Jodi Beder


 

 

Jodi Beder, a freelance “classical” cellist performing widely from NY to DC, has always been deeply involved in new music and nonclassical projects. A frequent soloist in the American Festival of Microtonal Music, her collaborative partners have included Multigravitational Aerodance and the Italian folk theater company I Giullari di Piazza in NY, and the Low End String Quartet in DC; in 2000 she completed a residency with the Sun Ra Arkestra; and she has performed with Jewish cantors at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue and the Hebrew Union College for several decades. Since 1997 she has been a member of the innovative cabaret-rock band Zen for Primates, playing her plugged-in cello Zizi. She currently develops work and performs with poet Kay Lindsey, and collaborates on music for theater with playwright-director Caleen Jennings, composing and music-directing for Jennings’ play “Wecycling,” performed at American University in February-March 2013. She is a member of Dovetail, an ensemble of musicians and dancers from many traditions with a mission of crossing cultural divides. Dr. Beder studied theory and composition with Miriam Gideon, and earned her BA in music from Brooklyn College and her PhD in music theory from the City University of NY Graduate Center. In the Mannes College Professional Studies program she studied cello with Paul Tobias. She edits music, philosophy, and poetry books for W.W. Norton and Princeton University Press, and is an avid native plant gardener at her home in Maryland.

 

 

(updated spring 2013)