Short Bio
Composer and musician Ruby Fulton (b. 1981) writes music which invites listeners to explore non-musical ideas through sound. Her musical portfolio includes explorations of mental illness, Buddhism, philosophy, psychedelic research, addiction, and chess strategy; and profiles of iconic popular figures like the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and musicians Syd Barrett and Whitney Houston. She has collaborated on interdisciplinary projects with thinkers and makers in the sciences and literary, movement and visual arts. She teaches composition and music theory at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music.
Long Bio
Composer and musician Ruby Fulton (b. 1981) writes music which invites listeners to explore non-musical ideas through sound. Her musical portfolio includes explorations of mental illness, Buddhism, philosophy, psychedelic research, addiction, and chess strategy; and profiles of iconic popular figures like the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and musicians Syd Barrett and Whitney Houston. She has collaborated on interdisciplinary projects with thinkers and makers in the sciences and literary, movement and visual arts.
Fulton is a multi-instrumentalist, performing on and writing for violin, flugelhorn, and keys. Much of her work falls into the category of concert music, written for ensembles ranging from duos and trios to full orchestras, choirs, and wind ensembles. Fulton also writes music that she performs herself, using loops and samples to become a one-person orchestra. Whatever musical genre or instruments Fulton chooses, her music reflects the rhythms and pulses of daily life, and the world around her. Her music has been performed by the Boulder Philharmonic, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Holland Symfonia, Volti, and Newspeak; and programmed on the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Guadeamus New Music Festival, and the SONiC Festival. Fulton is a founding member of the experimental vocal collective Rhymes With Opera, a 5-piece vocal/composer ensemble based in New York City.
She teaches composition and music theory at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music. She holds a doctorate from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, with additional degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Boston University. She has taught undergraduate and graduate composition and music theory at the Shenandoah Conservatory, the Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University, and Towson University.
Contact
fultonruby@gmail.com
Work Spotlights:
Short video about work in progress, “Wilderness Suite,” in collaboration with the icarus Quartet, geographer Teresa Cavazos-Cohn, filmmaker Benjamin James and the University of Idaho’s Confluence Lab:
“A bas Guillaume,” recent collaborative work with writer Baynard Woods, vocalist Lauren Shusterich, video artist Matt Frazão, and Rhymes With Opera:
One of my favorite videos of my music in action, Mary Rowell and Anne Decker playing “the end” in a soundcheck in Vermont: