Mazz Swift (b. 1974) She Is A Story, Herself (2022) Mazz Swift is a composer, conductor, singer, bandleader, educator, and Juilliard-trained violinist. Improvisation is a through-line in their practice across genres and instrumental configurations, and can be found in most of their works. As violinist and singer, Mx. Swift is no stranger to most of the world’s greatest stages including Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, and David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center in New York City. As composer, Swift’s works include commissions by The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, and the Blaffer Foundation. As an educator, Swift has taught workshops in free improvisation and “conduction” (conducted improvisation) on six continents and is a performing member and teaching artist with the acclaimed Silkroad Ensemble. Mazz is a 2021 United States Artist, and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, continually creating orchestral compositions that involve Conduction, small ensemble works that almost always include improvisation, and solo works that are centered around protest and freedom songs, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward. About She Is A Story, Herself: She Is A Story, Herself was written in honor of writer, scholar, and professor Andrea Lunsford, who in addition to decades of service on faculty at Stanford University and the Bread Loaf School of English, is also a Kronos board member and longtime champion of Kronos' work. Mazz Swift writes: “I asked each member of the quartet, and Ms. Lunsford herself, to tell me about the things that are important to them. The common threads I found in their responses were: Roots, Connection and Joyful Responsibility. It turns out we are kindred. This piece is about how we relate to each other and to ourselves. It is a gift to be able to breathe together. How amazing is it that, for right now, in this very moment, we all have enough time and are safe enough to sit here and listen...? “Aṣẹ (Amen/Hear! Hear!)” Mazz Swift’s She Is A Story, Herself was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English Centennial, the David Harrington Research and Development Fund, Janet Cowperthwaite, Hank Dutt, David Harrington, John Sherba, and Sunny Yang.
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