Copyright © 2018
Andrea Reinkemeyer, composer
From Cycles of Eternity
“ . . . offers a luminous glimpse of the next world . . . the counterpoint is often slow-moving, a bit like hearing lava move . . . and it is in the stillness of the final panel that the work finds its home.”
- Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
BIO:
MUSIC:
The music of American composer Andrea Reinkemeyer explores “a reverent sound world that hovers just above the brink of silence” (Second Inversion) and expresses “a gamut of emotions... from reverence and supplication to mournfulness and despair” (textura); it is “clever, funky, jazzy and virtuosic” (Schenectady Daily Gazette), “luminous” (Fanfare Magazine), “enchanting” (International Choral Bulletin), and “hauntingly melodic and fun, dancing and almost running its way forward... whimsical” (Fanfare Magazine). Her current musical explorations focus on intersectional feminist narratives, natural phenomena, home and grief.
Reinkemeyer’s music is distributed by the ADJ•ective Composers’ Collective and featured on recordings by: In Mulieribus, Idit Shner, A/B Duo, and Post-Haste Reed Duo. Upcoming projects include new works for flutist Abigail Sperling with generous support of the Oregon Arts Commission. Recent commissions include: League of American Orchestras and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, an opera scene for Rhymes with Opera, Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra, H. Robert Reynolds and The Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, Fear No Music, Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield College, Rodney Dorsey for the University of Oregon Wind Ensemble and University Singers, a thirteen-school wind band consortium led by Brant Stai and the Sherwood High School Wind Ensemble, Miller Asbill and the Texas Tech University Concert Band, The Wild Swan Theater, Iowa Music Teachers’ Association, Jeffrey Heisler for the Primary Colors Trio, and many performers and visual artists. Her works are regularly performed nationally and internationally; featured performances include: the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, North-South Consonance Chamber Orchestra, Great Noise Ensemble, Thailand International Composition Festival, and conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) and Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS).
TEACHING and TRAINING:
Dr. Reinkemeyer enjoys exploring music with students of all ages. In 2014, she joined the faculty of Linfield University in McMinnville, Oregon, where she serves as Associate Professor of Music (Composition & Theory) and Gender Studies. Previous positions include: Part-time Lecturer in the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance (2018), Mahidol University International College, in Salaya, Thailand (2011-12) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Composition, Theory and Technology at Bowling Green State University, Ohio (2005-10). Reinkemeyer has been the Composer-in-Residence with the: Michigan Philharmonic’s, “The Composer in Me!” Education Pilot Program (2010-11), American-Romanian Festival’s Fusion Project (2011), and Burns Park Elementary School (2004, 2005, 2010). She has mentored public school students through outreach programs with the Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings (2007) and Michigan Mentorship Program (2002, 2004). Her work with young musicians has been supported by a Meet the Composer/MetLife Creative Connections Grant.
Dr. Reinkemeyer holds degrees in music composition from the University of Michigan (MM and DMA) and University of Oregon (BM); while a student, her work was recognized with the prestigious Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, Regents’ Fellowship, Christine Rinaldo Memorial Scholarship, Graduate Student Instructor position in electronic music composition, the Ruth Lorraine Close Musical Fellows and Outstanding Creativity in Composition Award. In recognition of her work, Reinkemeyer was awarded the Julie Olds and Thomas L. Hellie Faculty Award for Creative Achievement at Linfield University in 2019.
Born and raised in Oregon, she has also lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Bangkok, Thailand. (Honorific: Dr. Pronouns: She/her/hers)
Downloads:
Reviews
“. . . one of Oregon’s brightest emerging voices,”
“her striking contribution (Saturation) . . . blends the sax's squawky side with
spare, melancholy passages to traverse a complex emotional landscape.”
- Brett Campell, Willamette Week; Eugene Weekly
Wrought Iron is “hauntingly melodic and fun,
dancing and almost running its way forward.
There may even be a little Zappa in the syncopation
and in the whimsical handling of modes.”
- Marc Medwin, Fanfare Magazine
Wrought Iron: “There is an intricacy to the players' interaction that seems,
to the present writer at least, to invoke or reflect some physical design.
Ensemble between the two players needs to be particularly tight in this piece,
and the result is indeed magical”
- Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
Musicians of the Sun: “Action is underscored and forwarded
by haunting live music composed by Andrea Reinkemeyer . . . ”
- Ellyce Field, Detroit Free Press
Wrought Iron is “ . . . clever, funky, jazzy and virtuosic”
- Geraldine Freeman, Daily Gazette
“Her Lured by the Horizon has already earned praise as
“compelling and adventurous”
an “important and fascinating work for orchestra.”
American Composers Orchestra
NaamJai is “The most boisterous and ungrounded music of the night,
it started off in a bumping, rather brutalist manner.
Eventually things settled into a more
lyric and consonant expansiveness,
highlighted by a sweet, extended quartet
for the principal strings.”
- Joseph Dalton, Times Union
in the speaking silence “explores a reverent sound world
that hovers just above the brink of silence.”
- Maggie Molloy, Second Inversion
in the speaking silence
“ . . . a gamut of emotions is expressed
during its eight minutes, from reverence and supplication
to mournfulness despair.” - textura
in the speaking silence is “movingly austere...”
- dbarbiero, Avant Music News
in the speaking silence
“ . . . there is an inevitable touching aspect to this piece of sonic mourning. . .
There is a remarkable multiphonic on saxophone here
–– remarkable both for its veracity ... and perfect control.”
- Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
From Cycles of Eternity
“ . . . offers a luminous glimpse of the next world . . .
. . . the counterpoint is often slow-moving, a bit like hearing lava move . . .
. . . and it is in the stillness of the final panel that the work finds its home.”
- Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine
“ ‘Life’ . . . is especially haunting”
- American Record Guide (July/August 2019)
“ . . . Life features soprano Arwen Myers in a
dramatic and colorful solo
— at first robust, then lyrical and compelling.”
- Bruce Browne, Oregon ArtsWatch