Theo Bleckmann l Biography

Genre -bending, -skipping and -skirting vocalist and composer, Theo Bleckmann has been a steady force in the music scene in New York for over 15 years. Since his move to Manhattan in the late 80’s, Bleckman has forged his own sound in jazz and contemporary music today, drawing from jazz, ambient and electronic music, often integrating extended vocal technique as well as live electronic processing and looping. He has performed worldwide on some of the great stages including Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the Sydney Opera House, L.A.’s Disney Hall, The Whitney Museum and the new Library in Alexandria, Egypt. The New Yorker called him a “local cult favorite”, Downbeat a “ “mad” genius”, The New York Times “excellent” and according to OUT Magazine, Bleckmann is “a singer who has only recently fallen to earth“ and indeed Bleckmann's style has something otherworldly and ethereal. For the past two years, Bleckmann has been voted into the small group of artists called "Cultural Elite" by New York Magazine and was recently interviewed by Terry Gross for NPR’s Fresh Air.

In 1989 Bleckmann moved from his native Germany to New York City after meeting legendary jazz vocalist Sheila Jordan at a workshop in Graz, Austria, who remains an influential mentor and supportive colleague to this day. Together they can be heard on Sheila Jordan's "Jazzchild" (High Note). Since his move to Manhattan (and ultimately taking on US citizenship in 2005) he has worked with such artists as Laurie Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Zorn and the Bang On A Can All-stars and was a featured soloist with the Albany Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Estonian Radio Choir, Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Mark Morris Dance.

A Winter & Winter recording artist, Bleckmann's whimsical collection of showtunes, "Las Vegas Rhapsody" with the chamber orchestra Basel has been described as "the most transcendent vocal album in many a moon", by Francis Davis in the Village Voice. His 2001 release, “Origami” (Songlines) received four and a half stars (out of five) from Downbeat Magazine making it one of 2001 best releases, as well as declaring him a "rising star" in their recent critic's polls. His great range, vocally, emotionally and physically (Bleckmann was once a junior ice dancing champion in his native Germany), inspired some of today's great composers such as Mark Dresser, Moritz Eggert, John Hollenbeck, Phil Kline, Ben Monder, Denman Maroney, Meredith Monk, Ikue Mori, Kirk Nurock, Bob Ostertag, Neil Rollnick, and Bang on a Can's David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, to create pieces especially for and with him; prominently, composer and multi media artist, Meredith Monk, whose core ensemble Bleckmann has been a member of since 1994.

Bleckmann particularly enjoys performing in duo. He and percussionist/composer John Hollenbeck forge an ethereal bond born of a long track record of working together including their duo, which is captured on "static still" (gpe records) and Hollenbeck's "quartet Lucy" (CRI). Bleckmann is also a featured vocalist in Hollenbeck's two Large Ensemble recordings ("a blessing", Omnitone and "joys and desires", Intuition). A Blessing was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2006. Bleckmann has also collaborated extensively with composer/pianist Kirk Nurock; “Theo & Kirk” and “Looking Glass River” (both Traumton)
His ongoing collaborations with guitarist Ben Monder can be heard on Monder's "Excavation" and "Oceana" (Sunnyside) and their two duo releases: “No Boat" and, their most recent, "At Night" (both Songlines).

Bleckmann's multidisciplinary works include a commission by the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris to compose and create a music performance piece from Kenneth Goldsmith's text “Fidget”, which Bleckmann scored for voice, piano, percussion, bass, video and three sewing machines. In real time, four seamstresses sewed a paper suit out of the hundreds of sheets of paper that were Bleckmann's libretto.
In collaboration with performance artist Lynn Book, he created “Mercuria” (produced by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), incorporating visual and vocal elements of dream and subconscious into an evening-length performance piece.
Playing the gangster Dutch Schultz, Bleckmann co-created “The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz,” a new music opera in collaboration with director Valeria Vasilevski and composer Eric Salzman. In 2005, Bleckmann was commissioned to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the German encyclopedia Brockhaus at the International book fair in Frankfurt, which he orchestrated for 31 voices in a surround-sound performance.
As a sound improviser, he has performed, created and developed movie, television and theater scores, among them space Alien language for “Men in Black” by Steven Spielberg, “Star Trek: Envoy” (Meredith Monk), "Kundun" (Philip Glass). Theo Bleckmann sang in John Moran's “Book of the Dead” at the Public Theater in NY, performed a lead in Band on a Can's Obie Award-winning opera “Carbon Copy Building,” and frequently appears as a soloist with the Bang on a Can All-stars.
In collaboration with director Laurie McCants and set designer Elaine F. Williams, he wrote the music and performed "The Alexandria Carry On", which has been traveling the US and was performed at the new library in Alexandria, Egypt.

Theo Bleckmann's work has been recognized with several awards including a Bessie Award, Presser Award for Outstanding Talent and the ASCAP/Gershwin Award for his composition “Chorale #1 for Eight Voices” as well as grants from Arts International, the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, New York Foundation for the Arts, Meet The Composer and the Council on Humanities, PA. He was also voted "Cultural Elite" by New York Magazine in 2005 and 2006.

Bleckmann is on the jazz faculty at New York's prestigious Manhattan School of Music. He has also been an adjunct at New York University, The New School and Queens College and teaches voice privately and in workshops and masterclasses worldwide.

His latest recording recording projects include Moss, comprised of some of New York's most diverse (jazz) singers (Theo Bleckmann, Peter Eldridge, Kate McGarry, Lauren Kinhan and Luciana Souza), which just released their first CD for Sunnyside Records. Two new recordings have been finished for Winter & Winter: a collection of Charles Ives songs with L.A. based jazz/rock group Kneebody is scheduled for release in the fall of 2008, and refuge trio's first recording (w/John Hollenbeck and Gary Versace), also early fall 2008.