Andrea Parkins

Teaches at Harvestworks | Digital Media Arts Center

Andrea Parkins is a composer, sound artist and improvising electroacoustic performer who engages with interactive electronics as compositional/performative process, and explores strategies related to Fluxus’ ordered, ephemeral activities. 

She is an integral participant of the New York sound art and experimental music communities, and known worldwide for her pioneering gestural/textural approach on her electronically-processed accordion and self-designed virtual sound-processing instrument. Described as a “sound-ist,” of “protean,” talent by music critic Steve Smith, Parkins’ laptop electronics and Fender-amped accordion create sonic fields of lush harmonics and sculpted electronic feedback, punctuated by moments of gap and rift.
Parkins’ compositions include multi-diffusion site-based installations featuring amplified objects, electroacoustic solo and ensemble pieces, electronic music pieces, and live scores/sound design for dance and film. Her work has been presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen, Diapason, and Experimental Intermedia; and international festivals/venues including Mexico City’s 1st International Sound Art Festival, NEXT in Bratislava, Cyberfest in St. Petersberg, and Q-02 in Brussels. Parkins records and performs as a solo artist and has collaborated with sonic innovators such as Otomo Yoshihide, David Watson, John Butcher, and Nels Cline, among many others. On an ongoing basis, Parkins develops her primary performance project, a series of interactive audio/visual works inspired by Rube Goldberg’s circuitous machines.

Parkins’ recordings have been published by Important Records, Atavistic, and Creative Sources, and her work has received support from American Composers Forum, NYSCA, the French-American Cultural Exchange, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, and Frei und Hanseastadt Hamburg Kulturbehoerde. Parkins is on faculty at Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program.