back    Laetitia Sonami Composer, Media Performer Laetitia Sonami was born in France and settled in the United States in 1975 to pursue her interest in the up and coming field of electronic music. Her work combines text, music, and “found sounds” in compositions that have been described as “performance novels”. She creates and employs the most sophisticated technologies in order to create an intimate and spontaneous art form that transcends technology. Since 1991 she has been developing and refining gestural controllers for musical performance and composing works using these materials. Her unique instrument, the “lady’s glove,” is made of black Lycra and equipped with sensors that follow the tiniest movements of every finger, the hand, and the arm. In this way the performance becomes a dance in which the movements create the music. Laetitia Sonami is currently performing Why dreams like a loose engine (autoportrait), a farewell to the mechanical age, in which the lady’s glove controls hobby motors, mechanisms, shadow, and light. To the texts Conversation with a Light Bulb and The Appearance of Silence / The Invention of Perspective by Melody Sumner Carnahan, Sonami uses the lady’s glove to control sounds and pulsating light bulbs. Her most current work is still in progress. Her installations contain acoustic and kinetic elements that frequently react to the actions of the viewers. BAGS, which she created in collaboration with Nick Bertoni, the Tinkers Workshop, and East Bay Youth, was presented in autumn 2002. This installation consists of a variety of animated kinetic bags, which are activated by the viewers and control the sound score. Laetitia Sonami has already performed at numerous festivals in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan, including the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, the Bourges Music Festival in France, the Sonambiente Festival in Berlin, and the Interlink Festival in Japan, Bang-on-a-Can, The Kitchen, and Other Minds, S. F. Four of her compositions have been anthologized on CD: Imaginary Landscapes (Nonesuch), Another Coast (Music and Arts Program of America), Jewel Box (TellUS 26, NYC), and The Time Is Now (Frog Peak Music). Lovely Music Ltd. is planning to release her solo CD. Honors: Alpert Award in the Arts (2002), Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Award (2000), Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (2000), Studio Pass-Harvestworks residency (2001), and Creative Work Fund Award (2000) for her collaboration with Nick Bertoni and the Tinkers Workshop. Laetitia Sonami lives in Oakland, California and is currently a visiting professor at the San Francisco Art Institute, CalArts, and Bard College. Laetitia Sonami is a composer, performer, and sound installation artist who designs and builds her own instruments. Her “lady’s glove” enables her to control musical tones, mechanical devices, and lights in real time. In April 2005 Performance at the Forum Neues Musiktheater on the occasion of the concert series DIE REIHE - NEUE MUSIK FÜR STUTTGART.
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