Sxip Shirey

A.R.T.: Sxip’s Hour of Charm, Zero Arrow. Sxip Shirey is a composer/producer/curator/performer based in NYC. He is the composer and music director for the theater/circus arts production LIMBO, produced by Melbourne-based Strut N Fret Productions House and London-based Underbelly and South Bank Center. LIMBO and its sequel LIMBO UNHINGED have been touring internationally for six years to great acclaim, appearing in venues and festivals that include Sydney Opera House, London’s Southbank Center, the Bogota International Theater Festival, and a special performance at Madonna’s 57th Birthday Day party. Shirey teaches workshops in Text and Object-Oriented Composition at Norwegian Theater Academy in Fredrickstad, which Shirey considers “The Black Mountain College of NOW.” Shirey’s immersive choral works The Gauntlet, developed with his wife and artistic partner Coco Karol, have been performed at Rockefeller Center, The Sydney Opera House, Bard College, and the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. Shirey toured as the opening act for the Dresden Dolls and has collaborated often with Amanda Palmer. He has released several tracks in collaboration with Rhiannon Giddens, including, “Woman of Constant Sorrow”. As a member of Luminescent Orchestrii, Shirey has played Appalachian music for Roma in Transylvania and Roma music for Appalachians in West Virginia. Shirey has presented at TED (2008), is a 2011 United States Artist Fellow and has been artist curator (2016) and artist in residence (2017) at National Sawdust, Brooklyn. Shirey composes for film, including the short film Statuesque, written/directed by Neil Gaiman, and starring Bill Nighy, which premiered on Christmas Day on SKY TV, UK (2009). He created music for the electronic book version of Shaun Tan’s book Rules of Summer, Lothian Children’s Books, (2013). Recent projects include composition for choreographer Dan Safer for the play The One You Feed at MIT, and he is currently working on a new opera with co-composer Paola Prestini based on a play written by Winter Miller, No One Is Left Behind. Shirey LOVES working with PearlDAmour who have endlessly challenged him and inspired him.