Frances-Marie Uitti is composer and cellist known for her performances of the most esoteric and virtuosic contemporary classical music. She was born in the US in 1946 (1948?) to Finnish parents, and she studied classical music at Meadowmount, Boston University and University of Texas. In Europe she worked at the Academia Chigiana. Uitti invented a radically extended technique using two bows simultaneously in one hand - being the first to transform the cello into a 4 part chordal instrument. This technique expands the harmonic and timbral possibilities of the instrument in extraordinary ways: for example, one can play simultaneously 4, 3, 2, and 1 string with contrasting polyrhythmic articulations between the two bows. Non-adjacent strings can also be accessed. One bow can be played near the bridge while the other is near the fingerboard. Using two bows in one hand permits contemporaneous cross accents, multiple timbres, simultaneous legato vs articulated playing. She has used over 75 different tunings in her compositions using this technique, each producing new harmonic possibilities and exotic timbres plus a polyphony and independence of voices that her previous work with a single curved bow couldnt obtain. In 2003, Uitti commissioned a custom-designed electric 6 string cello from Seattle luthier, Eric Jensen, which she later enhanced ergonomically with sensors at CNMAT (University of California, Berkeley) working with David Wessel and Adrian Freed and Michael F. Zbyszynski. She is returning to CNMAT in 2008 to design and construct a 12-stringless meta cello with Adrian Freed. She recently acquired an aluminum cello made by the Pfretzner luthier family in 1929 - aluminum instruments were also used by Jasha Heifetz and Efram Zimbalist. She has recorded and performed on the Mongolian Morin Choor, a custom built Uzbeki Sato, and an original Stroh one-stringed cello. (Wiki)
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:58:59 +0000
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