Shelly Purdy and Bonnie Lander in Concert

The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presets a concert featuring sonic improvisations by Shelly Purdy ’10 and a performance of Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate (1922-1932) by Bonnie Lander.

Shelly Purdy is a contemporary percussionist and educator committed to performing new and experimental music. She performs with various ensembles including the percussion quartet Umbilicus, the science/music ensemble The Inverse Square Trio, Sonic Meditations Baltimore, arts-in-education ensemble Envirodrum Maryland, and The Columbia Orchestra.In addition to ensemble pursuits Ms. Purdy regularly partners with local composers, musicians, dancers, sculptors, and various improvisers within the Baltimore community. Ms. Purdy’s passion for contemporary works has led to a vast array of opportunities including performances at Baltimore’s Artscape Festival, So Percussion’s Summer Institute, IFCP at Mannes, June in Buffalo, Make Music New York, The Livewire Festival, The High Zero Festival, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale, and has performed with ensembles such as the Talujon Percussion Quartet, the Wooden Cities Contemporary Ensemble, and the Baltimore trio Microkingdom.

Purdy received her B.A. in Percussion Performance at UMBC where she studied with Tom Goldstein and was a recipient of the Linehan Artist Scholar Award. For her Masters she attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where she studied with Tom Kolor of the Talujon percussion quartet. Ms. Purdy currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland where she teaches at Towson University, Carroll Community College, the BSO’s inner city outreach program Orchkids, and is a member of the experimental improvisation organization The High Zero Foundation.

Bonnie Lander is an avant-garde soprano, violinist, free improviser, and composer based in Baltimore. As a performer and composer Bonnie specializes in works that combine free improvisation with structured composition. In the past few years Bonnie has developed a series of theatrical series of works called “Inside Voices.” These works intend for the audience to experience the voices, noise, and emotional narratives in the performer’s mind through the operatic use of timbre, resonance, articulation, as well its embrace of visceral, gut wrenching emotion. Bonnie currently works at 2640 Space in Baltimore, and is a founding member of NYC based chamber ensemble Rhymes With Opera, which premiered her 2017 opera Coping Mechanisms.