Composer

Biography

Juliet Palmer moved from New Zealand to New York in 1990 to work with interdisciplinary pioneer Meredith Monk, completing her PhD at Princeton University in 1999. Based in Toronto, her work has been featured around the world, from the Huddersfield and Bath Festivals to New York’s Lincoln Center, Italy’s Angelica Festival, the Adelaide Festival and Soundculture Japan. Performers of her music include Canada’s Penderecki String Quartet, Trio Fibonacci, the Gryphon Trio, ECM, Toca Loca, Continuum, l’Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Tapestry New Opera Works, and Motion Ensemble; Les Percussions de Strasbourg; Italy’s Fontanamix; London’s Piano Circus; Slovakia’s Veni Ensemble; California EAR Unit and the Bang on a Can All-Stars; the New Zealand String Quartet and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Juliet co-founded Urbanvessel in 2006 as a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. Urbanvessel’s Stitch — for three women and three sewing machines — garnered Dora nominations for Best New Opera and Best Production and toured British Columbia in 2010. Their site-specific performance Slip at the Harrison Baths inspired a short film with director Chelsea McMullan. Awarded “Best Experimental Short” at the Toronto International Short Film Festival, screenings include Cinedans (Amsterdam), Dance Camera West (Los Angeles), Loikka Dance Film Festival (Finland) and the International Dance and Electronic Media Festival (Mexico City). Urbanvessel’s 2010 work Voice-Box, a Harbourfront Fresh Ground commission, was acclaimed as “a performance piece that smashes the boundaries between disciplines and leaves them sprawled out on the mat, down for the count” (Musicworks Magazine). With animator Miriam Harris, Palmer co-directed and scored the animated short Soaring, Roaring, Diving, named “Best Experimental Film” in the 2009 Brooklyn International Film Festival. Upcoming projects: Sweat, an a cappella opera for 12 voices, with writer Anna Chatterton and director Tim Albery for Soundstreams Canada; and Warsaw, a new experimental animated film with Miriam Harris. Palmer is currently the Creative New Zealand/Jack C. Richards Composer-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music and the Composer-in-Residence of Vector Wellington Orchestra.