Pamela Z
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Pamela Z (Pam Brooks, born 1956) is an American composer, performer, and audio artist who works primarily with her voice and live electronic processing.
Z was raised in Denver, received her BA in music from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and moved to San Francisco in 1985. In performance, she typically processes her live voice through MAX MSP software on a PowerBook, combining operatic bel canto and experimental extended vocal techniques with percussion objects, spoken word, and sampled sounds. Z has performed in such festivals as Bang on a Can at Lincoln Center in New York, the Interlink Festival in Japan, Other Minds in San Francisco, and La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy.
Z has been commissioned from such sources as the Bang on a Can Allstars, Ethel, The California EAR Unit, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the record label Starkland. She is a member of the electroacoustic ensemble sensorChip and the interdisciplinary performance ensemble The Qube Chix, both based in San Francisco. Z has received numerous awards, including: the Guggenheim Fellowship; the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts; the Creative Capital Fund; the ASCAP Music Award; and the NEA and Japan/US Friendship Commission Fellowship.
