Shelley Hirsch

Shelley Hirsch is an internationally acclaimed vocalist, composer, and storyteller whose compositions, staged multimedia works, improvisations, radio plays, installations and collaborations have been produced and presented in concert halls, clubs, festivals, theaters, museums, galleries and on radio and television on 5 continents. She has appeared in and composed music for film and is the subject of 2 documentary portraits on Aspekte and Arte TV Programs in Germany.

Hirsch is the recipient of many awards, fellowships and prestigious residencies since 1985 in the music composition, electronic music, performance, new forms, multidisciplinary work, categories from Creative Capital, New York Foundation for The Arts( four) ,NEA (two); NYSCA two, Mary Flagler Carey Trust (two) and with collaborator Simon Ho grants from Pro Helvetica (two) and The State of Bern Switzerland (two). Residencies include the prestigious DAAD residency in Berlin; The Ucross/ Alpert Prize Residency ; Harvestworks Studio PASS (five); STEIM in Amsterdam (three), Montalvo Arts Center, Tesla in Berln and The Krems AIR in Austria

She received the Prix Futura 1st prize from the International Media Competition in Berlin for radio version of her autobiographical musical “O’ Little Town of East New York” .

Her solo music performance works include “States”, “My Father Piece,” “For Jerry” an homage to and virtual duet with the late Jerry Hunt; “The Passions of Natasha, Nokiko, Nicole ,Nannette and Norma” a collaboration w/visual artist Barbara Bloom; “O Little Town of East New York”, “Occidental Dreams of a Geisha “ and more.

Hirsch can be heard on over 70 Cds including her recording “Singing (solos and duos w/David Simons and Samm Bennett) “States”; “The Far In Far Out Worlds of Shelley Hirsch” her autobiographical work “O’Little Town of East New York”-with David Weinstein; Haiku Lingo with him as well, 2 duo cds with Uchihashi Kasuhisa -Duets and Duets 10 Years ,a duo with turntable player Joke Lanz   and “Where Were You Then ?“ a cd of songs and stories composed in collaboration with keyboard player Simon Ho. She has recorded as vocalist in the ensembles September Band and X- Communication on FMP and most recently with Hardcore Chamber Ensemble and can be heard singing on cds by Billy Martin, John Zorn, Elliot Sharp, Jon Rose, Nicolas Collins, Richard Teitelbaum, Alvin Curran, Raz Mesinai, David Watson, Arnold Dreyblatt, Jim Staley etc etc .She was the soloist with the Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra in Modena and Lugo Italy for Butch Morris’s Folding Spaces project- She has improvised with musicians Fred Frith, Joke Lanz, Jim Menesis, Mike Pride, Ikue Mori, Sylvie Courvousier and has collaborated on projects with visual artists Ursula Scherrer. Katherine Liberovskaya and Jim Hodges. Along with their collaborative work Hirsch performed at Hodges recent one man retrospectives at the ICA in Boston and the Walker Art Center .

Christian Marclay made Zoom! Zoom! for onomatopoetic images and improvised voice for her. and they have performed it at The Louvre in Paris, The Whitney Museum in NYC, Brava Theater San Francisco, Roulette in NYC

Hirsch was music director, composer performer for Zoe Beloff’s Psychopathological Musical in Two parts,” part of Beloffs 3D film installation“The Somnambulists”

Her writing has been published in Uno Kudo; Arcana, a journal of writing by musician, and composers, in the catalogue for Marclays show at the Whitney Museum. Her text for O Little Town of East New York has been translated in 4 languages has been published in the Italian Publication Panta.

She is a long time board member at Roulette Intermedium NYC.

Back to LiftOff Creative and Project Development Residency