Frances-Marie Uitti

Cello, composer, improvisor

"...eight notes from a solo cello! The piece of Frances-Marie Uitti, Ricercar, composed in 1987 gave the unbelieveable sensation of an entire string quartet!" Liberation, Paris. György Kurtág, Luigi Nono, Giacinto Scelsi, Louis Andriessen, Jonathan Harvey, Richard Barrett, Sylvano Bussoti are amongst those who have used this technique in their works dedicated to her. Collaborating significantly over years with radicals, Dick Raaijmakers, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi, she has also worked closely with Iannis Xenakis, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough and countless composers from the new generation.

Frances-Marie Uitti tours extensively throughout the world, having played for audiences from New York City to Mongolia and appears regularly in such festivals as the Biennale Di Venezia, Strasbourg Festival, Gulbenkian Festival Ars Musica, Holland Festival and for radio and television in Europe, Japan, and the United States. She premiered cello concerti dedicated to her by Per Norgaard and Jonathan Harvey, and will give the first performance of the cello concerto of William Jeths in 2000. Peter Nelson is writing a work for her with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Canadian composer Rodney Sharman is also mulling over a cello concerto for her.

Frances-Marie Uitti collaborates with pianist Rolf Hind, classical pianist Alwin Bar, film makers Frank Scheffer and Frans Zwaartjes, avantgarde guitarist Elliott Sharp, accordionist Pauline Oliveros, DJ Scanner, DJ Low, and Stephen Vitiello and video master Ferenc van Damme. Her compositons can be heard on Uitti 2 Bows, Uitti/Vitiello, Uitti/Dresser, Edipan Recordings, Etcetera label, BV Haast, JdK priductions Cri, Raretone, Wergo, Cryptogramophone, Mode and Hat Hut.

Frances-Marie Uitti is now writing an extensive book for the University of California Press on Twentieth Century String Techniques. In this she will cover all the developments and expansions of the cello from 1915 until the present and also include composer interviews that will provide performance practice ideas and suggestions for selected repertoire. The book is massive at 60.000 words and will contain illustrations of techniques, musical scores as well as a cd with demonstrated sounds from the book.

Due for release is her chapter on The Frontiers of Technique in the Cambridge University Press Companion to the Cello. Professor Robin Stowell is the editor of this collection of essays from leading and practicing cellists from around the world.

Reviews

'The Uitti style expands the range of the cello into untested possibilities. She proved also to be a formidable, intrepid musician; none of her boggling feats seemed mere tricks,but were laden with sense and feeling.Uitti's acrobatic finesse left us awestricken.'

David Murray, Financial Times, London
 

'Frances-Marie Uitti is a riveting virtuoso; her playing is invariably intense; she often favors music by visionary composers.'

Los Angeles Herald
 

'FRANCES-MARIE UITTI IS A LEGEND'

De Standaard, Brussels
 

'The most notable feature of this drama was the superlative feverish playing of Frances-Marie Uitti'

Paul Griffiths, The Times, London
 

'DE FABELHAFTE CELLISTIN FRANCES-MARIE UITTI'

Neue Zuricher Zeitung
 

'Cello-Legende!'

Die Zeit, Graz, Austria - November 1997
 

'De fenomenale dubbele stok'

J Oskamp - Groene Amsterdammer - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
 

'La femme aux deux bows'

Pierre Hemptinne - "Disco Graphie 17" - Cordes frotttes - Dtcembre 1995 - Belgium
 

'But I did find two extraordinary individual Cage stylists at these concerts ... cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, who repeated her afternoon performance of "Etudes Boreales" ... at Cage's request and not only played with the heat of a high-tension wire and unfailing control and beauty of tone, a virtuoso feat in itself, but also -- which is exactly what Cage wants -- as if each note were a new creation entirely unconnected to anything that had come before.'

Village Voice
 

Jonathan Harvey's THREE SKETCHES FOR SOLO CELLO (1989)

Three sketches was first performed by Frances-Marie Uitti at the Berlin Festival in 1991. The composer's own programme note says: 'These three short pieces were written for and explore the extraordinary creative virtuosity of Frances-Marie Uitti.'

Contact details and further information

Written and classical music:

On Stage Productions
Iris de Goot
onstage@wxs.nl

and

Stichting Haast
Susanna von Canon
wbk@xs4all.nl

Improvised music:

JdK Productions
Roomtuintjes 20
1093 SN Amsterdam
Netherlands
+031 (20) 663-0559
jdkprod@xs4all.nl

E-mail Frances-Marie Uitti

For further details, see Frances-Marie Uitti