Biography | Laura Andel

Laura Andel is a composer and sound artist born and raised in Argentina, currently based in Harlem, New York City.

Her creative processes revolve around sound, music drawing, instrument building, installation, and performance.

Photo by Jacob Blickenstaff

music

One of Laura Andel’s main interests is exploring diverse combinations of instruments for her music, and collaborating with musicians from different musical and cultural backgrounds. Described as someone who “seeks to expand our sense of time, form and perception through sound” by Evening Music (WNYC, New York Public Radio), Andel combines written music with a variety of approaches to improvisation and conducting to create different symmetries between the written and non-written. She has composed and conducted music for small and large orchestras, Jazz Big Band, Symphony Orchestra, and for instruments such as Javanese Gongs, Argentinean Bandoneon, Brazilian Berimbau, Russian Theremin, Ecuadorian Dulzainas, and Mochican Seashell-shaped Ceramic Trumpet.

music drawings

Her creative process also investigates the visual manifestations of music and sound by way of creating original music drawings and graphic scores that initiate an intimate dialogue between sound and its representation. She has created works in pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylic, and collage.

Music Drawing: Seashell Series by Laura Andel

publications

Publications: CDs & Catalogues

Laura Andel’s music is published by such labels as Red Toucan, Rossbin, Innova, CIMP, Cadence Jazz Records, and can also be heard as soundtrack for video, film, and choreographic works. Andel’s music has also been selected for publication to celebrate the 50 Years of The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, the 40 Years of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowships, the 10 Years of Red Toucan Records, and the 30 Years of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships. The Laura Andel New York Orchestra has recorded four CDs: Somnambulist, In::Tension:., Doble Mano, and Khartes.

clay instruments

Andel has started building her own instruments in clay. Currently, she is exploring the sound of her self-made seashell-shaped clay trumpets, which she also records, manipulates its sounds electronically, and creates electroacoustic works.

Clay Trumpet: Construction Process

sound & video installations

Andel is developing collaborations with installation and video artists which feature her electroacoustic music and musical instruments built in clay.

Collage: Plasma Series by Laura Andel

awards & commissions

Andel has received awards for her music from the Rockefeller Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, American Music Center, New York State Music Fund, Edward T. Cone Foundation, BMI Foundation, Unesco-Aschberg, Jerome Foundation, Urban Artist Initiative/NYC, Argentina Music Council, and the Senate for Culture of the City of Berlin.

Andel has also received commissions from Roulette Intermedium, Jerome Foundation, Brecht Forum, Argosy Contemporary Music Fund, Mutable Music, FONT Music, Greenwall Foundation, The Kitchen, Bronx River Art Center, New York State Music Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

panelist

Laura Andel is on the Board of Music Omi, and has served as panelist for different art organizations for more than 20 years, including Rockefeller Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, Bronx Council on the Arts, Music Omi, Millay Colony for the Arts, Julius Hemphill Composition Awards, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Maryland State Arts Council.

education

Andel has received her Master in Musical Creation, New Technologies, and Traditional Arts with Academic Honors from Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

She has also received her Bachelor of Music with a Dual Major in Tango & Jazz Performance from Escuela de Música Popular de Avellaneda in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and her Bachelor of Music with a Dual Major in Film Scoring & Jazz Composition, Summa Cum Laude, from Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA.

Musicians