Alice Anne LeBaron (born May 30, 1953) is an American composer, harpist, academic, and writer.

Frequently combining tonal and atonal techniques with an experimental approach, LeBaron's compositions utilize elements of blues, jazz, pop, rock, and folk music. She explores environmental, cultural, philosophical and cultural themes, incorporating theater, mixed media, literature, and humor. As an improvising harpist, she employs a wide array of electronic enhancements and extended techniques for the harp, including preparing the harp and bowing the strings.

Among other venues, LeBaron's work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Kennedy Center, by orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra. She is the recipient of an Alpert Award in the Arts, a Toulmin grant from Opera America, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Fulbright Full Scholarship. She has been commissioned by the Fromm Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Library of Congress, among other organizations. She also served as chair of the Board of the American Composers Forum from 2018 to 2020.

LeBaron was a professor at California Institute of the Arts, where she held the Roy E. Disney Family Chair from 2013 until 2015. In 2024, she retired from teaching and was appointed professor emerita.

As a child, LeBaron taught herself to play piano and read music. In her teens she took lessons with a Juilliard-trained pianist and wrote songs on an acoustic guitar, setting her poetry to music. She later said that chess taught her stamina and concentration, "but above all that you can always find a better move if you look long enough."

LeBaron attended the University of Alabama, intending to study piano. She shifted her emphasis to composition, with a parallel interest in the harp after coming across the instrument in an empty music room. As an undergraduate, she studied classical harp technique with teachers including Alice Chalifoux at the Salzedo Harp Colony. She was a member of the Raudelunas 'Pataphysical Revue, a surrealist art collective, along with Reverend Fred Lane, Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith.

LeBaron received a BA in music at the University of Alabama, where she studied with Fred Goosen, and a master's degree at Stony Brook University, where her teachers included Bülent Arel and Daria Semegen. As a Fulbright Scholar to Germany, she studied with Mauricio Kagel and György Ligeti. She was awarded a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Columbia University, where she was a student of Chou Wen-chung, Jack Beeson, and Mario Davidovsky. Her doctoral thesis, a significant composition and accompanying analysis sharing the title Telluris Theoria Sacra, was inspired by the 17th-century theologian Thomas Burnet and by James Gleick's book on chaos theory. She also studied Korean traditional music at the National Classical Music Institute in Seoul. In the postmodern tradition of redefining opera, also seen in the work of Robert Ashley, Meredith Monk, and Robert Wilson, LeBaron replaced the Wagnerian orchestra with smaller and more specialized forces of instruments and electronic sound for Crescent City, with musicians who move readily among stylistic genres, just as the vocalists do. The opera's theatrical action is refracted through a prism of video work, lighting effects, and performance freedoms and simultaneities. For its world premiere production in Los Angeles in 2012, Crescent City also engaged six visual artists to participate in the collaborative process by designing and building set pieces as various locales in the opera. Prior to the full production of Crescent City, LeBaron composed Phantasmagoriettas from Crescent City, performed by the LOOS Electro Acoustic Media Orchestra and soloists from Los Angeles during the Dag in de Branding Festival in the Hague in 2007.

Improvisation

As an improviser LeBaron employs a wide array of extended techniques for the harp, including preparing the harp (similar to John Cage's prepared piano) and bowing the strings, as well as a variety of electronic enhancements. Her development of a new performance vocabulary for the instrument began in the early 1970s, when she played in the Alabama improvising ensemble Trans Museq along with Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith. Her career as an improviser has included performance collaborations with such creative composer/musicians as Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Evan Parker, George E. Lewis, Derek Bailey, Leroy Jenkins, Lionel Hampton, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, Anthony Davis, Wadada Leo Smith, Gerry Hemingway, and Shelley Hirsch. LeBaron's double-CD 1, 2, 4, 3 (Innova 236, 2010) features collaborations with thirteen different musicians in solo, duo, quartet and trio configurations.

LeBaron performs in Los Angeles and elsewhere with the Present Quartet, composed of Ellen Burr; flutes, Charles Sharp, reeds, and Jeff Schwarz, bass.

Selected awards, grants, and fellowships

{| class="wikitable"

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!Year

!Award

!Sponsor

!Ref.

|-

|1981-1982

|Fulbright Full Scholarship

|U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through an annual appropriation by the U.S. Congress.

|

|-

|1981

|NEA Fellowship

|National Endowment for the Arts

|

|-

|1991

|John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship

|Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

|

|-

|1996

|Alpert Award in the Arts

|Herb Alpert Foundation

|

|-

|1997

|Fromm Foundation Commission

|Harvard University

|

|-

|2000, 2005

|Bellagio Composer Residency

|Rockefeller Foundation

|

|-

|2008

|ArtsLink Award for The Silent Steppe Cantata

|ArtsLink, grant to support the creation of Silent Steppe Cantata in Kazakhstan

|

|-

|2009

|LA Dept. of Cultural Affairs Cultural Exchange International Grant

|Los Angeles Department of Culture Affairs; funding of SIlent Steppe Cantata in Kazakhstan

|

|-

|2014

|Opera America Toulmin Foundation Discovery Grant

|Opera America

|

|-

|2017

|USArtists International Grant

|Grant to support appearance as featured international artist, Totally Huge New Music Festival, Perth, Australia

|

|-

|2023

|Davise Fund Commission

|UCLA Library

|

|}

Major productions

{| class="wikitable"

|+

!Year

!Title

!Venue

!Notes

|Ref.

|-

|1993

|The E. and O. Line

|University of the District of Columbia

|Librettist: Thulani Davis

|

|-

|1995-1996

|Blue Calls Set You Free

|Carter Barron Amphitheater and Wooly Mammoth Theater, Washington DC.

|Also produced in Tula Concert Hall, Russia (2024)

Librettist: Thulani Davis

|

|-

|2000

|Pope Joan

|Dance Alloy and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble

|Poet: Enid Shomer

|

|-

|2008

|Sucktion

|REDCAT, Los Angeles

|Also produced in Malmö, Sweden; York, England; Theater am Wien, Vienna; Pasadena, Open Gate Theater

Librettist: Douglas Kearney

|

|-

|2012

|Crescent City

|The Industry, Los Angeles

|Librettist: Douglas Kearney

|

|-

|2015-2024

|LSD: Huxley's Last Trip

|Wallis Annenberg Center, the Schindler House, and REDCAT in Los Angeles

|Scored for an ensemble including instruments built by Harry Partch

Librettists: Gerd Stern, Ed Rosenfeld, Anne LeBaron

|

|}

Major works

Chamber

  • Concerto for Active Frogs (1974)
  • Rite of the Black Sun (1980)
  • I Am An American...My Government Will Reward You (1988)
  • Is Money Money (2000)
  • Transfiguration (2003)
  • Los Murmullos (2006)
  • Way of Light (2006)
  • Radiant Depth Unfolded -- Settings of Rumi (2015)
  • The Heroine with a Thousand Faces (2024 -)

Orchestral

  • Strange Attractors (1987)
  • Double Concerto for Two Harps (One Player) (1995)
  • Southern Ephemera for Orchestra (1984)
  • American Icons (1996)
  • Traces of Mississippi (2000)

Choral

  • Story of My Angel (1993)
  • Silent Steppe Cantata (2011)
  • Floodsongs (2012)

Opera

  • The E. and O. Line (1993)
  • Blue Calls Set You Free (1994)
  • Pope Joan (2000)
  • Sucktion (2008)
  • Crescent City (2012)
  • LSD: Huxley's Last Trip (2024)

Selected bibliography

  • “What to Think About What to Wear,” Center for New Performance 20th Anniversary Publication, 2024.
  • "Anne LeBaron - Surreal Confluences" in John Palmer - Conversations, 2nd Edition, published by Vision Edition, 2023.
  • “Sonic Ventures in Post-Truth Surrealism: Raudelunas, the Rev. Fred Lane, and Huxley’s Last Trip”, Keynote address for the Totally Huge New Music Festival, 2017.
  • “Luminous Imagination: Thereafter, Transparence, and Wonders,” and “Timbral and Spatial Ambiguities in the Mesmerizing Music of John Palmer" in Looking Within – The Music of John Palmer, ed. by Sunny Knable, published by Vision Edition, 2021.
  • “Return to Source: Contemporary Composers Discuss the Sociopolitical Implications of Their Work,” Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 25, 2015.
  • "Composing Breathtails" in Current Musicology, 2014.
  • Crescent City: A Hyperopera" in International Alliance for Women in Music Journal, 2013.
  • "Down the Rabbit-Hole of Innovation" in UCLA Center for the Study of Women Special Issue: Writing About Music, 2010.
  • "The American Composer's Place in the New Grove II", NewMusicBox, 2002.
  • "Reflections of Surrealism in Postmodern Musics" in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, Lochhead, Judy and Auner, Joseph, eds. Routledge, 2002.

Selected discography

  • Unearthly Delights (2020). Ashley Wiest, Stephanie Aston, sopranos; Andy Dwan, baritone; Chris Stoutenborough, Jim Sullivan, clarinets; Julie Feves, Jon Stehney, bassoons; Anne LeBaron, Alison Bjorkedal, harps; Nic Gerpe, Mark Robson, pianos; Cory Hills, percussion; Pasha Tseitlin, Mark Menzies, violins; Erik Rynearson, Linnea Powell, violas; Charlie Tyler, cello; Eric Shetzen, contrabass;  Nicholas Olof Jacobson-Larson, Nick Deyoe, conductors. Innova Recordings 026.
  • Routes, Paths, Courses (2019). Present Quartet (Ellen Burr, flutes; Anne LeBaron, harp and electronics; Jeff Schwartz, bass; Charles Sharp, clarinets, alto sax, piri, electronics). pfMENTUM PFMCD131.
  • Crescent City (2014). Maria Elena Altany, Lillian Sengpiehl, Ji Young Yang, sopranos; Gwendolyn Brown, contralto; Timur Bekbosunov, Ashley Faatoalia, Jonathan Mack, tenors; Cedric Barry, bass-baritone; Marc Lowenstein, conductor. Innova Recordings 878.
  • Floodsongs. Included on Floodsongs (2014). Solaris Vocal Ensemble; Giselle Wyers, conductor; Phil Curtis, electronic sound. Albany Records TROY1468.
  • 1, 2, 4, 3 (2010). Anne LeBaron, harp, electronics, percussion; Kiku Day, shakuhachi; Wolfgang Fuchs, contrabass clarinet; Georg Graewe, piano; Kristin Haraldsdottir, viola; Chris Heenan, alto saxophone; Earl Howard, electronics; Leroy Jenkins, amplified violin; Ronit Kirchman, violin, mouth whistle; John Lindberg, bass; Torsten Müller, bass; Kanoko Nishi, koto; Paul Rutherford, trombone; Nathan Smith, clarinets. Innova Recordings 236.
  • Pope Joan, Transfiguration (2007). Kristin Norderval, soprano; Mark Menzies, conductor; Lucy Shelton, soprano; Rand Steiger, conductor. New World Records 80663–2.
  • Is Money Money. Included on To Have and to Hold (2007). Dora Ohrenstein, soprano; Sequitur; Paul Hostetter, conductor. Koch International Classics 7593.
  • Los Murmullos. Included on Rumor de Páramo (2006). Ana Cervantes, piano. Quindecim Recordings 164.
  • Concerto for Active Frogs. Included on Raudelunas 'Pataphysical Revue (2003). Adrian Dye, solo voice; Anne LeBaron, percussion and tape; Roger Hagerty, oboe and musette; Jack Reese, species; Frog Chorus (Janice Hathaway, Nolan Hatcher, Craig Nutt, LaDonna Smith, Theodore Bowen, Johnny Williams, Mitchell Cashion). Alcohol ALRP1CD
  • Sacred Theory of the Earth. (2000) Atlanta Chamber Players, David Rosenboom, conductor; Paula Peace, piano; Christopher Pulgram, violin; Amy Porter, flute; Anne LeBaron, harp. New World/Composers Recordings NWCR 865.
  • Southern Ephemera. Included on Dance of the Seven Veils (1996). New Band. Music & Arts 4931.
  • The Musical Railism of Anne LeBaron (1995). New Music Consort, Theater Chamber Players of Kennedy Center; Anne LeBaron, Leon Fleisher, Claire Heldrich, conductors. Mode Records 42.
  • Dish. Included on Urban Diva (1993). Dora Ohrenstein, soprano. New World Records|New World/Composers Recordings NWCR 654.
  • Phantom Orchestra (1992). The Anne LeBaron Quintet (Frank London, trumpet; Marcus Rojas, tuba; Davey Williams, electric guitar; Gregg Bendian, drums, vibraphone, percussion; Anne LeBaron, harp with electronics): "Bouquet of a Phantom Orchestra," "Human Vapor," "Superstrings and Curved Space," "Bottom Wash," "Top Hat on a Locomotive," "Loaded Shark." Ear Rational ECD 1035.
  • Rana, Ritual & Revelations (1992). New Music Consort, Linda Bouchard, Claire Heldrich, Anne LeBaron, conductors; Theater Chamber Players of Kennedy Center, Anne LeBaron, conductor. Mode Records 30.

References

Additional sources

  • "Composing Breathtails" essay