ABOUT
Hi, I'm Betsey. Thanks for stopping by. I'm a composer creating projects connecting the dots between music, sound, visual art, place, storytelling, and technology. My work has been described by WGBH as "immersive… incredibly stunning… extraordinary" and by The New Yorker as "psychologically complex, exposing how we orient ourselves with our ears." Over the years I've directed and composed a feature-length documentary film and song cycle, co-created an international radio art collective, created immersive audiovisual experiences for galleries, computers, phones, and VR headsets, and composed chamber music and multimedia operas and soundwalks. I earned a Ph.D. in music composition at Princeton University, have held postdoctoral fellowships at Brown University and Harvard University, and have taught music, multimedia, public art, and video at Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Colorado Boulder, where I currently serve as Assistant Professor of Critical Media Practices.
Full bio and CV here.
NEWS
Join my email list here.pulse, in progress
49-channel participatory streaming memorial, with august black and brook vann
they called it, 2025
large-scale public digital video projection
MELT (topographic remix), 2024
immersive audiovisual installation
MELT: the memory of ice, 2024
feature-length music-film and cinematic song cycle, with vocalists moving star + hazel biggs
Sing Broken Ice (for Pauline), 2024
music composition for eighteen musicians with networked laptops, and voice, with Peabody Laptop Ensemble
The Conduction Series, 2021-present
international radio art collective, with August Black and others
We Are Here FM, 2021-present
generative web-based audiovisual installation, with August Black
Music for MELT, 2019
laptop music composition and performance
Souf: For Isabelle, 2018
immersive audiovisual experience for VR or gallery, with chantal dumas
For the Eastern Elk, 2016
laptop music composition and performance
Teewinot, 2016
chamber music composition, with GVSU New Music Ensemble
Sunken Gardens, 2014
17-channel outdoor sound installation
Providence Postcard Project, 2012
participatory postcard installation
Remember, Wake Up, 2011
laptop music composition and performance
Foreign Exchange, 2011
sculptural 3-channel audiovisual installation
Mekong River, Laos, 2011
large-format photograph
Park Bench Cinema: Through the Cracks, 2011
participatory mobile audio walk
Lincoln Park, 2010
large-format sonic photographs
Sound Walk: Caramoor, 2010
participatory sound walk
Park Bench Cinema: Detox Project, 2009
participatory mobile audio walk
Everyone Play: Sound, Space, and the (Re)Making of Place, 2009
PhD dissertation, Princeton University
Ton Yam I, 2008
spatial laptop music composition, performance & installation
Parallel Lives, 2008
notated flute composition and multimedia theatre, with margaret lancaster
Park Bench Cinema: Eleven Dreams in Red Hook, 2008
participatory mobile audio walk and photo map
Sonic Fragments, 2008
sound art festival and symposium, with seth cluett
Wood Spell, 2008
site-specific sound art installation
Park Bench Cinema: Almost Grand, 2007
participatory mobile audio walk
Shadow Mix Fairyland, 2007
interactive public outdoor sound art installation
Untangled, 2007
audiovisual composition and performance
Constellation, 2007
16-channel electroacoustic music composition and performance
Lost and Found, 2007
music composition for chamber ensemble and interactive video, with rebecca stuhlbarg
Happy Idiot, 2007
music composition for solo percussion, with sam solomon
Breaks, 2006
notated large ensemble + video composition
What's Your Sound?, 2006
participatory drawing art installation
Burble, 2006
participatory sound art sculpture
Shadow Mix: Inside Out, 2006
participatory audiovisual installation
Trinidad Triptych, 2006
3-channel video art installation
Sleep, 2006
single-channel video installation
Ocean, 2006
laptop + piano improvisation, with cor fuhler
IRT, 2006
notated electroacoustic and chamber composition, with clogs
the dark has its own light, 2005
graphic/video score for improvising ensemble, with the BSC
path one, 2005
music video, with evidence
74 Chevy, 2004
notated percussion composition
Frog City, 2004
notated cello octet + video composition
Away, 2002
music composition for piano and any group of singers
Six for Seven, 1998
music composition for piano, instruments/samples and optional video
More projects coming soon
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