About Jane Rigler
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About Jane Rigler

Flutist, composer, improviser Jane Rigler has always been moving and reshaping her worldviews through discoveries in music performance of contemporary music, movement, electronics and Deep Listening® practices.

About Jane Rigler
Photo by Reuben Radding

Her curiosity of contemporary flute performance began during her undergraduate work at Northwestern University, by performing works composed by her peers, playing in the Contemporary Music Ensemble and her fearless exploration of performing classical 20th century composers. She went on to develop her passion for new music at University of California, San Diego (M.M. 1991, Ph.D. 1996) performing works by Ferneyhough, Czernowin, Saariaho, Takemitsu, Globokar, and of course her colleagues.

Through her study of phonological musical sounds that emerge from the combination of singing through the tube, she developed a variety of ways the voice can be sung through the flute by studying techniques used in many different traditions. Her international career performing edgy, complicated compositions as well as becoming a professional improviser started while living in Spain for nine years (1994-2003).

While living in New York (2003-2009) she performed as a guest artist with established contemporary ensembles (Either/Or, Wet Ink, etc.) and still continues to be a featured soloist in many international music festivals (CubeFest, SEAMUS, NYCEMF, SIGGRAPH, NIME, etc.). She brought together extraordinary musicians through organizing various exciting events such as the “Relay~NYC!” at MOMA and interpreted both new music and her own new works with electronics at various festivals. Other flutists have performed her work in NYC venues such as Merkin Hall, Zankel Hall, and all over the world. Since 2010 she has been based in Colorado (USA) teaching, composing and performing worldwide. 

Her compositions play with hidden languages, recall ancestral songs, incorporate playful game techniques, and ask the performers to imagine and improvise. Her compositions focus on sonically uniting the physical and unseen worlds by creating works that promote creative multidisciplinary collaborations, movement, and connections with ancestry.

Jane Rigler biography
Photo by Jeff Cloutier

Her concern with cultivating and expanding the listening skills of others as a source of inclusive play and creativity inspired her to become a certified Deep Listening® facilitator (2016) through the Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY). Ever since, she is a mentor for the Certificate program and offers Deep Listening® workshops world-wide (in English and Spanish). 

Jane thrives at artist residencies such as Civitella Ranieri, Montalvo, Ucross, Hambidge, and Harvestworks that promote her collaborative nature. Her works have been performed throughout the US, Canada, South America, France, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Japan, among other countries. As part of and an extension of her NEA Japan-US Friendship Commission Fellowship, Jane studied Noh theatre, Aikido, and was invited to perform over twenty concerts in Japan between 2009-2013 as a soloist, with dancers, and other musicians. Through her New Music USA award (2016), she gave concerts and workshops in Italy, France, Germany, Finland and Spain. Jane received the Fulbright (Ireland) in 2019-20 and continues to collaborate with Irish composers and performers.