Pamela Z is a San Francisco-based composer/performer and media artist
who works primarily with voice, live electronic processing, sampled sound, and
video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she creates solo works
combining experimental extended vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects,
text, digital processing, and wireless MIDI controllers that allow her to manipulate
sound with physical gestures. In addition to her solo work, she has been
commissioned to compose scores for dance, theatre, film, and new music chamber
ensembles including Kronos Quartet and the Bang on a Can Allstars. Her large-scale
multi-media works have been presented at venues including Theater Artaud and ODC in
San Francisco, and The Kitchen in New York, and her media works have been presented
in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum (NY), the Diözesanmuseum (Cologne), and the
Krannert Art Museum (IL). Her multi-media opera Wunderkabinet – inspired by the
Museum of Jurassic Technology (co-composed with Matthew Brubeck) has been presented
at The LAB Gallery (San Francisco), REDCAT (Disney Hall, Los Angeles), and Open Ears
Festival, Toronto. Pamela Z has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, and
Japan. She has performed in numerous festivals including Bang on a Can at Lincoln
Center (New York), Interlink (Japan), Other Minds (San Francisco), La Biennale di
Venezia (Italy), and Pina Bausch Tanztheater Festival (Wuppertal, Germany). She is
the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Doris Duke
Artist Impact Award, the Creative Capital Fund, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts,
The MAP Fund, the ASCAP Music Award, an Ars Electronica honorable mention, and the
NEA and Japan/US Friendship Commission Fellowship. She holds a music degree from the
University of Colorado at Boulder. For more information visit www.pamelaz.com
