#  TDM Artist Spotlight: Sxip Shirey 

 





November 21, 2022

 

 

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 Each semester, we have the honor of profiling some of the incredible professional artists involved in the TDM production. Our first artist spotlight this fall shines on **Sxip Shirey**! Sxip is working as the Composer and Foley/Sound Effects Artist on the fall TDM production, *The Poacher*. Check out more of Sxip’s work at [www.sxipshirey.com](http://www.sxipshirey.com).

 **What inspires you as an artist and creative?**

 I am really driven by the sound of things. In every city I work in, I try to think, what is the sound of this city? What is the timbre of people talking in the street? In Berlin there is a gentle murmur in the evening of the people at the cafes, in Australian cities you hear birds from another time before the sun rises and feel how temporary humanity is, in NYC there are layers of white noise from traffic, the under rumble of the subway and the outward breath of buildings cooling and heating systems. Boston has very varied environments and I hear my footsteps as the steady pulse taking me from place to place. As an exercise, I always pause with my students in whatever room we are in, and we listen, really listen, it's fascinating to hear all the levels of sounds and frequency we are constantly in from room to room. "Silence" is a concept and never a reality.

 **What excites you about this TDM production?**

 I love working with puppets. I had tendonitis for two years in my 20s from playing guitar and had to stop playing music. I got involved with performance art and puppetry. Puppetry was the closest thing to music I could find. The puppet interacts with an older part of your brain. If one puppet kisses another, the audience goes "awwww", if a human actor kisses another human actor, you have to build up for an entire play to earn the same reaction. Puppet theater, like music, is pre-verbal at it's core. It's having a direct conversation with an older part of your brain.

 **What has it been like collaborating with the team on this project?**

 Kate Brehm is a fascinating director with really interesting concepts and she has put together a high-level design team. I keep getting photos of sets and puppets and my reaction is WOW! I find the way Kate teaches puppetry and physical action onstage really inspiring and I am trying to glean as much as I can. Her whole production team is great and it's just a pleasure to work with them. Also, I have to say, the tech crew at Harvard is honestly one of the best I have ever worked with. It's exciting to ask, "can we do this?" and they immediately say "we'll figure it out!" I mentioned I might want a felted piano and arrived at rehearsal to find a felted piano ready for me. I was smiling.

 **What projects are you working on next?**

 I just recorded guitar/harmonicas and sounds on an upcoming Rhiannon Giddens album, which I think will be her biggest album yet. The producer was Jack Splash and he has incredible ears. The room was filled with amazing musicians and it was an absolute joy to be a part of the session. I am working on music for a film score for artist the Swoon which has a strong stop-animation element. She is one of my favorite living visual artist. I am also finishing up an opera with co-composer Paola Prestini that will be set as 3-D audio, which is an exciting new challenge.



 

 

 



 

 

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