Shelley Hirsch
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Shelley Hirsch (born 1952 in Brooklyn, New York) is a singer, performer, and composer. Central to Hirsch's work are her versatile vocal abilities, which are often enmeshed in a kaleidoscope of electronic music and sound effects.
Born and raised in New York City, Hirsch dropped out of high school and moved to San Francisco, California, where she worked in experimental theater, explored extended vocal techniques, and began composing pieces for voice. In Berlin she had her first experiences in improvised music with Sven-Åke Johansson, deepent in collaborations with Jon Rose and - back in New York City - with Christian Marclay. She has appeared at festivals throughout Europe and performed at the Kitchen, Roulette, BAM and other venues in New York. She appears on the recordings of John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Jim Staley and many others. Her regular partners are Christian Marclay, Ikue Mori, David Weinstein and Anthony Coleman. In 1988 she released the LP "Singing" and a year later another LP/CD "Haiku Lingo" with Weinstein. Her most recent work "O Little Town of East New York" can be found on Zorn's label Tzadik in the series "Radical Jewish Culture". Hirsch also collaborated with DJ Olive, Mark Dresser, Greetje Bijma, Chantal Dumas, David Moss, Min Xiao Fen, Jerry Hunt, Toshio Kajiwara, Jin Hi Kim, Marina Rosenfeld and Ned Rothenberg. She recorded with September Band (Rüdiger Carl, Hans Reichel and Paul Lovens) and with X-Communication (Butch Morris, Martin Schütz and Hans Koch), too. Hirsch can also be heard interpreting compositions such as Cathy Berberian's „Stripsody“ or Alvin Curran's Philharmonie.
Hirsch has also collaborated with visual artists Barbara Bloom and Jim Hodges, choreographer Noemie LaFrance, and filmmakers Nina Danino (Tenemos soundtrack with Sainkho Namtchylak, 2001), Zoe Beloff, Abigail Childs, and Lee Sachs.
The radio version of Hirsch's O Little Town of East New York won first prize at the Prix Futura International Media Competition in Berlin.
