Mary Jane Leach

"I am fascinated with sound phenomena: the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact in space."

Mary Jane Leach's music focuses on the properties of sound in space, shifting timbres and addressing the total performance environment. In the 1980s, she began composing choral music for female voices and since then she has focused on this genre.

Leach has been Composer in Residence at Sankt Peter Köln. Her compositions have been performed at Experimental Intermedia (New York), The Music Gallery (Toronto), Kunsthalle Bremen, Stadtgarten Köln, Apollohuis (Eindhoven, Holland), Logos (Gent, Belgium), Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), Bang on a Can (New York), Subtropics Festival (Miami), Sound Symposium 6 (Newfoundland), Experimentelle Musik Festival (Munich), and Music Today (Tokyo). Her music has been performed by New York Treble Singers, Relache, Bermuda Triangle, and Guy Klucevsek, and heard on NPR, CBC (Canada), Radio Bremen, and Westdeutscher Rundfunk. She has received awards from NEA, New York State Council for the Arts, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.

Leach lives in New York City, actively composes and performs internationally.