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Joan Jeanrenaud

Joan Jeanrenaud was born and raised on a small farm outside Memphis, Tennessee. She started playing the cello at age 11 and began studying with Peter Spurbeck the following year. As a teenager, Jeanrenaud - who was the principal cellist of the Memphis Youth Symphony - developed an interest in contemporary music. She continued her studies with Fritz Magg at Indiana University, where she was a founding member of the IU Contemporary Music Ensemble. A highlight of her college years was her participation as a Fellow at Tanglewood, where she was principal cellist with the Festival Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein. After earning a Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University, she lived in Geneva, Switzerland to study with Pierre Fournier.

At age 22 Jeanrenaud joined the Kronos Quartet and relocated to San Francisco, California. For twenty years she worked with hundreds of composers and musicians such as John Cage, Terry Riley, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Joan Armatrading, Tony Williams, David Byrne, John Zorn and many others.

Jeanrenaud performed more than 2000 concerts throughout the world with the Quartet in locations such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Moscow Conservatory, Tokyo's Suntory Hall, Sydney Opera House, Teatro La Scala, Kennedy Center, and London's Royal Festival Hall. She made more than 30 recordings with Kronos, most of which were released on Nonesuch Records.

Jeanrenaud left Kronos in 1999 to pursue different artistic directions including solo projects and collaborations with a diverse group of artists, such as Hamza El Din, Pamela Z, Fred Frith, Eiko and Koma, Tom Bonauro and Yo-Yo Ma. She is currently exploring many musical arenas, including composition, improvisation, electronics, video and multi-disciplinary performance. Several composers have recently written or are currently writing new works for Jeanrenaud, including Terry Riley, Karen Tanaka, Paul Dresher, Annie Gosfield, Kevin Volans and Cenk Ergun. Jeanrenaud was an Artist-In-Residence at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in the 2000/2001 season where she developed an evening length solo multi-media work, "Metamorphosis", which received its world premiere at the Walker Art Center in May, 2001. Also during her residency she developed and performed "Ice Cello," a four hour installation piece inspired by the work of Fluxus artist Charlotte Moorman.

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14
Album Review

Joan Jeanrenaud: Visual Music

Read "Visual Music" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud had been a member of the celebrated Kronos Quartet for more than twenty years when, she found herself sidelined with a serious health issue. Following an extended leave from music she embarked on a solo career, turning out the highly-regarded albums, Strange Toys (Talking House, 2008), Metamorphosis (New Albion, 2009) and--in association with PC Munoz--Pop-Pop (Deconet Records, 2010).On Visual Music Jeanrenaud is reunited with percussionist Munoz on three tracks, William Winant on vibraphone and Dohee ...

4
Album Review

Joan Jeanrenaud: Visual Music

Read "Visual Music" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud spent more than twenty years as a member of the experimental and always innovative Kronos Quartet. She left the group in 1999, and has since created an adventurous and captivating body work, including four previous CD releases, including the Grammy-nominated Strange Toys ( Talking House Records, 2008) and 2010's Pop-Pop (Deconet Records), in collaboration with percussionist/multi-instrumentalist PC Munoz. As with all her recordings, Visible Music is a work of art that was created without consideration ...

611
Interview

Joan Jeanrenaud: The Beat of the Moment

Read "Joan Jeanrenaud: The Beat of the Moment" reviewed by Anil Prasad


Playing it safe is a concept in which cellist Joan Jeanrenaud has total disinterest. Her deep, varied career reflects a restless creative spirit that most recently manifested itself on Pop-Pop (Deconet, 2010), her duo album with producer and percussionist PC Muñoz. The disc seamlessly blends cello, classical, electronica, and hip-hop influences. But, perhaps, the most important element is fun, something Jeanrenaud and Muñoz clearly had a lot of when making the disc. Unlike Jeanrenaud's carefully-architected previous albums, Pop-Pop found her ...

238
Album Review

Joan Jeanrenaud & PC Munoz: Pop-Pop

Read "Pop-Pop" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


The Kronos Quartet integrated chamber environs with free-jazz, minimalist composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and other groundbreaking artists or genres that traversed the roads less travelled. Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud was a vital player during the unit's 1978-1999 run, leaving behind a treasure trove of important work as the band became proprietor of a cutting edge classical-meets-almost-anything legacy. As a solo artist, Jeanrenaud has branched out into several probing and largely unique projects. With Pop-Pop, a collaboration with drummer/percussionist PC ...

310
Album Review

Joan Jeanrenaud: Strange Toys

Read "Strange Toys" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud joined the Kronos Quartet in 1978, participating in more than thirty recordings and over two thousand performances with the always innovative string ensemble known for interpreting other composers' works. In 1999 she struck out on her own, as both a solo artist and a composer.Strange Toys, Jeanrenaud's second solo effort, is a study in mournful minimalism and an exploration of her instrument's richly gorgeous sound.This release is an adventurous work. The cellist duets ...

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136

Interview

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud Interviewed at All About Jazz

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud Interviewed at All About Jazz

Source: John Kelman

Playing it safe is a concept in which cellist Joan Jeanrenaud has total disinterest. Her deep, varied career reflects a restless creative spirit that most recently manifested itself on Pop-Pop (Deconet, 2010), her duo album with producer and percussionist PC Muñoz. The disc seamlessly blends cello, classical, electronica, and hip-hop influences. But, perhaps, the most important element is fun, something Jeanrenaud and Muñoz clearly had a lot of when making the disc. Unlike Jeanrenaud's carefully-architected previous albums, Pop-Pop found her ...

133

Recording

Joan Jeanrenaud, PC Munoz - Pop-Pop (2010)

Joan Jeanrenaud, PC Munoz - Pop-Pop (2010)

Source: Something Else!

By Mark Saleski If you want to really scare yourself, wait until everybody else in the house has gone to bed, turn out all of the lights, and put the Kronos Quartet's Black Angels on the stereo. You will be assaulted with George Crumb's terrifying “Black Angels (Images I)," a piece so full of tension and release (or maybe just tension...it's been a while and honestly, just the thought of it is making me nervous) that you will feel like ...

190

Recording

Pop-Pop: New CD by Avant-Garde Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud & Percussionst/Beatmaker PC Munoz

Pop-Pop: New CD by Avant-Garde Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud & Percussionst/Beatmaker PC Munoz

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations

Pop-Pop, the collaborative new album from cellist extraordinaire Joan Jeanrenaud and art-funk percussionist/beatmaker PC Munoz, is an exhilarating mash-up of contemporary classical/new music sensibilities and future-funk/hip-hop sonic aesthetics. Jeanrenaud's polyrhythmic compositions, rendered on both acoustic and electric celli, are paired with skittering electro-funk beats, eruptive drumkit, cajon drums, Hua Pan Gu (traditional Chinese drum), and other percussive elements, making for a refreshing, culturally diverse 21st century sound. “We had a great time working with beats on a couple of tracks ...

138

Recording

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud Unveils Her New CD, Strange Toys

Cellist Joan Jeanrenaud Unveils Her New CD, Strange Toys

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations

Joan Jeanrenaud Unveils Strange Toys, Her First Album Of Original Compositions World-renowned cellist and Kronos Quartet pioneer extends contemporary classical sounds with unusual instruments, loops, electronic beats, and special guests Talking House Records announces the release of Joan Jeanrenaud's Strange Toys. Lauded throughout the experimental and avant-garde world for her “incredible cello technique" (Annie Gosfield) and as “the queen of all us cellists" (Wendy Sutter), for her previous solo album Metamorphosis, and for her 20-year body of work with Kronos ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Visual Music

Deconetrecords
2016

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Pop-Pop

Deconetrecords
2010

buy

Strange Toys

Talking House Records
2008

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Videos

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