About Ruby
I am a Baltimore-based musician and composer who writes music which invites listeners to explore non-musical ideas through sound. My musical portfolio includes explorations of mental illness, Buddhism, philosophy, psychedelic drugs, addiction, and chess strategy; and profiles of iconic popular figures like the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and musicians Syd Barrett and Whitney Houston.
I am a multi-instrumentalist, performing on and writing for violin, flugelhorn, and keys. Much of my… more
I am a multi-instrumentalist, performing on and writing for violin, flugelhorn, and keys. Much of my… more
TEACHER: Elementary School to University
-
Pass in C MinorPeabody Preparatory Theory 2 class of 2011, final project, group composition.
-
Notasonata in Six PartsPeabody Preparatory Theory 4 class of 2011, final project, group composition.
-
Columbia Summer String GroupGroup of middle school string students in Columbia, MD playing Rondeau by Mouret, summer of 2011.
-
Pinderhughes Group ViolinA group of fourth graders at Pinderhughes Elementary School in Baltimore, where I taught group violin classes in 2008. -
Posture PictureOne of my private violin students showing her good violin hand. -
Peabody Preparatory Music TheoryTwo of my music theory students at the Peabody Preparatory, playing piano after class. -
Waldorf BowholdsTwo of my violin students at the Waldorf School of Baltimore, showing their beautiful bowholds. -
unruly voices and sights -
"The Drop"In 2011, I spent a week in New York City to participate in the SONIC Festival. I worked with middle school students in New York City at the Booker T. Washington Middle School on a group composition, made possible by a New Partnerships grant from Music Alive and Meet the Composer. Here is a video of the students playing their original composition "The Drop" which we composed together in one two-hour session.
PERFORMER/COLLABORATOR: Performing Projects
-
"The Love Song Never Died" by Cameron Blake with string arrangement by Ruby Fulton"As the set progressed Cameron Blake and company played a set of songs that warranted the use of adjectives like beautiful, delicate and uplifting. "The Love Song Never Died" was most encompassing of such descriptions and was further re-enforced by the captivation of the audience as the strings and percussion arrangements danced around Cameron's voice and keys." (Matt Kelley, What Weekly, 1/6/11)
-
Mobtown Modern rehearsalI've played violin in a couple of Mobtown Modern shows. Here's a picture from a rehearsal of John Luther Adams' piece "The Light Within" from September 2008, at the Baltimore Contemporary Art Museum. I also played with them on some hip hop arrangements in the "Loopy" show from September 2009 at Metro Gallery, in Erik Spangler's piece "Mandala of the Four Directions" at the MICA Brown Center in April, 2010, and in a Osvaldo Golijov showcase at the Windup Space in spring, 2011. -
"In C" at the Soft House, strings - me, Andrew Histand, Zach BranchOver 30 Baltimore musicians from various bands performed Terry Riley's seminal minimalist masterpiece "In C" at the Soft House in the Copycat Building in January, 2010. Photo from the Baltimore Citypaper. -
Yeveto with Horns at ArtscapeBaltimore instrumental rock quartet Yeveto invited me and three other horn players to join them for their set at Artscape 2012. I played flugelhorn in the horn section which also included alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, and bassoon. -
Ben Frock's Love Unit at the Creative AllianceThe idea for Love Unit came to Ben Frock while finishing his undergraduate studies at Peabody. He wanted to combine his love of French composer Olivier Messiaen's approach to harmony with the layered ostinatos of Rick James, Quincy jones era Michael Jackson, and afro Cuban folkloric music. Basically, really weird but pop-friendly and danceable music. These elements are combined with an oversized orchestra loosely resembling the instrumentation of a 1940's big band format. I play trumpet in the band. Love Unit has played at the Windup Space, the Creative Alliance and the Fifth Dimension in the H&H Building. -
Kiss Kiss Players at Joe SquaredThe kisskiss players provide custom made chamber music for special events in and around Baltimore, Maryland. We’re conservatory-trained musicians who also play in rock bands. Our repertoire spans from Bach and Handel to Radiohead and Neutral Milk Hotel. I play violin in the trio. Besides many weddings at various locations, we have played shows at Joe Squared, Clay Pots, and Center Stage. -
Three Red Crowns at the Delancey, NYCThree Red Crowns is saxophones, strings, bass, and drums (and sometimes piano, marimba, vocals, and trumpet too). Three Red Crowns is new music, rock, pulse, jazz, classical, dub, and pop. Three Red Crowns is lush and vivid, violent and livid. Three Red Crowns, through original compositions by John Paul Carillo and Anna Meadors, creates music that connects the drive of drums with the nuance of strings, blown over the top by soloing saxophone—everything amplified; ensemble electrified! I play violin and viola in the band. Three Red Crowns has played at Metro Gallery, Windup Space, and Artscape 2011. -
Leaf HouseLeaf House began in Baltimore in 2011 with Ruby Fulton on synthesizers, Michael Shank on guitar, and DJ Rice on drums. At the time Ruby and Michael were in the band We Used To Be Family; they had also previously collaborated in Ike Shark Inc. DJ is known as an artist and as a solo musician under the name Teenage Souls. As the band formulated an aesthetic they decided to add a vocalist. Rajni Sharma, who also sings with Three Red Crowns, joined adding a strong sense of melody and hooks. Leaf House’s music pulls from classic minimalism, maximalist spazz rock, and avant pop. The band is currently working on integrating cello from Andrew Histand, also a former member of We Used To Be Family. The group plans on releasing a series of singles in 2013. Leaf House has played at the Windup Space, the Copycat Annex, the Copycat, Liam Flynn's Alehouse, Mobtown Studios Microshow, and Birkfest. -
Barnyard Sharks at the Windup SpaceThe Barnyard Sharks is a nine-piece funk-punk-folk-rock-everything band featuring local celebrities front man Baynard Woods (CityPaper writer) and drummer Aaron Henkin (host of WYPR's The Signal). I play flugelhorn in this band. We've played shows at the Windup Space, Liam Flynn's Ale House, Fraisers, Center Stage, and outdoors on the Station North Stage at Artscape 2012. -
Impatience Machine at the Baltimore Free FarmImpatience Machine is a minimalist quartet of brass, guitars, and interactive electronics coded by two of the band members. I play flugehorn in the band. We are a new project as of summer, 2012. We have played at the Windup Space, the Baltimore Free Farm, the Bohemian Coffee House, and on the Wham City stage at HonFest in Hampden.
DIRECTOR: Rhymes With Opera
-
RWO production of "Missed Connections""George Lam refers to RWO's collaborative work "Missed Connections" (2009) as a "public service announcement." With text extracted from the local Craigslist, singers are outfitted with laptops and seated among café patrons. I was reminded of Christian Wolff and Pauline Oliveros, composers who have historically embraced audience participation." (Karen Moorman, Classical Voice of North Carolina, 3/7/09) -
Rhymes With Opera company after a house show in Philadelphia."So swap your pearls for a pair of earplugs - you might just find that opera can rock afterall." (Emily Currier, Philadelphia Citypaper, 5/13/10) -
RWO performing Gestenstücke at the Gershwin Hotel in New York"RWO cranked up the energy beginning the second half with Juan Maria Solare's work for four mimes, "Gestenstücke" (2008). Orff-trained public school music teachers would have applauded this delightful means of silencing a noisy audience. Looking us straight in the eye, there was no hint of performance anxiety, a great hook." (Karen Moorman, Classical Voice of North Carolina, 3/7/09) -
RWO poster for "Book of Gazes""Rhymes With Opera unveiled the world premier of Book of Gazes, a composition by Jenny Olivia Johnson, at the Annex Theatre this weekend. The production, featuring the hip hop band Soul Cannon, was said by Johnson to be rooted in the recollection of a dream that she once had. While dreams are often the impetus for creativity, they can often be the most difficult subject to render. Book of Gazes frames its theme elegantly." (What Weekly review, May 19, 2010) -
"Criminal Element" by David Smooke, excerptIn the Spring of 2011, RWO toured with a "non-opera" by Baltimore composer David Smooke. Tim Smith reviewed our Baltimore performance at Windup Space for the Baltimore Sun. "However 'Criminal Element' is ultimately classified genre-wise, it adds up to a highly creative, absorbing experience."
-
Rhymes With Opera PosterAnother poster for a RYO production "Red Giant" Watercolor, gouache,ink 2012 11x17 -
Rhymes With Opera before "Ketamyth"In December of 2011, RWO toured "Ketamyth", a collaboration between me (music) and Baltimore City Paper writer Baynard Woods (words). Several months later, I was chosen as one of Urbanite Magazines seven 2012 Changemakers, in part based on a performance of "Ketamyth" at Liam Flynn's Ale House. Urbanite writer Rebecca Messner had this to say about RWO and the show: "Her most notable project of late has been Rhymes With Opera- a company she co-founded with George Lam, a Brooklyn-based musician and composer who also studied at Peabody. The opera group aims to change popular perception of experimental vocal music by collaborating with artists of various disciplines and performing in non-traditional venues, like art galleries, restaurants, community spaces- even bars. ... At December's performance of the opera at Liam Flynn's Ale House on North Avenue, the company majestically inhabited the dark, candlelit space, the recordings of Woods's deep voice reverberated, and the sheer unconventionality of it - Opera? In a pub?- kept the audience rapt. Fulton says, in all her works, she's looking to translate ideas into sound. 'It's easier to communicate with opera,' she says, 'because there are words.'" -
Rhymes With Opera on North Avenue"Rhymes With Opera ... is dedicated to bringing original contemporary opera works out of the concert hall and into unconventional performance spaces. Rhymes With's first local production is "One-Track Mind"--which features two chamber operas, "Closer to Mona" (libretto by Amy Kirsten, music by Fulton) and "Heartbreak Express" (libretto by John Clum, music by Lam), and includes local performers, vocalists, and musicians--and it launches the company's summer minitour, which takes it down to Durham and up to New York. DIY touring opera: That's the punkest thing we've heard about this week." (Bret McCabe, Baltimore City Paper Critic's Pick, 5/28/10) -
Rhymes With Opera logoRhymes With Opera presents new opera in unconventional spaces, creating new connections between the work, the place where it is performed, and the audience. We engage different artists to collaborate and experiment in creating new works, stretching the boundaries of opera. 2012 has been a big year for RWO as we've become a 501(c)3 and formed our first board of directors. Our 2012/2013 season includes three shows in Baltimore - December, 2012 at the 2640 Space; March, 2013 at the City Arts Gallery; and July, 2013, venue TBD.
TRAVELER: Festivals & Residencies Around the World
-
2007 Bang on a Can Summer Music FestivalMy musical life changed in the summer of 2007 upon attending the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival in North Adams, MA as a composer fellow. With a class of seven composers from the Netherlands, Australia, Uzbekistan, France and the United States, I spent three weeks in masterclasses with Bang on a Can founding composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe. I learned more in that three weeks than in ten years of higher education in music school! Pictured here is a group of composer and perfumer fellows after a long hike in the mountains of Western Massachusetts. -
2007 A•Devantgarde Festival, with composer David LangMy first big commission came from the 2007 A•devantgarde Festival in Munich, Germany. I traveled to attend rehearsals of my piece "Obstruction Beautiful" and to attend the weeks worth of concerts at different venues across the city. David Lang also had a piece being performed on the Festival and it was really cool to have him in attendance at the concert with my piece on it. I will return to Munich this summer to be featured on the 2013 A•devantgarde Festival. -
2008 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary MusicI was chosen along with two other young composers to have a new piece workshopped by student conductors at the 2008 Cabrillo Composer/Conductor Workshop in Santa Cruz, CA. The Cabrillo Festival is Marin Alsop's summer festival and it was very cool to observe her coaching young conductors as they rehearsed and performed my piece "Road Ranger Cowboy." I also worked with mentor composers John Corigliano and Michael Daugherty. -
2008 Atlantic Center for the Arts, discussion with composer David LangI spent three weeks in April of 2008 working with composer David Lang at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL. Getting to work with David, one of my favorite composers of all time, is always exciting - but this residency was even more amped up by the fact that David had just won the Pulitzer Prize the day before the residency started. -
2009 Apeldoorn Young Composers MeetingIn February of 2009, I traveled to Apeldoorn, a village in the Netherlands, to take part in the 2009 Young Composers Meeting hosted by the International Gaudeamus Music Week and the Cultural Centre Gigant. I exchanged ideas about new music with other young composers from Ireland, Serbia, Lithuania, China, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Russia. -
Yaddo Artist Colony, 2009In the spring of 2009, I spent several weeks composing on the beautiful grounds of Yaddo, a 400-acre estate in Saratoga Springs, NY. I composed three pieces while I was there, and also ate dinner every night with writers, visual artists and fellow musicians from around the world. -
Jo Brown, Light (©2014) 20x16 oil on archival canvas board 9.10.14.5 IMG_0608Original 2014 fine oil painting by American abstract realist Jo Brown, depicting beautiful fast-moving cumulus clouds casting shadows over water and sea grass with the dunes of Provincetown in the distance. Painted alla prima, en plein air, in Orleans, Massachusetts, Cape Cod, USA at 4pm, mid-tide, 9.10.14. 20" x 16" -
2010 Tanglewood Music Festival, ComposersI spent two months in the summer of 2010 as a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA. Pictured here is the entire 2010 class of composer fellows from around the world, with mentor composers Augusta Read Thomas, Bernard Rands and John Harbison. -
2010 Gaudeamus Music WeekMy orchestra piece "Road Ranger Cowboy" was nominated for the 2010 Gaudeamus Prize so I traveled to Amsterdam for the festival. Pictured is a public pre-concert talk with a Dutch radio host. I blogged about my experience on NewMusicBox, a multimedia publication from New Music USA dedicated to the music of American composers and improvisors, and their champions. -
SONiC FestivalI traveled to New York City in October, 2011 for the SONiC Festival, Sounds of a New Century, featuring music of composers under 40. The American Composers Orchestra played "Road Ranger Cowboy" on the closing concert of the festival, with a live broadcast on WNYC. While at the Festival, I also spent a day working with middle school string students at Booker T. Middle School, MS 54, on a group composition, made possible for a New Partnerships grant from Music Alive and Meet the Composer, which I received for working with ACO. I also sat on a panel discussion at the New School about composing in the 21st century, with several other composers from the Festival, moderated by Richard Kessler, Dean of Mannes College/The New School.
COMPOSER: Ruby Fulton, Concert Music
-
Urbanite Changemaker Profilephotograph by Joe Giordano -
Being for the Breakdown live at ScapeScape 2012I presented a set of my music on the 2012 ScapeScape Festival, a celebration of the Baltimore music scene. Marimba player David Degge performed "Being for the Breakdown." "Breakdown" was originally written for solo marimba, and I arranged it for string quartet in 2010. Tim Smith wrote a review of a string quartet performance of the piece in the Baltimore Sun in June, 2011. "Ruby Fulton’s ‘Being for the Breakdown’ proved engaging, from the opening melody trying to break out over pizzicato patterns to the octave-obsessed reflections at the end."
-
KETAMYTH at Liam Flynn's Ale House"For KETAMYTH, Rhymes with Opera's last major performance, Fulton worked with a libretto written by...Baynard Woods, who combined English excerpts from authors like Rainer Maria Rilke, T. S. Eliot, and James Joyce with ancient Greek and Latin texts. Woods recorded himself reading the Greek and Latin parts as a pronunciation guide, but instead of passing the recording along to her singers, Fulton chopped it up and played it back live. The result was electrifying. At December's performance of the opera at Liam Flynn's Ale House on North Avenue, the company majestically inhabited the dark, candlelit space, the recordings of Woods's deep voice reverberated and the sheer unconventionality of it - Opera? In a pub? - kept the audience rapt." -
Deep Sleep live at Artscape 2012I presented a set of music at Worlds in Collusion, High Zero's experimental music showcase during the 2012 Artscape Festival. "Deep Sleep" is a piece which I perform solo, and it is the first in a series of pieces I plan to write for myself to perform. I also performed it at the 2012 ScapeScape Festival and at the Ear Candy Concert in November, 2012 at the Shenandoah Conservatory, where I recently joined the composition faculty. "Deep Sleep" is not notated but rather stored in my head, and in this way, it could be considered "non-classical." It is for work like this which I was awarded a 2012 Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, in the category of "non-classical composition."
-
Deadlock in rehearsal: with beatboxer Shodekeh and conductor Eli WirthI recently collaborated with Baltimore Beatboxer Shodekeh to compose Deadlock, a showcase piece for him with a full orchestra. The music is based on a chess game and Shodekeh has performed it with the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra (Eli Wirth, FRYO conductor, pictured), the Boulder Philharmonic. In January, 2013, Shodekeh will perform Deadlock again with the Shreveport Symphony in Louisiana. -
Half the Way DownHalf the Way Down, commissioned by the Lotus Ensemble, performed at the Windup Space in March, 2011. Here's a review of the piece from Stephen Brookes in the Washington Post: "Baltimore composer Ruby Fulton’s Half the Way Down explored the tragic mental breakdown of Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett and convincingly conveyed the sense of a mind becoming increasingly unmoored."
-
Road Ranger Cowboy (excerpt) performed by the 2008 Cabrillo Festival Orchestra"Hearing new classical music composed by people who look like your old college roommate is pretty amazing. Ruby Fulton’s “Road Ranger Cowboy” had the most intense straight-up crazy timing of maybe any piece of music I have heard. It was unbelievable. When she stood up to take a bow, she looked like the barista at your coffee shop. LOVE IT." Online review of a New York City performance of "Road Ranger Cowboy" by the American Composers Orchestra
-
Holland Symfonia after playing Road Ranger CowboyTaking a bow after a performance of "Road Ranger Cowboy" by the Holland Symfonia, at the 2010 Gaudeamus New Music Festival in Amsterdam. When "Road Ranger Cowboy" was performed in at the Sonic Festival, Zachary Woolfe wrote a review of the event for the New York Times. Ruby Fulton’s ‘Road Ranger Cowboy,’ a straightforward country tune that gradually distorted, was the only work with a whiff of politics in a concert that was just a few blocks from the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. -
The EndA subset of the amplified new music ensemble Newspeak played my piece "The End" on the 2012 Bang on a Can Marathon. Here's an excerpt from a review of the event by Alan Young, blogging for "Lucid Culture": "Ruby Fulton’s The End, sung by Mellissa Hughes with Dither’s Taylor Levine on uke and M Shanghai String Band’s Philippa Thompson on spoons, made a good segue. Inspired by the Beatles’ The End – as Fulton explained, one of the few places on record where Ringo ever took a bonafide drum solo – its hypnotic, insistent rhythm and Hughes’ otherworldly harmonies in tandem with the drones and then overtones rising from Levine’s repetitive chords built an increasingly complex sense of implied melody, as captivating as it was clever."
-
Bang on a Can Marathon 25th AnniversaryI was thrilled to have a piece included on the Bang on a Can 25th Anniversary Marathon show. I was even more excited to arrive at the event and find my name in the description inside the front cover of the programs: "The Marathon concert is the heart and soul of Bang on a Can. For the past 25 years we have been all over this town and our annual 12-hour-plus Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City has become one of the most diverse, open and exciting music events in the world. This year is no different – from cult heroine Pauline Oliveros, who appeared on the very first Bang on a Can Marathon in 1987, to the fresh faced Ruby Fulton, from the resonant reverberations of Alvin Lucier to the thrashing of Thurston Moore, from the intricacy of Kaki King’s riffs to the density of Lois V Vierk’s guitars, the world of music still seems very large and spectacular to us. That’s why we like it. We know that’s why you like it too."
