Artist Description
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. 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 Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. The New Yorker called him a “local cult favorite”, The New York Times “excellent” and according to OUT Magazine, Bleckmann is “a singer who has only recently fallen to earth.“ For the past two years, Bleckmann has been voted into the small group of artists called "Cultural Elite" by New York Magazine.A Winter & Winter recording artist, Bleckmann's whimsical collection of showtunes, "Las Vegas Rhapsody" has been described as "the most transcendent vocal album in many a moon", by Francis Davis in the Village Voice. His great range, vocally and emotionally, inspired some of today’s great composers such as Mark Dresser, John Hollenbeck, Phil Kline, Ben Monder, Kirk Nurock, and Bang on a Can’s David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, to create pieces especially for him and with him; prominently, composer and multi media artist, Meredith Monk, whose core ensemble Bleckmann has been a member of since 1994. His long track record of collaborating with composer John Hollenbeck in small and large ensembles, including their duo, is documented in recordings and tours world-wide, and continues to nurture and inspire.
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. His setting of Kenneth Goldsmith's text "fidget" for voice, piano, percussion, bass, video and three sewing machines was premiered at the Whitney Museum in 1998.
Furthermore, he has sung with such artists as Laurie Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Steve Coleman, Dave Douglas, Philip Glass, John Hollenbeck, Sheila Jordan, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Zorn, and the Bang On A Can All-stars and was a guest vocalist with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Estonian Radio Choir, Merce Cunningham Dance Company and Mark Morris Dance Group and contributed his unique vocal capabilities to the soundtrack to Spielberg's “Men in Black”.
His voice can be heard on over 40 recordings found on ECM, Cantaloupe, CRI, High Note, Label Bleu, Polygram, Songlines, SoulNote, Sunnyside, Tzadik, Traumton and Winter&Winter. www.TheoBleckmann.com
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