Frances-Marie Uitti

Frances-Marie Uitti, composer/performer, pioneered a revolutionary dimension to the cello by transforming it for the first time ever into a polyphonic instrument capable of sustained chordal (two, three, and four-part) and intricate multivoiced writing. Using two bows in one hand, this invention permits contemporaneous cross accents, multiple timbres, contrasting 4-voiced dynamics, simultaneous legato/articulated playing, that her previous work with a curved bow couldn't attain. She has collaborated over years with radicals such as Dick Raaijmakers, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi, and has also worked closely with Iannis Xenakis, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough and countless composers from the new generation. Frances -Marie Uitti tours extensively throughout the world having played for audiences from New York City to Mongolia and appears regularly in such festivals as the Biennale Di Venezia, Strasbourg Festival, Gulbenkian Festival Ars Musica, and Holland Festival. Uitti collaborates with pianist Rolf Hind, classical pianist Alwin Bar, filmmakers Frank Scheffer and Frans Zwaartjes, avantgarde guitarist Elliott Sharp, accordionist Pauline Oliveros, DJ Scanner, DJ Low, and Stephen Vitiello and video madster Ferenc van Damme. Her compositons can be heard on Uitti 2 Bows, Uitti/Vitiello, Uitti/Dresser, Edipan Recordings, Etcetera label, BV Haast, JdK priductions Cri, Raretone, Wergo, Cryptogramophone, Mode and Hat Hut.

“The work is a moebius band with the core material presented on the Morin Khoor. This Mongolian folk instrument has a very special timbre, unique in its plaintive and expressive possibilities. I limited the material to an almost pitchless desert of infinite space, with no beginning or end. As in all my work, the music was recorded 'live' and editing was limited to deleting extraneous sounds made during the recording. The use of two bows in one hand give a polysonic quality.”