Lisa Mezzacappa

Lisa Mezzacappa, a composer, acoustic bassist, bandleader, and producer/presenter, has been an active collaborator in the Bay Area music community for over 15 years. Mezzacappa’s compositional activities are diverse: She composes ethereal chamber music for her groups Nightshade and duo B; the Interlopers is an electro-acoustic ensemble that de- and re-constructs idiomatic string music; her “garage jazz” quartet, Bait & Switch, has released two acclaimed recordings on the Clean Feed and NotTwo labels. avantNOIR is a suite of music for sextet inspired by noir crime fiction; Glorious Ravage is a panoramic free jazz song cycle based on the writings of Victorian lady adventurers; with Italian saxophonist Piero Bittolo Bon she co-leads BODABODA, a quartet inspired by vintage Italian science fiction comics. Mezzacappa also collaborates frequently with visual and media artists for sound installations, multi-media projects, and live cinema events.

Mezzacappa has been artist-in-residence at the Cité International des Arts, Paris (2016), Djerassi Resident Artists Program (2008, 2013), Headlands Center for the Arts (2006, 2015), the Banff International Jazz Workshop (2000), and the Painted Bride Arts Center (2000). In 2012 she participated in the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, a program of American Composers Orchestra. She has been awarded grants by the MAP Fund (2014), the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2014), the Wattis Foundation (2016), the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016), American Composers Forum (2006, 2010), the City of Oakland (2007), Meet the Composer (2006, 2009), the Zellerbach Family Foundation (2012, 2013, 2015), and the Andy Warhol Foundation (2011).

Artist's website: lisamezzacappa.com