Alison Welles

Bio:

Hi. I am an american singer, living in Europe for the past 25 years or so. In that time, I have gone through lots of changes and developments. I suppose you never stop growing, at least if you want to stay alive. At this point of my life, I am singing jazz, a lot of my own songs, writing poetry and short stories (my new book is called Borderline(s)), conducting choirs (jazz and folk), and painting (acrylic and mixed media). My upbringing and education is in New York City, where I met the most incredible people who are still with me in my head, got my Masters Degree from the Manhattan School of Music and then took the chance to build a life for myself in Europe. It has been an incredible journey and I would love to share it with you either in music or words or pictures. Please take a look at my website: http://www.alisonwelles.de for more details, drop me a line or become my friend ! If you like the songs you hear and want to download them or buy my CD, hit this: ..

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Member Since:

August 06, 2007

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My musical background began in the 60s, as a guitarist with a group called the Ramblin 9. We played for Pete Seeger on his famous boat on the Hudson River. I joined the All-City High School Choir, John Motley, conductor, and won the New York Daily News Award for the best singer in the NYC High Schools. That resulted in a Carnegie Hall Concert with Dizzy Gillespe and band. This all before my 17th birthday!

I then studied opera and classical music, composition, theory, languages. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa, I went on to get my Masters of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music, specializing in contemporary music.

With these skills, I made my way to Europe, creating chamber music concerts, with the Munich Art Ensemble, a new music group that I established, with the works of John Cage, George Crumb, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Younghi Pagh-Paan and other modern composers. Having caught the attention of the Munich cultural bigwigs, I was awarded their "Kulturförderpreis" allowing me to continue my work with new composers and premiere experimental works in dance/theater and music.

I worked with the famous theater director, Dieter Dorn, in the Ludwigsburg production of "Herr und Knecht". I was then asked to play an acting role at the Munich Kammerspiele in "Die Minderleister", a work by Peter Turrini. I performed with some of the leading actors in german theater (Michael von Au, Arnulf Schumacher, Helmut Griem, Horst Kotterba, Michael Tregor and Rudolf Wessely).

Then the Berlin wall fell.

Things changed subtly at first. I went on to perform in east Berlin, in Pankow and in Dresden and was very excited at their reaction to modern music from the west. It was all so new again.

I continued my theater work in Munich playing in avantegarde versions of Greek tragedies, personifying the Greek chorus. Performance Art was all the rage in Munich and I worked with Ruth Geiersberger in festivals in Vienna, Munich and Konstanze, combining words, music, art and theater.

I premiered an orchestral piece by Tan Dun, a world renowned new music composer from China, with the Bremen Chamber Orchestra at the Kampnagel Theater in Hamburg. It was called "17 Fucks", sung in 17 different languages.

By then, I was engaged at the Landestheater in Innsbruck, Austria, living in the beautiful austrian Alps, and playing the role of the Mother Goddess in a new dance/theater premier by Verena Weiss, choreographer, "Landschaft mit Göttinnen".

Inspired to write my own texts and perform works of local composers, I went into the direction of jazz. I started doing jazz gigs, often with David Gazarov, pianist, at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel, with works of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rogers/Hart. At the Unterfahrt Jazz Club, Theatron Summer Festival, Innsbrucker Jazz Festival, I added the musicians Patrick Scales, Roberto di Gioia, Peter Omara, Doug Bickel and Peter Massink to the group with original tunes.

Encouraged after winning some local prizes, I recorded my first CD " Expect Me " with original songs and texts, featuring Dave Samuels, vibes, and Bob Minzer, sax, both New York jazz legends.

Next thing I knew, I was asked to teach vocal jazz at the Conservatory and Hochschule in Munich. But my ambitions were not met there and I went on to conduct jazz choirs and other ensembles. I recorded with the Bayerischer Radio Orchestra a prize-winning song of Norbert Stammberger on a text by Allen Ginsberg.

My latest CD, "Youre Something", is a collection of songs that I love, mostly from the 60s and 70s, recorded with a terrific jazz trio, Josef Ressle, piano, Jürgen Junggeburth, bass, Sascha Gotowtschikow, drums. Check it out ! http://www.alisonwelles.de/cdorder.html

Two new projects out there: One, a tribute to the cosmos in a Jazz Under the Stars event taking place in Planetariums around the world. First stop:Hamburg Planetarium, now onto Munich.

In New York I presented my newest poetry series based on jazz standards. It puts an update on the love theme that drives songwriters. Accompanied on the double bass by Martin Wind, NYU faculty since 1997, we improvise and recompose some of the most famous well-known jazz standards. The Cornelia Street Cafe was packed with an enthusiastic crowd, In Germany, I work with a great bass player, Luis Leininger, presenting my poetry in both english and german.