JILL BURTON

Jill is a courageous performer equally at home with improv and rigorous set pieces. She is good in small smokey bars and large opera halls. Jill plays the room, the physical space but more importantly she plays the people. Her voice is comic, moving, sophisticated yet earthy.

Jill performed extensively in the downtown NY performance art scene. She worked with David First and his microtonal orchestra and rock band and also commissioned solo works from him. She worked with Ruth Malaczeck, R.I.P. Hayman and Ned Sublette on Fireworks! A Chinese Country Western Opera. She worked with writer/composer Kevin Jones and co-directed and wrote for the band Hizohi with Rain Worthington, Jane Scarpantoni, Kumiko Kimoto and Yuval Gabay; and directed and wrote for a string sextet and an eight piece avant-rock band.

Jill has received grants/awards from the Florida Arts Council Interdisciplinary Fellowship, New Forms Florida, Meet the Composer, Gainesville Department of Cultural Affairs and the Harn Museum. She's appeared in festivals including Bang on a Can, New Directions, New Voices, New Music America, Microtonal Festival, Soundings, Sound and Substance, Women in Improv, Thompkins Square Park Festival and others.

In the early 1990's, Jill directed, composed for, and recorded with the experimental vocal quartet, SUMAC; performed Noh dance with Hideo Sekino and collaborated with Christy Sheffield Sanford and Scott Walton on the spoken opera, The H's: The Spasms of a Requiem. She worked with the New World Music Ensemble; appeared solo in the Florida Dance Festival and at the SubTropics Music Festival collaborated with Gustavo Matamoros and Luciana Proano; SUMAC; and George Lewis, Charles Austin, Phil Gelb and Yi Yi.

In the mid 1990's Jill lived in Miami and performed solo at the Miami Beach Public Library and the University of Miami and with various artists/groups: Doug Floyd and John Signor; Vance Moulton and The Other Ensemble; Dan Froot, David Dorfman and the Black Sheep. She collaborated with composer Betty Keig and performed at the National Association of Arts Organizations Conference. She also taught Voice at the New World School of the Arts and presented workshops for the University of Miami Composers' Forum. the University of California, San Diego, the National High School Dance Festival and the Florida School of Massage. Jill resides in Atlanta and can be reached here. Pictures of Jill Burton by Donna Mitchell.

Christy Sheffield Sanford, Copyright © 1996.