EDUCATION
2009 BA : Wesleyan University, with honors; Feminist Gender and Sexuality Studies; English
2023 MFA : Bard College, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts; Sculpture
2008-2015 : Apprenticeships with bearers of Appalachian traditions of fiddle, banjo and ballad singing
Spring 2020-Fall 2022 : Medical Leave of Presence, severe long covid
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
Issue Project Room Artist In Residence, 2025
Recess Art, Session Artist, 2025
New York State Council of Art Grant, Bed Piano Project, 2025
MacDowell Residency, Peterborough NH, 2024, 2016
Foundation for Contemporary Art, Emergency Grant, 2023
NYC Women in Media Fund/New York Foundation for the Arts, for Songs of Sick-Land project, 2023
National Disability Theater MicroGrant, 2023
Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Amherst, Virginia, 2019, 2016
PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS
with Anna & Elizabeth (2012-2019). research-based project, traditional music + multi media (storytelling, movement, shadow puppetry, quilted scrolling illustrations, ballads and old songs from Appalachia and New England learned from archives, living masters, and from descendants of traditional singers).
at Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall), Big Ears Festival (Knoxville), NPR Tiny Desk Concert (DC), Cafe Oto (London), The Newport Folk Festival, BBC Radio2, Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), High Museum of Art (GA)
Concert Length Pieces
“Air Change Per Hour,” Issue Project Room, for 6 channels and 3 air purifiers, with sonic descriptions by Charles Eppely, access dramaturg Alison Kopit, sonic contributions from 15 disabled performers 2025.
“Songs For Sick-Land,” Owl Music Parlor, works in progress, w/ Robbie Lee. 2025
“Sick Songs,” FlirtFM & A4 Sounds, Dublin Ireland, live solo radio performance and reading, 2023
“Red Thread #1,” Hirshhorn Museum, hourlong piece for 25 ballad singers with red rope score. 2019
“The Moon In Her Fan,” CubeFestival (Virginia Tech Festival of Spatial Sound), director, co-composer, writer, animator, hourlong multi-channel theater work about ballad singer Texas Gladden, w/Linda Buckley 2018.
Shorter pieces
“Imagine Sarah,” 8 channel piece, Fridman Gallery. 2023
“Imagine Sarah,” Kaufmann Music Center, Parlando Chamber Orchestra (commission). 2022
“For Lester,” WNYC’s Greene Space, Aizuri Quartet (commission) 2022.
“Dear Friends,” Creative Alliance Baltimore, 8 minute scrolling painting performance. 2022
“Where was she going,” Fridman Gallery, 15m 8-channel, for speaker, text, 2 dancers, and seashells, 2019
as instrumentalist/accompanist (highlights) :::
with Lonnie Holley, Jim White, Susan Alcorn, Paul Wiancko (Kronos Quartet), Timo Andres, Ellen Fullman, Katie Porter, Owen Gardner + Andrew Bernstein (Horse Lords), Glen Hansard, Cochemea Gastelum, Cleek Schrey, Yaz Lancaster, Grey McMurray, Sean Meehan, C Lavender, Leo Abrahams, Robbie Lee, Daniel Neumann, Carlo Costa, Zosha Warpeha, Yatta Zoker, Ceara Conway
at Wexner Arts Center, Liquid Music Series, Princeton University, Cafe Oto, Issue Project Room, Hirshhorn Museum, Beacon Theater, The Stone, National Stawdust, Roulette Intermedium, Fridman Gallery
the music of living composers Sarah Hennies, Molly Joyce, James Moore, Rhys Chatham, Brian Harnetty, Laurie Spiegel, Robin Holcomb, as well as music freely improvised, and traditional songs.
RECORDING
2018. The Invisible Comes to Us, Anna & Elizabeth, Smithsonian Folkways, co-producer & arranger
“A radical expansion of what folk songs are supposed to do,” The New Yorker
2017. Hop High / Vineyard 7inch, Anna & Elizabeth, Free Dirt Records
2015. Anna & Elizabeth, Anna & Elizabeth, Free Dirt Records
2012. Sun To Sun, Anna & Elizabeth, self-released
as a session musician, on records by Lonnie Holley (Jagjaguwar), Xylouris White (Bella Union), Glen Hansard (Anti-), Henry Jamison (Color Study), Zane Campbell
EXHIBITIONS
2025 (December). “SICK (MUSIC) CENTER,” Recess Session, Brooklyn NY
2023. “Galway Sick Center,” Tulca Festival, Ireland, curator Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
2023. “Red Hook Sick Center” at Stage Presence : Bard MFA Thesis Show, Red Hook New York
CURATION
2021. Spoonie Afternoon, feat Morgan Bassichis, Ezra Benus, Dan Fishback, Yo Yo Lin, Una Osato
2019. Sound American, guest curator, w/Sarah Hennies, Meredith Monk, Peggy Seeger, Henry Flynt, Kite
2019. Smithsonian Artist in Residence, programing at Hirshhorn Museum, feat. Susan Alcorn, Luke Stewart
2018. Song Festival, Hancock Shaker Village, organizer, with Paul Wiancko (Kronos Quartet)
2018. Appalachian Happening, Big Ears Festival, Knoxville TN, guest curator of traditional music
2013-2018. Baltimore Crankie Festival, founder, host, annual festival of scrolling illustrations
2013-2016. Floyd Radio Show, co-curator, host, writer, monthly scripted musical variety show
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
2024. Artists In Resistance NYC, co-founder, disabled-led air purifier library, covid safety advocacy
2023-present. NY-09 Neighbors for Palestine
2024, 2023. New York Long Covid Memorial at Green Wood, lead artist, with Naming the Lost/CityLore
2020-2022. Body Politic, event team, moderator, disabled-led support group for long covid patients
2013-2015. Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, East Kentucky community music school, artistic coordinator
TEACHING
guest lecturer: Erasmus University, Rotterdam; Warren Wilson College, NC; Emory University, GA; Union College, NY; Hamilton College, NY; East Carolina University, NC; University of Kentucky, KY; Berea College, KY; Richmond University, VA; Bucknell University, PA; University of North Carolina, NC; Hampshire College, MA
music instructor: fiddle, banjo, ballads, at folklore centers & camps dedicated to perpetuating aural musical traditions : Jalopy School of Folk Music, Brooklyn; Blackpot Institute, Louisiana; Trad Envie, Pavie, France; Augusta Heritage Center, West Virginia; Cowan Creek Mountain Music School, Kentucky; Swannanoa Gathering, North Carolina; Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Washington; Miles of Music Camp, New Hampshire; National Centre for Folk Arts, Taunton, England