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Mary Ellen Childs
April 13, 1957 -
born in Lafayette, IN, composed during the Contemporary period
Biography
Based in the twin city Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area, Childs involves herself deeply in the presentation (staging, choreography, etc.) of her works as well as their creation.

For example, her "visual percussion" pieces for her energetic company CRASH are in a bold, kinetic style that integrates music, dance, and theater in new ways. Their performance piece entitled Click is a fast-paced, game-like work for three stick-wielding performers, and the full-evening work Crash requires six crash cymbal players on roller stools and various other means of rolling transportation.

Childs has also produced the multi-monitor video pieces A Chording To, the award winning Still Life, and her electronic Standpoints, a collaboration with lighting designer Jeff Bartlett. Childs also founded the touring group WildFire which has a roster of women performing artists.

Childs also composes purely musical concert works and has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dale Warland Singers, and has twice been granted Lila Wallace/Meet the Composer commissions.

Childs prefers to work using her intuition and sense of musical balance, rather than employ specific compositional systems to create her lyrical compositions that delight in rhythmic variation and subtlety of mood.
Selected Discography