeet Kaur Bhachu and Garazi Navas.

– ‘Becoming Air’ (2018), a piece developed with and performed by trumpeter Nate Wooley. The piece uses extended technique and electronics to interfere with Wooley’s virtuosic control over his instrument, pushing him into areas of fluctuating pitch and timbral instability.

– As part of her ongoing ‘Piano transplants’ work since the 1960s, Annea will plant a discarded piano in the Gathering Ground’s community garden space, letting it become part of the garden over time. Annea’s close collaborator Xenia Pestova Bennett will present some intimate performances on the piano, dotted throughout the festival.