Biography
Emily Hay is a flutist, vocalist and pianist who extends the traditional roles and capabilities of her instruments by blending contemporary classical technique with the spontaneity and experimentation of free improvisation. The results are startling interpretations of sound and intense ensemble interaction. Her explorations on C flute, alto flute, bass flute and piccolo embody unusual tone colors and soaring rhythmic structures, augmented by electronically generated effects blended with unusual and extended vocalizations ranging from primal to operatic with lyrics and sounds from the stream of consciousness.
Hay is an active member of the "outside” music community and has performed in avant garde, art rock, free improvisation, electro-acoustical and contemporary classical ensembles such as U Totem, Motor Totemist Guild, The 5 UU's, Otherparts, I Am Umbrella, Adam Rudolph's Go: Organic Orchestra, The Emily Hay Collective, Rich West‘s Ensemble, Rent Romus’ Manala Ensemble, The Jeff Kaiser Okodektet, The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble and her own ensemble, Hay Fever. Recordings of her work have been released on Cuneiform Records, Recommended Records, Nine Winds, Meta Records, pfMentum, Public Eyesore and Dragnet Records. She tours and performs throughout Europe and No. America with concert highlights at the Bimhuis/Amsterdam, The Stone/NYC, the Ottomat/Italy, New Music America Festival/Montreal, Outsound New Music Summit/San Francisco, Art Rock Festival/Frankfurt, Sonic Circuits Festival/Washington D.C./, Kulturni Dom/Yugoslavia, Staion de Art Sankt Peter/Cologne, Spark Festival/Minneapolis, Boise Experimental Music Festival/Boise, the Shapeshifter Lab/NYC and the Reithalle/Switzerland.
Hay works in entertainment business law specializing in music and film contracts, touring and performance agreements, music publishing administration and U.S. copyright law. She has represented top entertainment clients and celebrities as a paralegal for entertainment law firms such as Rimon Law, Loeb & Loeb, Ziffren, Brittenham & Branca and King Holmes, Paterno & Soriano and supervised numerous film and television soundtracks while working in executive positions for film studios such as Tri Star Pictures.
As a former co-host of the radio show, "Trilogy", on KXLU 88.9FM Los Angeles (www.kxlu.com), Hay presented live performances and guest interviews with musicians and composers of the avant-garde, free jazz, improvisation, contemporary classical, experimental and electronic music genres. Hay was Music Director for the Beyond Baroque Foundation in Venice, CA where she curated and promoted the New Music Across America Festival as well as other live experimental music events featuring local and touring performers such as Fred Frith, Tom Cora, John Adams and David Moss.
Born in rural Virginia, Emily Hay earned a BFA in music from Bard College in NY an MFA in music from California Institute of the Arts, studied jazz and musical improvisation with Karl Berger, Dave Holland and Roswell Rudd, flute with Samuel Baron, Claude Monteaux, Julius Baker, James Walker and Patricia Spencer, piano with German Diaz and Chet Swiatkowski, composition and theory with Joan Tower, Mel Powell, Benjamin Boretz, Luis Garcia-Renart and Eli Yarden.