Belinda Reynolds

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Belinda Reynolds

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Belinda Reynolds has composed for dance, theater, and all mediums of instrumental music. She completed her Doctorate at Yale University with Jonathan Berger, Martin Bresnick, and Jacob Druckman, and received her M.A. and B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied principally with Andrew Imbrie and John Thow. Ms. Reynolds has worked with a number of performing organizations throughout North America and Europe, including Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), WIREWORKS, New Music Consort, Earplay, the New Millennium Ensemble, Alternate Currents Performance Ensemble, and The Albany Symphony. Upcoming commissions and performances for 1999-2000 include projects with the Da Capo Players and Essential Music. In addition, her work has been featured in such festivals and venues as the Imagine ë96 Festival, the 1994 Chamber Music America Conference, Chapel of the Chimes, and the Bates College 2nd Festival of New American Music.

Belinda's House

Ms Reynolds has received various professional recognition for her work, including grants and awards from ASCAP (1996-1999), Meet the Composer (1994, 1998), the American Composers Forum, the Mary Flagler Charitable Trust (1996), the Zellerbach Fund (1996), the International League of Women Composers (1994), the New England Foundation for the Arts Grant (1994), the Charles Finch Dalton Memorial Prize (1993), the University of California Equal Opportunity Fellowship (1990-1992), the De Lorenzo Prize in Music Composition (1990, 1991) the UC Regentsí Eisner Prize in the Creative Arts (1990), the NACUSA Young Composers Competition (1990) and the CMTA Composition Competition (1990). In addition, she has been an Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts (1996), the Atlantic Center for the Arts (1994), Bowdoin Summer Music Festival (1994), June in Buffalo (1991), the Aspen Music Festival (1991), the American Conservatory at Fontainebleu (1990) and the MacDowell Colony and the Djerassi Colony (1999-2000).

As Associate Director of the composers' cooperative, Common Sense, Ms. Reynolds has helped develop the group into a vital part of the American New Music landscape. Now in their sixth year, the main objective of the group has been to explore alternative ways of conceiving and completing new works. Common Sense has been responsible for the commission of over 50 new works, written for vital organizations such as the Albany Symphony and the Meridian Arts Ensemble. In 1995, Common Sense extended their philosophy of collaboration and bridge-building to the creation of an event that showcased the diverse voices of Bay Area Composers, entitled OPUS415. Last year's event was co-sponsored and presented by the OTHER MINDS festival at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, featuring over 25 composers such as guest artists Henry Brandt and Ingrim Marshall. This season, the Marathonís Fifth Anniversary show will take place on March 19, at Theatre Artaud in San Francisco. Since its inception, Common Sense's efforts have been acclaimed in the music community, as shown by the various reviews and grants they have received. Common Sense's premiere CD was recorded on CRI's Emergency Music label in January, 1997. Their new CD is scheduled for release by d-Note Records in the Spring of 2000, featuring works from their collaboration with American Baroque.

Ms. Reynolds is also very active in music education. She has been a Meet-the-Composer-in-Residence for public schools and was the Music Director for the Bethwood Youth Orchestra in Woodbridge, Conn. She has also has taught and lectured at Dartmouth College and Yale University, among others. Her work as a composer in music education has been acknowledged by the California Professional Music Teachers Association and the Connecticut Orff-Schulwerk Association. Currently, Ms. Reynolds is the Director of The Music Studio in San Francisco, a private school that teaches in composition, computer music, theory, musicianship, and piano at all levels.

Selected Reviews

Teaching

Belinda Reynolds' 1990 Interference Patterns was a ravishing interlude of soft harmonics with a destination clearly in sight. The piece was an island of contemplation in a sea of busyness.

--Allan Ulrich, San Francisco Examiner, February 26, 1997

Smart, funny ... the music draws on minimalism as though it were already a relic for rediscovery ... The results are deeply enjoyable.

--Joshua Kosman, The San Francisco Chronicle, February 2, 1997

Multitudinous Verses ... made an almost 'romantic' impression, with long phrases and great expression -- enriched by electronics.

--Westfälische Nachrichten, October 26, 1996

Reynolds made full use of the character of each instrument, adding touches of both rustic and refined joviality. The end result was some of the most forward music of the evening.

--Thomas Goss, 20TH CENTURY MUSIC, June, 1996

The most entertaining essay was Belinda Reynolds' Over and Out, which diffracted a dancelike pattern ... through a continual variety of meters and tempos with a convincing sense of direction.

--Kyle Gann, The Village Voice, July 12, 1994

Over and Out by Belinda Reynolds featured a kaleidoscopic development of a series of lines and fragments ... sort of like a hip 'Moldau.'

--Steve Metcalf, The Hartford Courant, June 22, 1994

Belinda Reynolds' 1992 piece, Initiation, was original ... For all this aggressive propulsion ... the music is strangely calming.

--Gwendolyn Freed, New Haven Register, February 6, 1993

Belinda Reynolds' Multitudinous Verses -- multilayered harmonies were sensuous and gentle, evocative at times of the gamelan ... its mood was poignant and compelling.

--Rocky Lepin, The Montclarion, May 30, 1992

Reynolds' Interference Patterns for two violins is a study in sonority beautifully played.

--Eugene Gaub, The Buffalo News, June 6, 1991

To reach the composer:
On-line: belindalr@earthlink.net
By telephone: +1-415-285-0593
By fax:
By physical mail: 4348 26th Street, San Francisco, CA 94131 USA