Beatriz Mercedes Ferreyra (born 21 June 1937) is anArgentine composer. She lives and works inHameau de Hodeng, France.
Ferreyra was born inCordoba,Argentina, and studied piano withCelia Bronstein inBuenos Aires. She continued her study of music withNadia Boulanger inParis,[1] and worked withEarle Brown andGyörgy Ligeti inGermany.
In 1963 she took a position in the research department of the Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise (ORTF), working with theGroupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM)[2] directed byPierre Schaeffer.[3]
She assisted withHenri Chiarucci's andGuy Reibel'sRapport entre la hauteur et la fondamentale d'un son musical, published in 1966 inRevue Internationale d'Audiologie and Pierre Schaeffer'sSolfège de l'Objet Sonore. During this time she also lectured at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.[4]
In 1973, Ferreyra was invited to write the music forFiorella Mariani's filmHomo Sapiens[5] (Fiorella is the niece of filmmakerRoberto Rossellini). The hour-long work was completely electroacoustic, for which Ferreyra also did the performing, editing, and mixing.
Mariani's film weaves together footage of people in different groups interacting in both performative and quotidian tasks. The music by Ferreyra is important to weave together a sense of continuity as the film itself presents the contradictions of reality in these different scenarios.[6]
She worked withBernard Baschet and his Structures Sonores in 1970, and served residencies in electronic music withDartmouth College in 1976 and in 1998.
In 2015 Ferreyra toured and released an album with Christine Groult,Nahash, on trAce label.[7] The work was commissioned by former of INA-GRM artistic director Christian Zanesi in 2011. The live recording features Ferreyra using "four Revox tape recorders, augmented with an analog matrix and a synchronizer box with self-designed variable speed drives."[8]
Ferreyra has released several albums in the 21st century to critical acclaim. While some of these are re-releases of important earlier works, she has also continued to create new work and perform live (see below, live performance from Festival Zeppelin, 2015), as well as give acoustic composition workshops.[9]
Ferreyra continues to perform internationally commissioned works for concerts and festivals and has also previously composed for ballet, film, radio, television and music therapy. She is an honorary member of CIME/IMC UNESCO. Selected works include:
Her works have been issued on CD and vinyl, including:
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