The New York Times has written, “Ms. Kimura is a viruoso playing at the edge” and All Music Guide has described her as “A plugged-in Paganini for the Digital Age.” New Music Conoisseur asserted, “Mari Kimura is to the violin what perhaps Henry Cowell and later John Cage were to the piano in the 1920’s and 30’s–taking it into the future with extended techniques and sounds.” Ms. Kimura is also well known for developing the extended technique of “Subharmonics”–playing notes below the open-G string without lowering the tuning. This has put her at the forefront of violinists who are extending the technical and expressive capabilities of the instrument. She is also a pioneer in the field of interactive computer music and has earned international acclaim as a soloist and recitalist in both standard and contemporary repertoire.
Immediately preceding this concert, Ms. Kimura will complete a three-month residency at IRCAM in Paris where, as a 2010 Music Composition Fellow, her work has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation. She will give her “exit” presentation September 2, demonstrating new techniques and various compositional and performance applications using Augmented Violin system in collaboration with the Real Time Musical Interaction Team at IRCAM. The program will include previews of her new works for violin including “Canon Elastique,” “Pedalez-Pedalez,” “Viomax” (integrating Omax and Augmented Violin), and her new work in progress, a violin/cello duo with Joel Krosnick, the cellist of the Juilliard Quartet.
Mari Kimura’s forthcoming CD, “The World Below G and Beyond: Works for Violin Subharmonics and Interactive Computer” (October, 2010 on Mutable Music) is devoted entirely to her own compositions. As the title suggests, it focuses primarily on works using Subharmonics, including the premiere recording of “ALT: Three Movements for violin solo,” the piece with which she introduced Subharmonics in concert halls for the first time at a New York solo debut recital in 1994.
For Mari Kimura’s forward to the album and program notes, including a first-person account on how she discovered and developed the techniques used in Subharmonics, please visit: www.jsnyc.com/season/mari_album.htm. For an extended biography of Mari Kimura, please visit: www.jsnyc.com/mari_bio.htm.
Audio files of Mari Kimura’s subharmonics can be found on her website, http://www.marikimura.com. For an article on “Schemes” in All About Strings Magazine, including downloads of sheet music, visit: http://www.stringsmagazine.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=24421
The concert is October 10 at 7:00 PM at Tenri Cultural Center, 43A West 13th Street, Manhattan. Tickets are $15 general admission; $25 with signed CD. The Box office is Smarttix, www.smarttix.com, (212) 868-4444.