RACHEL BEETZ

Flutist and sound artist Rachel Beetz performs music of the last century, creating a dialogue between avant-garde music and modern life. Rachel has been a featured artist in the XI Festival Internacional de Músiva Nueva in Monterrey, Mexico, the American Music Festival at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Ojai Music Festival in California, Los Angeles’ Monday Evening Concert Series, New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice in Boston, MA, the SoundSCAPE Music Festival in Maccagno, Italy, and a guest artist/lecturer at Santa Clara University. She is also an affiliated artist of San Diego New Music.

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In the winter of 2015/16, Rachel received the Skammdegi Air Award from Listhus Artspace in Ólafsfjörður, Iceland. For three months, she lived in the darkness while creating the sound and light installation, The Winter Stars based on the night sky of the darkest days of the year.

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An active chamber music musician, Rachel has given definitive performances of Morton Feldman’s multi-hour works For Philip Guston and For Christian Wolff. She is also a long-term member of UCSD’s Palimpsest contemporary chamber music ensemble and frequently plays on the wasteLAnd concert series in Los Angeles. Currently, Rachel is half of Plus/Minus, a flute and percussion duo with Dustin Donahue. She is also a co-founder of the performance art project Autoduplicity with cellist Jennifer Bewerse.

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Rachel also works directly with composers on new works as well as repeat performances. She has premiered works written for her by Nicholas Deyoe, Brian Griffeath-Loeb, Edward Hamel, Kurt Isaacson, Scott Worthington, and Yvonne Wu. She has also worked closely with composers Roger Reynolds and Stuart Saunders Smith. You can hear her on Neuma Records and Blue Griffin.

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She graduated with a Bachelor in Music with distinction from Indiana University in 2009, in the studio of Kathryn Lukas. Rachel holds Master of Arts in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California San Diego, where she is currently pursuing a Doctorate in the studio of John Fonville. You can find more information about her at www.rachelbeetzflute.com and listen to her recent recording projects at www.soundcloud.com/beetzflute.