Diamanda Galas

A resident of New York City since 1989, Diamanda Galás was born to Anatolian and Greek parents, who always encouraged her gift for piano. She studied a wide range of musical forms, as well as visual-art performance, before moving to Europe. There she made her performance debut at the Festival d'Avignon in France in 1979, performing the lead in the opera, "Un Jour comme un autre," by composer Vinko Globokar, based upon the Amnesty International documentation of the arrest and torture of a Turkish woman for alleged treason. Galás released her first recorded work in 1982, and her numerous musical and theatrical works have since included the pivotal Plague Mass (1990), the haunting mass for People with AIDS; Vena Cava (1992), the solo voice and electronic work concerning AIDS dementia and clinical depression; Schrei 27 (1996), which deals with torture in isolation; the concerts/recordings of Malediction and Prayer (1998), Judgment Day, Concert for the Damned, The Masque of the Red Death (1984 - 1988), and most recently, La Serpenta Canta (2004), a greatest-hits collection from Hank Williams to Ornette Coleman, and Defixiones, Will and Testament (2004). Galás is currently working on the composition and commissioning of the opera, Nekropolis. In 2005 she was awarded Italy’s prestigious Demetrio Stratos International Career Award. 2007 will see the MUTE release of her new album, Guilty Guilty Guilty, featuring tragic and homicidal love songs.