FREE Courtroom Concert: Purple Orange – Michelle Kinney and Jacqueline Ultan

Michelle Kinney’s career began in Minneapolis, MN, when she returned home after receiving a BA in music from Northwestern University. During this early phase in her career, she was recognized and frequently funded as a composer & cellist, collaborating with Twin Cities choreographers (Laurie Van Wieren), filmmakers (Chris Sullivan, Chicago) and theater artists (Michael Sommers), in addition to composing for her own new music ensembles (IMP ORK, Aphid Bloodbath Consort). In 1989, she moved to New York City to pursue an MA in Performance Studies at New York University. Michelle lived in NYC for 13 years, recording and touring Europe and the US with several of her mentors; bridging musical genres and scenes, from art music (Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, Myra Melford), to pop (Sheryl Crow, Natalie Merchant, Lou Reed); and composing for dance (Cyrus Khambatta), film (Debra Dickson) and theater (Richard Schechner).

Michelle returned to the Twin Cities in 2002, to raise her young family. In addition to again becoming very actively engaged in the community as a composer and performer, Michelle is the Musician in Residence for the Dance Program within the University of Minnesota’s Theater Arts and Dance Department. In this perfect “day job” for a musician/composer, Michelle improvises compositions in daily dance classes, with her cello played through a looping device. Each day Michelle spends hours reading bodies in motion as if they were sheet music, spontaneously creating and layering multiple cello parts, starting from a rhythmic foundation and building harmony, texture and melodic phrasing.

Jacqueline Ultan is a singularly creative cellist, composer and improvisor and has taught cello at MacPhail since 2000.With more than 20 years’ experience, she teaches according to the needs of each individual student. Serious, focused and detail oriented, Jacqueline is also flexible and laid back. She stresses good physical form and relaxation and enjoys teaching many styles of music. She has also taught at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, West Bank School of Music, and Yale University.

Jacqueline’s unique versatility is reflected in the diversity of her artistic collaborations: urban groove trio Saltee; drum/cello quartet Purple Orange; Persion fusion trio Mirrorlands; pop band The Starfolk; improvising collective iNMiGRATiON; flute/cello duo J2J; world music trio Ottie The Mink and The Beatles tribute band The Shabby Road Orchestra. In demand locally and nationally, Ultan has recorded and collaborated extensively with theater, pop, rock and new music artists, including: Ondara, Kill The Vultures, Roma di Luna, The Jayhawks, Chan Poling, Dan Wilson, E. Carlos Nakai, Huun Hur Tu, The Jorgensens, and Kevin Kling.

She has received several awards and commissions including a McKnight Performing Artist Fellowship; MacPhail Artist & Commissioning Grants; MRAC’s Next Step Grant and a State Arts Board Arts Tour MN grant. Ultan co-composed music for and participated in TED Talks Conferences in Minneapolis and L.A., and in June 2019, co-wrote a duo cello score for Theater Latte Da’s production of ‘To Let Go And Fall’, a play by Harrison Rivers. In October 2019, Ultan participated in The Jazz In the City Festival in Salzburg, Austria where she collaborated with Volker Goetz (composer/trumpet) and dance artist/choreographer Rosy Simas as well as Berlin based singer/composer Almut Kuhne, cellist Chris Dahlgren and contemporary dance artist Nayana Keshava Bhat.

Jacqueline holds a Masters Degree in Performance from Yale University.