Political Sound(s): Inside/Outside (Dr Marta Gentilucci (University of Cambridge) )

Dr Marta Gentilucci (University of Cambridge)

Political Sound(s): Inside/Outside

At the centre of the presentation are two collaborative projects that nurtured and challenged my relationship with composing (alone) and sounds-making processes.

The first one began as an exploration of a suburban area of Paris, where a decommissioned railway station was in the process of being transformed into one of the largest public parks in Paris. Together with a theatre company and a group of urbanists, architects and social science researchers, we followed the changes and interacted with the neighbourhood. After more than three years of experimentation, an hour-long score is performed by the synergy of singers, dancers and multi-channel electronics. The second project is a sound-visual installation developed in Italy together with the American photographer Susan Meiselas: at the centre, women and aging.

The questions raised by the two projects have become central to my compositional reflection and work: what is personal and what is public? Is there a clear distinction? How does the relationship with different agents other than professional musicians affect the creation of musical sounds and forms? How do compositional decisions influence multiple listening experiences and different listening temporalities? 

Several multi-channel sound examples will be projected in the conference space to give a sense of the sonic world created for each project.

Marta Gentilucci is a composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. She completed her studies in vocal arts as a soprano (in Italy) and obtained her Masters degree in composition and composition/computer music in Stuttgart (Germany). She was selected for the two-year programme in computer music at IRCAM. She holds a PhD in composition from Harvard University.

Her electronic and instrumental music has been performed internationally by renowned ensembles. She was composer in residence at IRCAM, Experimentalstudio Freiburg, Electronic Studio of the Akademie der Künste Berlin, and at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She has had works commissioned by IRCAM and Neue Vocalsolisten for the MANIFESTE Festival 2020 and the ECLAT Festival 2021, and by the Biennale di Venezia 2021. She was a fellow at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici in 2021/22. Among her recent projects are a dance performance with electronics in collaboration with the choreographer and dancer Netta Weiser, and a sound-visual installation in collaboration with the American photographer Susan Meiselas.

She is Assistant Professor in Composition at the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, and Official Fellow at Girton College, Cambridge.