Joan Jeanrenaud, cellist and composer, grew up in a small town outside Memphis, Tennessee where she began studying the cello under Peter Spurbeck at age eleven. Her commitment to music deepened during her work with Fritz Magg at Indiana University where she obtained a Bachelor of Music degree and her subsequent private studies with Pierre Fournier in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 1978 Jeanrenaud joined the Kronos Quartet, a position she held for twenty years. For two decades she worked with hundreds of composers and musicians including John Cage, Frank Zappa, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, Witold Lutoslawski, Joan Armatrading, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Astor Piazzolla, Sofia Gubadulina, Foday Muso Suso, David Byrne, Terry Riley, John Zorn and many others. She performed more than 2,000 concerts throughout the world and made over thirty recordings with Kronos, most of which were released on Nonesuch Records.
Upon leaving Kronos in 1999 she began her pursuit of solo and collaborative projects in composition, improvisation, electronics, video and multi-disciplinary performance. Her solo CD ‘Strange Toys’ featuring performances of her own compositions was nominated for a ’08 Grammy, Best Instrumental Soloist without an Orchestra. From 2000-2010 her more than 30 compositions include the installation work, ‘ARIA’, a collaboration with artist, designer Alessandro Moruzzi, an evening-length concert solo performance ‘Metamorphosis’, the installation piece ‘Ice Cello’ inspired by the work of the Fluxus artist Charlotte Moorman, the collaboration ‘Be With’ with dancers Eiko and Koma, her hour long composition for the multi-media piece, ‘In Between’ with Bay Area visual artist Tom Bonauro and percussionist William Winant, the score for ‘Humansville’, a performance installation for the Joe Goode Performance Group as well as many other pieces for cello and electronics and small ensembles. In addition to performing her own compositions, several composers have written new works for her, including Terry Riley, Hamza El Din, Steve Mackey, Fred Frith, Kevin Volans, Karen Tanaka, Paul Dresher, Mark Grey, Anthony Davis, Alvin Curran and Annie Gosfield. As an improviser she collaborates with Larry Ochs, Miya Masaoka, Stephen Vitiello and Fred Frith among others.
In addition to the Talking House release ‘Strange Toys’, her solo work is available on the New Albion release ‘Metamorphosis’ and the upcoming Deconet Records release ‘Pop-Pop’ with beat artist PC Muñoz. As well there are many other recordings on various labels released in the last several years. Please refer to www.jjcello.org for a more complete listing of works and activities.
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