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Suzanne Ciani

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Name
  
Suzanne Ciani


Role
  
Pianist · sevwave.com

Suzanne Ciani createdigitalmusiccomfiles201409cianijpg

Movies
  
Suzanne Ciani and the Wave: Live, Suzanne Ciani: Natura Poetica, Galapagos: A Musical Odyssey

Albums
  
Seven Waves, Dream Suite, Pianissimo, Pianissimo II, Pianissimo III

Profiles

Snow crystals suzanne ciani


Suzanne Ciani (born June 4, 1946) is an Italian American pianist, composer and sound designer who found early success with innovative electronic music.

Contents

Suzanne Ciani Suzanne Ciani Atari and other forms of love Lisa Thatcher

Suzanne ciani sargasso sea


Education

Suzanne Ciani The Quietus Features A Quietus Interview Modular

Of Italian descent, she received classical music training at Wellesley College and obtained her M.A. in music composition in 1970 at University of California, Berkeley, where she met and was influenced by the synthesizer designer, Don Buchla. She studied computer generated music with John Chowning and Max Mathews at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Labs in the early 1970s.

Career in music

Suzanne Ciani early and new electronic music review page Suzanne Ciani

In 1974 she formed her own company, Ciani/Musica, and, using a Buchla Analog Modular Synthesizer, composed scores for television commercials for corporations such as Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch, AT&T and General Electric. Besides music, her specialty was reproducing sound effects on the synthesizer, that recording engineers had found difficult to record properly; the sound of a bottle of Coca-Cola being opened and poured was one of Ciani's most widely recognized works, and was used in a series of radio and television commercials in the late 1970s. She is also responsible for "logo" sounds pertaining to Energizer and ABC. Such was the demand for her services, that at one point she was doing up to 50 sessions a week. Her sound effects also appeared in video games (the pinball game Xenon featured her voice). Such audio logos as the Coca-Cola pop and pour along with video game sound effects and more appear on the 2012 album Lixiviation (Finders Keepers) along with the only currently available excerpts from her 1975 Buchla Concert.

Suzanne Ciani Suzanne Ciani Publicity Photos

In 1977, Ciani provided the sound effects for Meco's disco version of the Star Wars soundtrack, which was certified platinum. She added the signature electronic "swoosh" to Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band. At the time, Ciani thought the work was just a "song about spaceships". Ciani scored the Lily Tomlin movie The Incredible Shrinking Woman, distinguishing her as the first solo female composer of a major Hollywood film; Lloyd Williams's 1975 experimental film Rainbow's Children; and a 1986 documentary about Mother Teresa, as well the TV daytime serial ("soap opera") One Life to Live. She also composed the 1976 Columbia Pictures and Columbia Pictures Television theme jingles. She has toured throughout the United States, Italy, Spain, and Asia.

Suzanne Ciani Early Ciani Portraits of a Pioneer at Work

In 1982 Ciani began to record albums in the new-age genre, characterized by a mix of electronic and traditional instruments. Her first album, Seven Waves was initially released in Japan in 1982, and later released in her native US in 1984 through Atlantic Records. Most of the album was produced using Roland MC-8 and MC-4 music sequencers, combined with a Prophet 5 synthesizer and Roland TR-808 drum machine.

Her 1986 album The Velocity of Love, released by RCA Records, featured Ciani's best known song, the title track. In 1987 she signed to the Private Music label, which released a number of albums from 1988 to 1992, including re-issues of her first two albums. Although emphasizing electronic music in her recordings, her solo piano album Pianissimo, from 1990, became her best-selling album. Ciani ended her contract with Private Music with the compilation The Private Music of Suzanne Ciani, in 1992.

In the 1990s Ciani founded her own music label, Seventh Wave, on which she has released all her subsequent albums, which have been more classically oriented than her previous recordings. 1994's Dream Suite was recorded in Moscow with the Young Russia Orchestra, and was Grammy-nominated. 1999's Turning featured her first composition with lyrics, in the title track, sung by Taiwanese artist Chyi Yu.

In early 2006, Ciani's Silver Ship won in The 5th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best New Age Album. Ciani was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.

In 2014, she started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary movie on her life as an electronic music pioneer. The campaign was successful, and the film, titled A Life in Waves, had its premiere on March 12, 2017 at the South by Southwest Festival, and is currently doing the festival rounds, to be later released on DVD.

In 2016, Ciani released Sunergy, a collaboration using Buchla synthesizers with the musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, as part of the RVNG Intl. FRKWYS Series.

In 2017, Ciani was awarded the 2017 Moog Music Innovation Award, to be awarded at Moogfest later in the year.

Awards and honors

  • Nominee, Grammy Award for Best New Age Album: Neverland (1988), Hotel Luna (1991), Dream Suite (1996), Pianissimo II (1997), Turning (2000)
  • Best New Age Keyboardist, Keyboard magazine, 1992
  • Lifetime Achievement Award (Granny), Women in Audio Section of the Audio and Engineering Society, 1997
  • Winner, American Federation of Independent Music (Indie), Silver Ship, 2006
  • Most Valuable Synthesizer Player Award, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, 1987
  • Clio Awards, Excellence in Advertising, 1977–1989
  • Bronze Lion Award for Excellence in Advertising, International Advertising Film Festival, 1985
  • Solo

    Studio albums

  • 1970 Voices of Packaged Souls (originally a very limited release, re-released widely in 2012)
  • 1982 Seven Waves
  • 1986 The Velocity of Love
  • 1988 Neverland,
  • 1989 History of My Heart
  • 1990 Pianissimo
  • 1991 Hotel Luna
  • 1994 Dream Suite
  • 1996 Pianissimo II
  • 1997 A Very Green Christmas (various artists; two tracks from Ciani)
  • 1997 Suzanne Ciani and The Wave Live!
  • 1999 Turning
  • 2001 Pianissimo III
  • 2005 Silver Ship
  • 2012 Lixiviation
  • 2012 Logo Presentation Reels 1985
  • 2016 Buchla Concerts 1975
  • Compilations

  • 1992 The Private Music of Suzanne Ciani
  • 2002 Meditations for Dreams, Relaxation, and Sleep
  • 2003 Pure Romance
  • With other artists

  • 1978 The Bride Stripped Bare, with Bryan Ferry
  • 1979 Manifesto, with Roxy Music
  • 1979 Yama, with Art Farmer and Joe Henderson
  • 1979 In a Temple Garden, with Yusef Lateef
  • 2016 FRKWYS Vol. 13 Sunergy, with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
  • DVD

  • 1997 Suzanne Ciani and The Wave Live!
  • 2008 Natura Poetica
  • 2008 Galapagos: A Musical Odyssey
  • Publications

  • 1991 Suzanne Ciani: New Age Piano (Hal Leonard)
  • 1995 Suzanne Ciani: Dream Songs (Hal Leonard)
  • 1999 Suzanne Ciani: Turning (Hal Leonard)
  • 2007 The Best of Suzanne Ciani (Hal Leonard)
  • Film scores

  • 1981 The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Universal Pictures)
  • 1986 Mother Teresa, (Petrie Productions)
  • 2001 Mother Teresa: The Legacy (Petrie Productions)
  • References

    Suzanne Ciani Wikipedia


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