Artistic Statement
Catalina von Wrangell’s work emerges form a deep interest in how people and societies operate and express themselves. Universal laws of chance, individual and social behavioral structures, and exploring the spectrum of emotional intelligence frame her approach. For this reason, Catalina engages creative methods that are holistic and multifaceted, and sensorial. Thus, resulting in a body of work that transverses a diverse set of fields.
Informed by her life experiences, field observations, and different technologies she encounters, her artistic production is malleable in form.
As in the world, her artworks tend to be self-evolving, often released into the world to be reimagined by performers or observers who in turn become performers/creators. This allows for a truly communicative practice between her art and the world, and the people that reside within.
Biography
Dr. Catalina von Wrangell’s artistic practice focuses on creating intimate experiences for her audiences in her continual exploration of the complex nature of human expression. Her pieces – which include sound and word sculptures, poems, installations, and immersive and interactive experiences – are interdisciplinary and bridge a diverse set of fields. In addition to her individual practice, she enjoys a rich collaborative practice.
Recent residencies include the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Smyrna Beach, FL, and the Cortona Sessions for New Music, Cortona, Italy.
Her works have been performed and exhibited throughout the United States, as well as in South America and Europe. With premieres by performers including the Friends of Rain Ensemble, the Nodus Ensemble, the TLH Ensemble, mezzo soprano Lisa Neher, guitarist Federico Bonacossa, and cellist Edder Rivera. As a performer, she makes appearances as orator, clarinetist, computer technician, and improvisor. Catalina is equally at home on and off the stage.
Catalina is co-founder and member of The Last Hundred Ensemble whose mission is to present high-quality art music written in the last one hundred years. An entrepreneur, she is the founder of Arts Optika, an artistically-informed advocacy agency.
Catalina has served on faculty at the University of Miami where she has taught in the experiential music curriculum since its inception, composition workshop, and self-designed workshop entrepreneurial approaches for young composers. She is currently responsible for teaching the sight singing sequence at Florida International University, where she has also taught music theory, music history, and music fundamentals. She is the co-founder of Cello-Sanct Workshop, a summer program for young cellists of all shapes and sizes. She maintains a small private studio of piano, clarinet, and music theory students.
She earned a BA in Music Composition at Lewis & Clark College; an MM in Music Composition from Florida International University; an MM in Digital Arts and Sound Design from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and a doctorate in Composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
She has studied with composers Dorothy Hindman, Charles N. Mason, Juraj Kojs, Lansing McLoskey, Orlando Jacinto Garcia, and Michael Johanson, and with sound poet Tracie Morris, and with clarinetists Margarette Flavin Donaghue, Dunja Jennings, and Krina Allison.