Bio

Emily Kennedy is a cellist and collaborator based in Fredericton. She is a graduate of the performance program at the University of Ottawa and Wilfrid Laurier University. Passionate about new music and improvisation, Emily recently took part in Banff’s Concert in the 21st Century residency, the Britten-Pears Composition, Alternative Performance and Performance Art program in Aldeburgh, UK, Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, and Re:Flux Festival. She frequently performs with Pallmer, electronic improv trio Terre Wa, guitarist Steven Peacock, Symphony New Brunswick, Atlantic Sinfonia, and music UNB. Emily is active in genre-crossing projects, collaborating with poets, textile artists, and dancers.

Residency Project

Handmade Orchestra Duration: flexible – this project can be developed over the course of several sessions. Students are invited to rethink what is considered music and how it is made. Musical experience is not necessary: students are shown the basic principles of rhythm, pitch, texture and composition through games and hands-on experimentation. The project: Students will write and perform a piece of music using instruments they built from common household objects. The project will be broken down into segments: rethinking sound as music, creating handmade instruments, collectively creating a graphic score, and performing the music using their instruments. Listening and improvisation games will be used to guide students toward new ways of listening, showing them how curiosity and an open mind can open endless musical possibilities. Constructing instruments empowers students to be independent when exploring and creating sounds. Collectively com-posing a graphic score allows groups to set rules on how the score is interpreted; encouraging team work, collective decision making, and leadership. Graphic scores are an accessible medium for students, since they don’t need a background in music reading to interpret the score. The result will be a performance that will be recorded for the students to take home.

Teaching Experience

I have experience teaching students of all ages. I have experience teaching at the university level, have led group music classes for students between the ages of 6-8, have coached and taught at music camps, and have taught privately for the last nine years.