Jody Diamond
Jody Diamond (born Pasadena, California, April 23, 1953) is an American composer, performer, writer, publisher, editor, and educator. She specializes in traditional and new music for Indonesian gamelan and is active internationally as a scholar, performer, and publisher.
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[edit] Biography
She received a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1977, and an M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1979, pursuing interdisciplinary studies in music, anthropology, and education.
Diamond is a co-founder and co-director, with Larry Polansky, of Frog Peak Music (a composers' collective). She also founded (in 1981) and directs the American Gamelan Institute and edits its journal, Balungan.
She received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Fellowship to survey contemporary music in Indonesia (1988–89), as well as two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships for work on Indonesian composers (1991), and for work on the gamelan music of Lou Harrison (2007).
She has created numerous works for gamelan, some based on songs from various traditions. Her works have been performed internationally. She is often a guest composer/performer with Gamelan Son of Lion, notably for their participation in the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival in 1996.
Diamond teaches at Harvard University with the instruments of Gamelan Si Betty, built by Lou Harrison and Wiliam Colvig. She also teaches at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH. At Dartmouth College she has used a Javanesegadon, as well as a Balinese Gamelan Angklung. She has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, Mills College, Goddard College, Bates College, Franklin Pierce College, and Monash University in Australia.
[edit] Selected works
- 1981 In that Bright World, voice, gamelan (based on Appalachian folk song)
- 1982 Sabbath Bride, gamelan, 1982 (based on Hebrew melody)
- 1984 Hard Times, chorus, violin, mandocello, gamelan (based on a Stephen Foster song)
[edit] Writings
Diamond, Jody (1990). "There is no They There." Musicworks, no. 47, pp. 12–23.
[edit] Recordings
- In That Bright World: Music for Javanese Gamelan. Compositions by Diamond performed by the musicians of the Indonesian National Arts Institute in Surakarta, Central Java, called ISI Solo. Liner notes by Judith Becker can be downloaded at "In That Bright World". Produced by New World Records.
[edit] External links
- 20th-century classical composers
- 21st-century classical composers
- American composers
- American publishers (people)
- Dartmouth College faculty
- Franklin Pierce University faculty
- Harvard University faculty
- Living people
- Women composers
- Gamelan musicians
- 1953 births
- University of California, Berkeley alumni
- San Francisco State University alumni
- University of California, Berkeley faculty
- Bates College faculty
- Monash University faculty
- American music educators
- Academic journal editors
