Composer Mary Ellen Childs has been acclaimed for creating both rhythmic, exuberant instrumental works and bold, kinetic compositions that integrate music, dance and theater in fresh and unexpected ways. She has created numerous "visual percussion" pieces that embody the concept of music in motion, for her ensemble CRASH. Her repertoire includes Click, a fast-paced, game-like work for three stick-wielding performers; DrumRoll, for four drummers on wheels; and Sight of Hand, based on uniquely American forms of body percussion--girls'clapping games, hamboning, and baseball coaching signals.



“Click is a newly born classic, like Steve Reich’s Clapping Music, only a thousand times more virtuosic. Myself, I can’t whistle, but afterward everyone who could, did.”
Village Voice
She also creates purely musical concert works and has received commissions from the Walker Art Center, San FranciscoÕs Other Minds Festival, Kronos Quartet, the Institute for Studies in the Arts in Tempe, AZ, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Kitchen.

“Mary Ellen Childs’s quiet pointillistic Oa Poa Polka, had notes peeping from all over the accordion, with the oompah just barely winking into view.”
New York Times

One of her favorite instruments is the accordion, and as a result of her close working association with accordionist Guy Klucevsek, she has created nearly a dozen works that include the instrument, including Oa Poa Polka, part of Klucevsek’s Polka From the Fringe collection of 32 post-modern polkas; and Four of One of Another, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet for string quartet and accordion.

“The gem of the evening was Mary Ellen Childs’ Four of One of Another”
Chicago Tribune

Childs has received two Bush Artist Fellowships; as well as fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the Minnesota State Arts Board, and grants from the NEA, Rockefeller MAP fund and Meet The Composer. She has composed two works for concert band, Zephyrus and Green Light. Recently she created the evening-length Dream House for string quartet ETHEL and multi-image video, based on images of destruction and construction, cycles of time, and rhythms of construction work.




Dream House, Innova
Kilter, XI
Oa Poa Polka, CRI
Bright Faces, innova
Parterre, innova

“[Her music] reminds me of looking through a beautifully cut crystal glass that refracts the world around it.”
MS Magazine

Click to hear these online audio samples:

Kilter
Parterre
Drumroll



Zephyrus for concert band:
          St. Olaf Band, Winter Tour 2003
          Friday, January 31
                   Winona, Minnesota
                   Central Lutheran Church
          Saturday, February 1
                   Palos Heights, Illinois
                   Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
          Sunday, February 2
                   Fremont, Ohio
          Monday, February 3
                   Susquehanna University
          Tuesday, February 4
                   Princeton University
          Wednesday, February 5
                   New York, NY
                   Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
          Thursday, February 6
                   York, Pennsylvania
          Saturday, February 8
                   Madison, Wisconsin
          Sunday, February 9
                   St. Olaf Collage, Northfield, MN                 

Fanfare

          Springboard for the Arts, St. Paul, MN
          May 21, 2002

Music of the House

          The Kitchen, New York, NY
          November 30, December 1 & 2, 2001

CRASH with FRIENDS

September 29 – October 1, 2000
CRASH performs with guest artists Guy Klucevsek, accordion;
Marc Anderson, percussion; Ruth MacKenzie, vocals.
The O’Shaughnessy
The College of St. Catherine

“Childs creates a world where we feel anything could happen—a truly universal world that’s primordial in its understanding of humanity.”
ELLE Magzine

Scores of Mary Ellen Childs’s works are available from Places, Please Publishing.  Contact: info@maryellenchilds.com