In her Chicago debut, Leila Bordreuil performs a solo amplified cello set, using a multichannel set-up of different types of speakers and guitar amplifiers. An assemblage of microphones placed on various parts of the cello create unique sound distortion possibilities that transform the cello into a polyphonic instrument, enhancing the instrument’s diversity of timbres.

Essential to her musical aesthetic is the expression of humans’ neuro-somatic imperfections, which she chooses to magnify through extreme amplification of very quiet playing, revealing microscopic gestures that are otherwise inaudible to the human ear.

FREE, but space is limited. Please register in advance. 

Presented by Lampo and the Smart Museum of Art in conjunction with the special exhibition The History of Perception.

About Leila Bordreuil

Leila Bordreuil (b.1990, Brooklyn, N.Y.) is a Brooklyn-based cellist and composer from Aix-en-Provence, France. Her cello playing focuses on the inherent sonic qualities of her instrument, paying careful attention to timbre and texture. Bordreuil challenges conventional cello practice through extreme extended techniques and imaginative amplification methods without effects pedals. Her composed works frequently incorporate sound-spatialization by way of site-specific pieces and multi-channel installations. Collaborators include Marina Rosenfeld, Eli Keszler, Nate Wooley, Bill Nace, Chris Corsano, SENYAWA, Tamio Shiraishi, Weasel Walter and Michael Foster. She has performed at the Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, The Stone and Issue Project Room in New York; Café Oto, London; All Ears Festival, Oslo; Ausland, Berlin; Ftarri, Tokyo; and many basements across the U.S. Bordreuil was a 2017 MacDowell Fellow in Composition, a visiting composer at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague in 2017, and a 2016 artist-in-residence at Issue Project Room.

Photo by Cameron Kelly.