School of Music Visiting Artist
Liz Tonne’s work explores the imaginative edge of voice as an instrument, sewing together abstracted song and text using an array of both traditional and extended vocal techniques. Liz was a Boston based improvisor throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s and in numerous groups that helped define Boston’s electro-acoustic aesthetic. As a member of the pioneering ensemble, undr quartet, she contributed to the presentation of a new wave of sonic minimalism referred to as lowercase music. She was also a member of The BSC, a group of eight electro-acoustic musicians who translated a mature, orchestral form of improvised music under the curatorship of Bhob Rainey. As well as performing as an improvisor, Tonne has a great fondness for presenting the compositions of the composer John Cage. She has sung selections from Songbooks with The BSC in the festival Cage: Beyond Silence at The Philadelphia Museum of Art and performed Ryoanjii and additional pieces from Songbooks in duet with percussionist Tim Feeney at Cornell University. As well as a musician, Liz Tonne is a landscape history writer and a Certified Landscape Designer. She lives with her husband and daughter in Western Massachusetts.
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