Christina Wheeler

Vocalist, composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic: Christina Wheeler’s musical explorations have ranged far and wide, including forays in techno, house, 2-step, drum and bass, breakbeat, soul, dance hall, dub, world music, ambient, free jazz and improvisational forms. In her live solo electronic performances, she blends an organic, fluid amalgam of improvised electronic music from a variety of sound sources, which include: processed vocals and vocal loops, hand-triggered sampler playing, processed four-octave electric mbira, processed electric autoharp, processed Q-Chord and theremin, sofware instruments, and live effects processing. Previous band projects include Wiremouth, Floating People, and BlowOut, and current projects include solo song-cycle series, solo instrumental improvisational compositions, The Magical Garden, an ensemble-based multi-media performance/ generative installation project, and collaborations with Laraaji, Vernon Reid, Hprizm/Priest, Greg Tate and Satch Hoyt. A native of Los Angeles, California, Ms. Wheeler is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, and Manhattan School of Music. She has performed and recorded internationally in collaboration with a variety of artists, including Vernon Reid, John Cale, Jamie Lidell, Murcof, A Guy Called Gerald, Swayzak, DJ Logic, DJ Olive and Lloop of We™, Marc Ribot, Chris Whitley, Zeena Parkins, John Carter, Fred Hopkins and Andrea Parkins. Ms. Wheeler was also a featured artist with David Byrne, whose band toured the U.S., Europe and South America, performed on The Late Show with David Letterman, as well as on PBS’s Sessions at West 54th Street series. Ms. Wheeler also sang at Central Park Summerstage's Joni’s Jazz benefit concert (featuring the music of Joni Mitchell) along with Chaka Khan, PM Dawn, Ravi Coltrane and Vernon Reid. Ms. Wheeler has presented her solo, collaborative, and band performances at a variety of local venues in New York City, including P.S. 1, Roseland, Bowery Ballroom, Irving Plaza, The Anchorage, The Kitchen, Joe’s Pub, Knitting Factory, Soundlab, Unity Gain, Roulette and Tonic, where she has been a regular performer and curator. She was featured on recordings by DJ Logic and Vernon Reid. Her composition, “Struthious,” was presented on Elliott Sharp’s compilation disc State of the Union. Ms. Wheeler has also recorded for Talvin Singh, Swayzak, Jan Jelinek, Modeselektor, HPrism/Priest (Anti-Pop Consortium, Airborn Audio), Mocky (with Jamie Lidell). Her own music was featured on MTV’s electronic music program AMP. At Lincoln Center, Ms. Wheeler sang on the world premiere of Randall Woolf's The Trick is to Keep Breathing, a composition for voice, string quartet, tape and turntables with custom acetates. She reprised her performance of this piece with the Sirius String Quartet at Roulette and Joe’s Pub, both in New York City. She performed and participated in the original development team for Sekou Sundiata and Craig Harris’ opera "The Return of Elijah, the African." She also collaborated with DJ Olive on a new live electronic music score for the 1927 Japanese silent classic, A Page of Madness, a performance sponsored by the New York Underground Film Festival. Ms. Wheeler performed solo at the Warm-Up Music Series at P.S. 1, and also opened for David Byrne at Bowery Ballroom. She was featured on the New York episode of Tvframes, produced by Citytv, Toronto, Canada. She has performed solo and collaboratively at the Kitchen’s Electronic X-travaganza. Ms. Wheeler collaborated with choreographer Sally Silvers at the Vision Festival, and and composed music for choreographer Jodi Melnick’s solo dance work. Ms. Wheeler was also invited to perform with Ryuichi Sakamoto for the release of his recent CD “Chasm”, where she created new compositions using sampled elements from his recording, and also played in a collaborative setting with Mr. Sakamoto. Ms. Wheeler recent studio collaborations included work for producers Yapacc, Ripperton Benjamin Brunn, Dolibox, Fred P., and Shinedoe. She also made her Berlin Philharmonie debut, as a featured vocalist with the Jazz Chamber Ensemble from the orchestra. She premiered a new solo electronic music performance for “Küchenkonzert” in Hannover, played the Krautok event at Tresor, played live with Dolibox at Karat’s label night, and performed live with Murcof for Berghain’s Elektroakoustische Salon concert series in Berlin. Recently, she was featured in Leonardo Music Journal’s 20th anniversary issue on “improvisation”, completed a new solo EP and performed a new live set at Free Rotation Festival in Wales this summer. The first section of her multi-media performance/generative installation piece, The Magical Garden, was presented in concert at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, New York, and Ms. Wheeler is the recipient of Harvestwork Institute’s 2014 Educational Residency for technology development for this work. She is now recording a new solo song album, completing mixing for a new solo instrumental composition, Tres Es el Número Mágico, and composing new material for her next instrument, the glass armonica. Official Facebook for vocalist, composer, songwriter, multi-Instrumentalist, and electronic musician Christina Wheeler