About
Greetings! I am Amanda Gregory, living in Santa Barbara, California.
I am a formerly trained opera singer with a previous career of performing a wide range of traditional classical and contemporary genres such as 12 tone music. My current work is focused on collaboration with scientists and technologists, and draws from research on cognitive psychology, neuroscience, psychophysics, and evolutionary biology.
In my music, I often improvise along with the songs of diverse species such as birds, dolphins, and whales and elemental sounds such as different forms of water, using technologies of 3D sound and granular synthesis to more closely listen to the subtle rhythms and harmonics of these animal songs and sounds of nature. In performances, I use my voice to live generate psychoacoustic effects such as binaural frequencies and bilateral harmonics for brain wave entrainment.
My work has been featured at the Contemporary Arts Museum (Houston), Lincoln Center, GoogleLaunchpad, SWSW, Global Energy Conference, NeuroLeadership Summit, MAPS, Lightning in a Bottle, Adobe’s Festival of the Impossible, Oculus Rift VR, Obscura Digital, and the Google IO conference, where we premiered “Atlas of Emotions”, an immersive media project based on an online tool that was originally commissioned by the Dalai Lama and created by Drs. Paul & Eve Ekman to foster emotional awareness. Most recently, I performed virtually at the Awakened Futures Summit, the Science of Consciousness Conference and at the Unified Planet Festival on Earth Day for 45,000+ listeners, in partnership with Unify.org. I am currently a storyteller in the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, an interdisciplinary program funded by the Templeton Foundation.
A past project I developed was an interactive opera called "Andrometa", where I played at role of an artificial intelligence learning to become conscious, incorporated an adversarial network framework in which with the audience played the role of the counterpart to the AI’s learning process. Each song represented a new developmental layer of consciousness until reaching mindful meta awareness by the end of the performance.
Another example of recent work is a project called the Atlas of Emotions, that was developed as an evolution of a collaborative project with emotion experts Paul and Eve Ekman and the Dalai Lama, where I performed with motion sensors on my arms that would move sound live through 3D sound space. The musical elements were composed to explore the diversity of emotions and experiences that humans and animals of all kinds can have and the dance-like relationship between external stimulus and internal processing.
A current project, Meta Music, is a series of immersive audio visual experiences that systematically integrate ancient traditions with modern scientific theory and technology. Read more on this website's page titled "Meta Music."
Projects
"Without Human"- Lagrange 7- naturæ sapiens
Audio visual work with video by Michael Saup and sound by Amanda Gregory - April 2021
This piece was created in collaboration with video artist Michael Saup- a sonic conceptual exploration of the spatial coordinates in outer space known as the Lagrange points, in which the gravitational forces of the two large planetary bodies and the centrifugal force balance each other and there is no pulling effect from other sources of gravity. Zen, the bird makes a cameo during the recording and his presence in the film symbolically points to the commonalities between humans and the co-evolved vocal learning creatures of earth. The Schumann resonance provides a deep and fundamental bass throughout the music, emulating the precursor to vibration. Bilateral harmonics exponentially emerge in ratios of the Schumann Resonance and 528Hz.
Short Documentary on Work of Jay Sanguinetti and Shingzen Young- Hacking enlightenment: can ultrasound help you transcend reality?
Film score contribution by Amanda Gregory- July 2021
"Can technology help us be peaceful, calmer, more blissful people? In short - yes, And - it opens a whole another can of worms. The film I made for #theguardian is showcasing one of the possibilities of so called “enlightenment technologies”, as well as the inner conflict the scientists are facing. We know by now where in the brain the enlightenment button lives, and we can create more peaceful states of mind - but the long term effects, addictabity and ethics of such power remain questionable. I hope this story sparks a bigger conversation.
What do you think about technology helping humans to become more connected with themselves, spirituality, and ultimately, the Earth?"- Lina Lyte Plioplyte, director of this project
The Team: @lina.Lyte, Silvija Woolf @evan Carter Amanda Gregory Justinas Vencius
Breath of Origin- Audio Visual Meditation with music by Amanda Gregory and sound of air from video by Maxi Cohen of volcanic hot springs. March 2021
This piece combines the sound from this footage by video artist Maxi Cohen of volcanic hot springs in Iceland. The music uses a fundamental rhythm that is below audible frequency called the Schumann Resonance of 7.83 Hz (on average), also known as "the heartbeat of the earth". Conceptually, I imagine the air bubbling up to the surface from the thermal vents as a sort of exhale from the electromagnetic field of the earth. I wonder about the intelligence of the evolutionary process itself, given all the order, complex patterns, geometry, and mathematics that are embedded into the structure of reality and consciousness. What if a such thing as “earth consciousness” intuitively pursued the existence of intelligent life forms, and that these intelligent life forms would eventually evolve to someday be able to protect and regulate her atmosphere against the natural occurrence of asteroids, solar, flares, changes in ourselves, and changes in the climate.
*Listen with headphones for the full range of psychoacoustic effects such as voice generated binaural frequencies and bilateral harmonics (EMDR)
I Am Whatever You Say I am- Audio Visual Meditation- December 2019
*Wear headphones for psychoacoustic effects
The Atlas of Emotions- Google I/O- May 2019
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"Commissioned by Dalai Lama and created by Drs. Paul & Eve Ekman, The Atlas of Emotions is a visual online tool developed to build an emotional language that helps us answer these very questions. In partnership with Dr. Eve Ekman of The Greater Good Science Center at U.C. Berkeley, Monom, and Google A.I. - this debut experiment is an experiential evolution of the Atlas project that explores how new technologies in sound and A.I. can facilitate embodied understanding of our emotional experiences.
Connecting the cyclical dynamics of natural phenomena to the ever-evolving flux of human feeling - digital opera artist Amanda Gregory enacts a fundamental human journey of longing and belonging. Within a spatial sound landscape - M.L. generated sonic entities are created via N’Synth Super and Magenta Studio. These entities live and self-perpetuate, merging and interacting with the human voice, body and the environment."
Amanda Gregory collaborated with Monom and the Spatial Sound Institute on this immersive multimedia production of “Atlas of Emotions” that aims to explore the depth of human emotion with experimental improvisation, authentic vocalization, morphing the voice with the sounds of diverse species, and responding to the sounds of nature and elements of weather as emotional stimuli. Sounds are programmed to motion sensors that connect Gregory’s physical movement to the movement of 3D sound throughout 85 omni-directional speakers. This was premiered at the Google IO Conference’s Main Art Stage on May 7, 2019.
VERGE 18- Global Energy Conference- October 2018
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The VERGE Global Energy Conference brings together a diverse audience to explore the opportunities and challenges in decarbonizing global energy systems. Opera artist Amanda Gregory performs with live Augmented Reality, representing the personified relationship between Nature, Technology, and ourselves.
Making it’s debut at the Festival of the Impossible exhibit at Minnesota Street Project, the interdisciplinary collaboration translates Gregory’s operatic vocal performance into a live projection map of the sounds and the moods of the music, creating a multi-sensory exploration of meaning. Electronic soundscapes and real-time visuals portray an elegant dialogue between the archetypal embodiment of Nature as Earth’s evolutionary force, and Technology as the extension of human capabilities and will. The piece offers a vignette to experience ourselves as an extension of nature, interlinked with technology as an extension of us.
Neuroleadership Summit- November 2016
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This performance was in collaboration with a global research organization that leverages the latest neuroscience research to transform businesses and organizations worldwide. Along with 40,000 online viewers, the conference attendees were invited to integrate the weekend of experiential learning through an improvised meditative musical performance created by opera artist Amanda Gregory.
Xenoglossia- Future Time Machine- November 2015
"Drop a Beet" by Amanda Gregory,+ producers and performers- Chris Stevens, Scott Jones, Zárate Zaaló, and Noah Clough Video compiled onto documentation from Future Time Machine- an eclectic, underground music and performance art installation event with visual, multimedia, musical, and performance artists, centered around a uniquely themed creation- a real investment of $1000 into an actual fund for 500 years. Assuming a modest 4% annual return, the investment will be approximately 328 billion dollars in the year 2515, at which point it will be spent on scientific research and the construction of a time machine. First stop for the time machine was this event on November 21st, 2015. ;)
The Fifth Element (A)live- The Great Star Theatre- August 2016
Amanda Gregory performs a modern rendition of Handel's famous aria "Piangeró la sorte mia" from Cleopatra. The Fifth Element (A)Live is an immersive experience and Sci-fi-Classic in a live theatrical setting with multiple projectors, live performances, special effects and more.
Xenoglossia- The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston- March 2015
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"Xenoglossia introduced performance art in a spectacular presentation that had the black-tie crowd in awe. A trained opera singer, Gregory best describes the experience, as "an ensemble of shape-shifting matrix transplants utilizing light, sound, color and symbols to transport you into a holographic reality
Sound and video artist Jonathan Jindra, tech artist Bradley Muñoz and musician Zárate Zaaló combined their talents with a kaleidoscopic video projection that morphed as Gregory sang. Even her prismatic hair changed colors, in keeping with her vocal frequencies. For her chanting and serenading, Gregory wore a 10-foot high metal dress, sculpted by artist Patrick Renner." - CultureMap
The Knells- award-winning neo chamber art rock group- 2013
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The Knells are an art rock ensemble from Brooklyn, NY led by composer and guitarist Andrew McKenna Lee. Drawing inspiration from over 1000 years of western classical music and deftly fusing it with the worlds of progressive, psychedelic, and experimental rock.
"[The Knells'] lyrics ponder cosmic conditions and cycles — time, space, dissolution, regeneration — and they are sung by three women, often in cascading counterpoint that can invoke Renaissance polyphony or Minimalism. The songs aren't verse-chorus-verse; they sweep ahead, through passages of tolling solo electric guitar, of elegiac vocal melodies and harmonies, of note-bending quasi-Indian strings and guitar, of progressive-rock processionals. The classical training and female harmonies can make the Knells similar to Dirty Projectors, but this band looks toward Europe and tone poems rather than Africa and pop. Instead of hooks there are sustained dramatic arcs, meticulous and serpentine."
Call of the Ouroboros was a multidisciplinary elaboration of the Knells at the Houston Fringe Festival, in which Amanda Gregory, sculptural artist Patrick Renner, and video artist Jonathan Jindra worked collaboratively to performThe Knell’s in a theatrically-engaging performance-installation. Gregory employs her powerful vocals as middle voice in the luscious three-part sonic experience of lucid dream-like states.
Listen to The Knells
Best Album 2013 #6 by the New Republic
Sweet Lost Pierrot- The Nouveau Classical Project- 2012
Amanda Gregory performs "Pierrot Lunaire" with the Nouveau Classical Project.
The Nouveau Classical Project (NCP), founded by Sugar Vendil is a New York-based contemporary classical music ensemble that is "bringing a refreshing edge to the widely conservative genre" (VICE). It began by collaborating with fashion designers for its concerts and has expanded to creating multidisciplinary performances. Its mission is to engage new audiences and show that classical music is a living, breathing art form.
Sweet Lost Pierrot was an interdisciplinary concert that celebrated the 100th anniversary of Arnold Schoenberg’s 'Pierrot Lunaire.' Schoenberg was among the most important contemporary composers, being the founder of Serialism and 12-tone music, creating fundamentally new tonal structures for experiencing sound.
Press on Nouveau Classical Project:
“expert technique, impassioned playing” - I care if you listen
"...bringing a refreshing edge to the widely conservative genre...NCP's work makes a stage for finding nuance in rigid categories." - VICE
"Leading this unlikely intersection of classical music and fashion..." - THE NEW YORK TIMES
"The Nouveau Classical Project is…putting a new face on classical music." - NPR
"Classical music’s got an edge these days, and we have the Nouveau Classical Project to thank for that." - MILK MADE
"NCP...deserve props for the premiere performance..." - NEW MUSIC BOX