Chiyoko Szlavnics’s room

A room of one's own is at once literal, and metaphorical. It is both physical, and a state of mind. In both cases, room must be made for it. Time and space must be allocated, and defended.

A physical space, a quiet, secluded space, is a necessity for most artists–even if they then inject it with sounds, as painters often do, or as musicians and composers are apt to do! But every artist–and for that matter, every human–also draws inspiration and energy from a space within. This particular space contains one's self-identity. It is where one can be intimate with oneself, and with art. It is where one can find, and draw on the power of the imagination–it is where that which can be imagined emerges because that which is external (pressures, obligations) are left outside the room's door.

(1967 Toronto, Canada)

Chiyoko Szlavnics is a composer and saxophonist working both in Europe and in Canada. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1989, she was a member of Hemispheres Music Projects (1992-1997) and 40 fingers saxophone quartet (1994-1998), contributing several compositions to both ensembles.
During that period, she studied composition with James Tenney in Toronto. Szlavnics¹ works have been performed at numerous festivals and concerts by ensembles which include Arraymusic, Surplus (Éclat Festival, Stuttgart), Quartett Avance (Darmstadt), and New Music Concerts.
Some of these concerts were recorded by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and SDR. Since receiving a year-long Fellowship Grant from the Akademie Schloß Solitude in 1997 (Juror: Christian Wolff), Szlavnics has been based in Berlin, where she continues to work with contemporary ensembles and musicians, with a particular focus on microtonality and just intonation. She has recently become co-artistic director, with Peter Ablinger, of Zwischentöne.