Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Zeena Parkins, composer, improviser, and one of the most singular forces in experimental music.
Zeena has spent four decades dismantling what the harp can do: through electronics, object preparations, and a series of custom electric instruments she built herself, she's turned a concert hall fixture into something alive and unpredictable.
Her collaborators range from Björk to John Zorn to Pauline Oliveros. Last year, she released two records paying tribute to her years teaching at Mills College before its closure: Modesty of the Magic Thing and Lament of the Maker. And she's performing this spring at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville. She's also a Guggenheim Fellow and a three-time Bessie Award winner for her work composing for dance.
We cover all of it: her instruments, her process, and what it means to make music at the edge of what's possible.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Zeena Parkins' album Lament of the Maker)
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