Alice Shields has created electronic works, operas and pieces for dance and voice, as well as instrumental music. Recent compositions include Kyrielle (2005) for violin and tape for violinist Airi Yoshioka, and The River of Memory (2008) and Mioritza - Requiem for Rachel Corrie (2004) for trombone and tape for trombonist Monique Buzzarté. Shields' computer piece Dust (2001) for Dance Alloy of Pittsburgh and the Arangham Dance Theatre of Madras premiered in Pittsburgh and toured India in 2002.
Shields’ new opera Criseyde (2008), a feminist retelling of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, was comissioned by librettist Nancy Dean, and is written in Middle English. Scenes from Criseyde were performed with orchestra and singers by the New York City Opera VOX Contemporary American Opera program on May 11, 2008 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, conducted by David Wroe, and a showcase concert of music from Criseyde was presented by The American Virtuosi Opera Theater on April 24th 2008 at Elebash Hall of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, conducted by Kenneth Hamrick. Further workshops of Criseyde are in planning. Please see www.criseyde.com for more information.
Shields received the Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition from Columbia University, where she studied with Vladimir Ussachevsky and Jack Beeson. She has served as Director of Development of the Columbia University Computer Music Center and Associate Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and has taught the psychology of music at NYU and Rutgers University, and given lectures for the Santa Fe Opera.
A composer-performer deeply interested in the voice, Shields has been a professional opera singer, performing traditional and modern roles for the New York City Opera, Opera Society of Washington, D.C., the Clarion Opera Society in Italy, and the Wolf Trap Opera. She has performed Nattuvangam (South Indian vocal recitation) for traditional Indian dance-drama (Bharata Natyam) with the Swati Bhise Bharata Natyam Dance Troupe at Wesleyan University, Juilliard School and the Asia Society, and has studied Hindustani raga singing with the Bangladeshi singer Marina Ahmed Alam.
All Shields' recent compositions reflect her immersion in Indian classical music and dance.
For more information, please see www.aliceshields.com.