Elisabeth Kelvin
D.M.A., M.Mus., B.Mus.
Musician and Visual Artist
Elisabeth Kelvin’s creative practice blends the visual with the aural – she paints what she hears and plays what she sees. She received a Bachelor of Music from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and a Masters, then Doctorate of Musical Arts from Michigan State University. Early experiences as an orchestral musician with numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, alerted Elisabeth to the importance of precise communication and potential of the collective in music making. Her extensive chamber music experience from classical standards by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms through to twentieth century composers including Stravinsky, Messiaen, Sculthorpe, and Boulez, awakened in her a sense of exquisite balance and refinement that has carried on into her contemporary performances. As a lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, the Tamworth Conservatorium of Music in regional Australia and working with contemporary indigenous artists, she was introduced to the role and meaning of place in social connectivity, improvisation, symbolic and abstract art, and movement in live performance. Elisabeth performs professionally in the USA, Europe and Australia, presenting her own compositions, collaborations, and jazz greats. Her musical practice centres around woodwind instruments, primarily clarinet, bass clarinet and saxophone, as well as integrating her art with music composition and improvisation. Most recently, she was invited to play and exhibit at the Währinger Improv Festival (Vienna), Frühlingsfest at Galerie Alma Kulturcafe (Vienna), COOK, EAT and CLEAN/Smoke and Mirrors saloon, V:NM Festival Graz/Vol.12 (Graz), and the Viennese premiere of Breathcore in collaboration with the Belgium-based new music ensemble Ictus at the 2019 Wiener Festwochen, and was guest soloist at the recent Foundation IHOS Amsterdam concert series. Elisabeth was invited to participate in a collaborative social media project with the new international arts group, perform solo at Raw Matters Theater Group, and participate in several festivals including Cook, Eat, Clean, Hear me Roar, Grotto Futura, Lärm, and the Midleton Arts Festival. Future plans include involvement with the Youth program at the famous Wiener Volkstheater. Collaborative works in 2020 include a multimedia presentation, commissioned through Velak, with composer John Plankenhorn .
Elisabeth launched her professional visual arts practice in 2000, and has staged solo exhibitions and participated in collaborative shows in USA, Australia, and Austria. She became an active member of One+2 Artist Studios, Sydney in 2009. Her visual arts work, abstractions of body movement and music, encompasses a range of media including oil, watercolour, pastel, ink and mixtures. She exhibits her art at galleries and festivals and business. Recent career highlights include a well-received solo exhibition, Harbour City Tones and Colours, at Salerno Gallery (Sydney), and a series of solo and group shows in Galerie Contemplor, GalerieTakt, Reinl Galerie, and in grand palatial halls such as Historisches Volksmuseum (Konstante Art Fair, Vienna) or intimate wine bars like Vinotek Rochus. Her visual arts exhibitions include performance elements as she plays her paintings.
By being now based in the city of her grandparents, she is rediscovering her own cultural heritage. From upper-story Vienna windows, she imagines she hears long-forgotten songs, conversation or dampened piano chords still crisscrossing streets and years. Elisabeth currently creates music, art, and movement events – along with being a founding member of Gentle Enquiry – performs and exhibits throughout Europe as a soloist and with Ozmosis, Leo Taudin and his Art Orchestra, Vienna Improvisors Orchestra, Stolen Moments, Free Form-Just Music and Trio Amacord+. During the COVID19 Crisis, Elisabeth initiated ImprovFreedom Sessions and Art in the Age of Isolation, both being online multimedia improvisation projects in the Zeitgeist of the times.
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Elisabeth Kelvin 