This performance will take place over two nights, January 30 & 31st.

Soundless, a work composed by Ellen Fullman (Long String Instrument) and Theresa Wong (cello, electric guitar), explores the essence of string resonance to create a space of connection, empathy, and multiplicity. The piece combines the spectrally undulating drones of the Long String Instrument, rhythms created by Fullman’s uniquely designed ‘shoveler’ tool, and cello and electric guitar expanded into dimensional sound fields through four-channeled amplification. The piece was commissioned by room40 following the label’s critically acclaimed release of Fullman and Wong’s album, Harbors.

composed by
Ellen Fullman long string instrument
Theresa Wong cello, electric guitar, electronics

US Premiere, also performed at:
Brisbane Powerhouse (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney)
Theatre Garonne, Toulouse France

Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong have been collaborating since 2006, exploring new territories of string resonance in Just Intonation. Fullman’s unique Long String Instrument and Wong’s highly inventive sound palette on cello and electronics create an orchestration of expanded harmonies and composite timbres which unfold in an immersive sound field in constant flux. Their piece, Harbors was performed internationally and released to critical acclaim in 2020 on the Australian label room40. Their current project, Soundless, which premiered in 2023 at the Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, further pushes the boundaries of these explorations and includes the addition of Wong on electric guitar and Fullman’s rhythmic ‘shoveler’ tool.

After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute with a BFA in Sculpture, Ellen Fullman began developing The Long String Instrument in her St. Paul, Minnesota studio in 1980 and moved to Brooklyn the following year. Inspired by composer and instrument builder Harry Partch and Alvin Lucier’s Music on a Long Thin Wire, Fullman’s large-scale work creates droning, organ-like overtones that are as unique in the world of sound as her vision of the instrument itself. Through her research in just intonation tuning theory, string harmonics and musical instrument design, Fullman has developed a compositional and performative approach that expands harmonic motion through a focus on upper partial tones. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has resonated architectural spaces in festivals across the world including Rewire, The Hague; Musica Festival, Strasbourg; Tectonics Festival Athens and The Sydney Festival. Awards include: Guggenheim Fellowship, Music Composition (2020); Gerbode Foundation, Special Awards in the Arts (2020); Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, Music/Sound (2015); and DAAD, Artists-In-Berlin Program residency (2000). Her recordings include The Long String Instrument (Superior Viaduct, 2015), first issued on Apollo Records in 1985 and selected as the number one reissue for 2015 by the Wire. Her work was cited by Alvin Lucier in his book, Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music (Wesleyan University Press, 2012). More info can be found at: ellenfullman.com

Theresa Wong is a composer, cellist, vocalist, and intermedia artist active at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and the synergy of multiple disciplines. Her works include Fluency of Trees for solo cello and voice which premiered at the Other Minds Festival in 2022, She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees, commis­sioned in 2018 by pianist Sarah Cahill for The Future Is Female project, and The Unlearning, a multi-media song cycle inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War etchings and released on Tzadik in 2011. Recent commissions include works for San Francisco Girls Chorus, NakedEye Ensemble, Long Beach Opera, Del Sol Quartet, and Splinter Reeds. She has shared her work inter­nationally at venues including Fondation Cartier in Paris, Cafe Oto and Barbican Centre in London, San Francisco Asian Art Museum, Sydney Festival, Roulette in Brooklyn, and The Stone in New York City. Wong is a 2012 Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow and a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition. For more information, please visit theresawong.org