Juliet Palmer
Composer Juliet Palmer is one of the nine contemporary artists who have shared their first impressions of Toronto with us for First Impressions: Telling Toronto Stories. This is a joint project of Toronto Arts Council and Heritage Toronto appearing as a series of posters on the TTC throughout 2009 and 2010, through the support of RBC.
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“Ideas and methods to the left of normal”
Los Angeles Times
“A postmodernist with a conscience”
The Listener
Moving from New Zealand to New York in 1990 to work with composer-performer Meredith Monk, Juliet Palmer completed her PhD at Princeton University in 1999. Based in Toronto, Canada she works in diverse media, from chamber music to multimedia installations, dance, music theatre, opera and symphonic works.
Palmer’s music has been featured at Bang On A Can Festival (New York); Angelica Festival and Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali (Bologna & Rome, Italy); the Huddersfield and Bath Festivals (UK); Ars Electronica (Austria); Royaumont’s Voix Nouvelles and Décadanse's Electrolune (France); Tot En Met XXII (Amsterdam); SoundCulture (Japan); Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, The Sound Symposium, Art in Open Spaces, VOICE++ and Open Ears (Canada); the New Zealand Festival and Australia's Adelaide Festival.
Performers of her music include the Penderecki String Quartet, Patricia O’Callaghan, Eve Egoyan, Trio Fibonacci, the Gryphon Trio, Toca Loca, Arraymusic, Continuum, New Music Concerts, the Windsor Symphony, l'Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Tapestry New Opera Works and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble (Canada); Les Percussions de Strasbourg (France); Fontanamix (Italy); Piano Circus (UK); California EAR Unit and the Bang on a Can All-Stars (USA); the NZ String Quartet, the NZ Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand).
Click here to listen to Juliet Palmer's Five at Toca Loca's debut CD P*P
Juliet is a member of interdisciplinary collective urbanvessel. Recent works include the Dora-nominated a cappella opera Stitch at the 2008 FreeFall Festival/Harbourfront’s World Stage; and the site-specific Slip at the Harrison Baths. Their new work Voice-box, for four women vocalists who box, is a Harbourfront Fresh Ground commission and will premiere November 2010. Toca Loca recently toured her irreverent chamber work Five across Canada and to Berlin’s C3 festival. Palmer co-directed and scored the animated short film Soaring, Roaring, Diving which was named “Best Experimental Film” in the 2009 Brooklyn International Film Festival.
Watch Soaring, Roaring, Diving, a mixed-media animated film by Juliet Palmer (music and sound) and Miriam Harris (animation and visuals)
Top B& W photo: Composer Juliet Palmer works with mezzo-soprano Vilma Vitols during a workshop for urbanvessel collective's new opera Voice-Box. Lower photo: Juliet conducts a chorus of fighters in a workshop for Voice-Box. Performers (L to R): Savoy Howe, Patricia O'Callaghan, Vilma Vitols, Christine Duncan.
