Filmscreening

Sound- und Filmbar I Studio 1
10. – 12. Juli
17.00 – 24.00 Uhr

Sarah Hennies – Contralto (2017, GP)

»Contralto« is a one-hour work for video, strings, and percussion that inhabits the space between experimental music and documentary. The piece features a cast of transgender women speaking, singing, and performing vocal exercises, accompanied by a dense and varied musical score that includes a variety of conventional and ›non-musical‹ approaches to sound-making.

Sarah Hennies, born in Louisville, US, is a composer and percussionist whose work is concerned with musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including queer and trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. She is primarily a composer of acoustic chamber music, but is also active in improvisation, film, and performance art. She presents her work internationally as both a composer and percussionist with notable performances at MoMA PS1 (NYC), the Warsaw Autumn, and the Darmstadt Summer Course. She is Composer-In-Residence at the 2025 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK). Since 2019, Sarah Hennies has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College. She currently lives upstate New York.