Nora York

Nora York is a singer, performance artist and composer. She has been awarded two New York State Council on the Arts Composers’ Commissions 2001 and 2009. The recent NYSCA was awarded for Jump – York’s artistic response to Puccini’s Tosca in collaboration with playwright David Greenspan, director JoAnne Akalaitis, and artist Kiki Smith. The Public Theater commissioned and produced a workshop that premiered in Under The Radar Festival January 2011.

With four CDs in release, York has performed her music on concert and festival stages throughout the U.S. and internationally. Venues include Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, and Merkin Hall in New York City. The Brooklyn Academy of Music commissioned York’s project Power/Play – also performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2006 Biennial and Penn State University. From 2004-09 York was a writer and cast member of “The Thalia Follies,” a political cabaret at Symphony Space, NYC. In ‘05 York received Back Stage magazine’s “Bistro Award” for outstanding achievement.

Ms. York’s collaborations with visual artists include FOXFIRE with Nancy Spero – awarded the Franklin Furnace Future of the Present Grant – performed at Exit Art NYC. (Nov. 2012) The Richmond Art Center at University of Western Michigan invited York to perform selections from Foxfire along with Trip Switch – a new concert/performance event that incorporates images from artists Kiki Smith, Jerry Kearns, Leon Golub, Ann Messner, Amanda Tiller, Kate Teale, and Jane Dickson. She has created site-specific music performances at The Brooklyn museum, Lincoln Center, Exit Art NYC, Chelsea Art Museum, Kent Gallery, and Smack Mellon in Brooklyn. Her collaborative work with Indian Dancer Rajika Puri, Union/Severed, was presented at The Asia Society, NYC.

York has scored for film and TV – Recent work includes featured music for Methadonia, (HBO doc – opened the ‘05 NY Film Festival. She has also co-composed (with James E. Lawrence) the title song and score for Klimawechsel, the first television series by German filmmaker Doris Dorrie. Contributions Dorrie films include Me and Him, Paradise, The Fisherman’s Wife, 2005 (soundtrack album on Virgin Records/EMI).

Nora York is cited in the “Visionaries and Eclectics” section of “Growing Up with Jazz,” by W. Royal (Oxford University Press, 2005). York has been on the faculty of Tisch School of Drama at New York University since 1997.