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LaDonna Smith - violin viola voice
Violinist and violist, LaDonna Smith has been on the international improvising
music scene for well over 20 years. She is an active performer and educator
from Birmingham, Alabama, place where she was born and place where she
chooses to reside and work out of... By performing and networking with
other southern cities to bring improv to the people and through her work
with the improvisor, she has been responsible for keeping improvised music
alive in the South Eastern United States. Last summer,she was organizer
and Director of the Birmingham
International Improvisation Festival, which
included five performers from Russia, one from Sweden, one from Ukraine
and a host of regional and national participants in improvisatory disciplines
ranging from music, theatre, and dance. LaDonna has created a style of
improvisation on violin, viola and voice that is uniquely her own. Alternating
classical and extended techniques, she explores the instrument, painting
scenarios and sound pictures as she plays. She has performed at practically
every major improv festival and many of the New Music Festivals. She has
repeatedly toured Europe, playing solo and in collaboration with local
musicians. In addition, she and guitarist Davey Williams have toured North
America and Europe many times as Trans Duo. As musical partners, they
maintain their own recording label, TransMuseq, and also co-edit the
improvisor,
the international journal of free improvisation. LaDonna has a long history
of working with dance, and recent collaborations include work with NYC
based dancer and choreographer Susan
Hefner and Dancers. LaDonna is also a visual artist, whose surrealist
drawings and ceramics have been exhibited nationally. She also loves
teaching
and practicing yoga, and believes the mind, body, spirit connection is
the basis of her playing.
LaDonna Smith met Serguei Letov in New York City in 1990 when he was
touring and playing the Knitting Factory during Perestroika.
For a while they had corresponded and exchanged information, but then
lost contact. LaDonna
was invited to Kiev, Ukraine last May of 1995 and spent there three weeks
performing and working with avant-garde Theatre. When Letov found out
that LaDonna would be in Kiev through Russian sources, he came there
to meet her and to participate in some of the concert events. This led
to
her returning to Russia in December 1995 at the end of her Western European
concert tour to Belgium, England, Germany Holland and Denmark. When
she
arrived in Moscow to meet Letov, she was informed that they would be
flying also to Siberia. Including two concerts in Novosibirsk (one of
them -
'Deep Sea Divers' of Leonid
Tishkov),
one in Smolensk, four concerts and recordings at Moscow Studio, LaDonna
and Serguei Letov teamed up to form genuinely remarkable duo. They also
did a recording and performance project with the well-known gypsy singer
Valentina Ponomareva. Letov'
s stint in NYC with the actress Elena Antonenko makes it possible to
invite him to the Southern USA for the concerts - Louisville, KENTUCKY,
in Birmingham,
ALABAMA and Chattanooga, TENNESSEE. In January 1997 LaDonna and Serguei
Letov participated in SERGUEI KURYOKHIN INTERDISCIPLINARY MEMORIAL (SKIF)
at Knitting Factory, NY in duo, the day after also in trio with Davey
Williams.
LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams are well known as two of the founders of the free improvisation movement in United States. Residing and active in Birmingham, they traveled the world wide performing over 1000 concerts in the USA, Europe and most recently Asia. LaDonna Smith is Associate Executive Editor of the improvisor, the international journal of free improvisation, now in its eleventh and most evolved issue, this year's edition formatted as a 200 page volume. LaDonna and Davey Williams also have the record label TRANSMUSEQ with 12 issues; and in all enjoy a discography of over 100 LPs, cassettes, and CD releases.
LaDonna Smith and Sergey Letov discography
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dice 2 [she says]. Ishtar Records CD002/1996
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Valentina Ponomareva. Forte. Boheme music CDBMR 904056