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Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard harps, several custom electric harps, piano, and accordion.
Zeena Parkins, multi-instrumentalist/composer/improviser and pioneer of contemporary harp practice and performance reimagines the instrument as a 'sound machine of limitless capacity.'
Bio - Zeena Parkins. New York based electro-acoustic composer / improviser Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices. Using expanded techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing she has re-defined the instrument’s capacities.
May 9, 2024 · The harpist Zeena Parkins is one of the key players on the New York City improvising and composing fronts, and indeed on the global scene generally. Most of her upcoming gigs are happening around Europe, although her 2024 datesheet is relatively sparse compared to her 2025 plans.
- Martin Longley
There’s music inside of lace stitching, and electro-acoustic composer, improviser, and harpist Zeena Parkins has spent years finding it. Her lace pieces use images of lace as musical scores for ensembles to play, building webs of sound that emerge from its contours.
New York based electro-acoustic composer/improviser Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices. Through the use of expanded playing techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing she has re-defined the instrument’s capacities.
A fixture of the downtown avant garde scene since the early-‘80s, Zeena Parkins is perhaps best known for her pioneering work with the electric harp. Notorious for her unorthodox playing techniques, Parkins makes extensive use of digital and analogue processing, using guitar pedals and non-musical objects to wrest new sonic possibilities from ...
