|
|
||
|
Laura Ortman |
||
Laura Ortman A Special Chemistry with Flatbush Avenue Laura Ortman was born in Whiteriver, Arizona and stands out in any crowd. She's beautiful, energetic, stylish and upbeat. She lives in Brooklyn, walks in Prospect Park, loves art and music, camps and hikes in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York and comes alive after 5 (p.m.). A full-blooded White Mountain Apache, Laura was adopted at birth, grew up in Alton, Illinois and eventually became a New York City girl. She reconnected with her birth family in Arizona in 2001. She says, "It's wonderful being part of two families." Laura reconnected with her birth family one month before 9/11 and seven months before the death of her adopted mother, Terri Ortman. Laura was raised by a musical family. "My adoptive mom, a pianist, managed our hometown's youth orchestra for 20 years. My sister played flute and harp, my brother played French horn and my dad played the radio. My grandmother was a violinist and was a great source of inspiration for my classical music tastes. She loved Sibelius, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Bartok. I grew up knowing classical music as well as Duran Duran. As a teen, I made it into the St. Louis Youth Symphony. It was great to have a real life outside of high school, to hang with what I considered ‘the cool kids'". Laura has a BFA from the University of Kansas, where she studied drawing, painting, sculpture and performance art. After moving to New York she began doing improvisational music for modern dancers, soon attracting the attention of the New York Native community. An impressive artist and musician, Laura loves the violin. "It's always been an adventure, the violin. Art and music allows me to communicate. I have so much to learn about composing, performing, and recording. It helps to stand back, listen and appreciate a traditional art. People all over the world play violin and it's an instrument I want to keep playing to showcase its value and heritage. Perhaps it's being adopted that has ingrained an unavoidable shyness I found out I have, so to me the violin has been a voice I want to express, or it becomes lyrics where there are no words, or it gets me entrapped in ideas I have to work out of – or get even deeper into – or keep getting lost, alongside. I would like to think making and giving music is an offering to this life, in some way. My spirituality, at its best, has a keen respect for life that keeps me centered and focused, though the world is always spinning wild. Perhaps music gives me a purpose. It's so wild being Native American, adopted, a woman, an artist and an American citizen. Life has been a true gift, don't know what to make of it... except music I guess. One of the joys of performing music is in the collaboration," says Laura. She often works with a bevy of New York musicians and artists. "Working with such talented people brings the live shows together. We're supporting each other. Some of the best moments are discovering music from the inside out. Like painting, you work on it, then step back to see what's happening. Being in the company of people who I really admire and am inspired by keeps me motivated and honest about what I can and can't do. I don't want to let them down so it makes me keep my own standards high. To have that inspiration and drive in life is really special. I never knew it could be like this. Playing with the musical collective Stars Like Fleas has been a special highlight of my musical world. We get so deranged and wild it breaks my heart. Then in the next moment we're playing some of the prettiest sounds together. It's not a trend… it's a way to go about this life. I love playing with them and try to keep that spirit alive when working on my own solo music." Laura is currently finishing her second solo album Someday We'll Be Together, recorded in Brooklyn by Martin Bisi. It features Laura playing violin, piano, electric guitar, the Apache violin, Casio, tree branches and singing. Asked about recording, she replies, "I'm a four-track junkie. It's a basic and small tape recording device that allows you to put four tracks on it for one song (i.e. guitar, violin, piano, voice.) If I had the capabilities to make something with ten gazillion tracks I'd totally never see the sun. Anyways, I live in a small place on perhaps one of the loudest avenues in Brooklyn so I can practice there as late and as loud as I like. My home recordings are tinged with traffic and subways noises. It creates a nice atmosphere and gives a little grit to the music I make. My four track recorder and I have a special chemistry with Flatbush Avenue, my home... away from home... away from home." My main influences are from all over the map. Wild, experimental, ethnic, tear-jerking, mad, dancing, soul, gothness, country... who knows. My brother gave me my first cassette of the Kronos Quartet (a contemporary classical music quartet) doing Winter Was Hard by John Zorn (contemporary composer) and it was completely beautiful and scary at the same time. Little did I know who John Zorn was then… but last year I got to play an improv with him at his music space, the Stone, which was awesome. Recently I have also been playing improvised live soundtrack music to films by artist Martha Colburn, made a soundtrack to a new art film by Mohawk artist Alan Michelson and also made playful kids music for a short film by Navajo filmmaker Blackhorse Lowe. Also, a completely rewarding collaboration last year was putting a dream band together for closing night party of the NMAI's Native American Film and Video Festival, I asked four of my favorite friends who are extremely talented musicians to play with me on a group of songs I wrote, totally wonderful times!" In 2008 Laura assembled the Coast Orchestra, an all Native American orchestra. "The musicians I found came from Alaska, Arizona, New York and Washington, D.C. and played to sold-out audiences at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and at the American Museum of Natural History for the opening night of the Margaret Mead Festival in New York. Working with all these music professionals that are Natives was one of the highlights of my life. It was a dream come true. We'd love to be out there more in the world, but it takes an orchestra to build this army. We're working towards more concerts so get ready and stay tuned!" Laura Ortman's talent and energy are infectious. She is full of goals, ambitions and ideas. "I'd secretly love to make a dark desert western movie to make my own music for. I remember doing a violin solo for my school in 3rd grade. Absolutely embarrassing! The thing with the violin and all that classical music world stuff is that its all prim and proper and on a stage and people formally facing you, etc... I want a violin scene hoe-down in my back yard with the dogs running around and wild kids and uncles screaming! I am ready for anything… and for as long as it takes." For more information about Laura Ortman: myspace.com/thedustdiveflash
|
||
|
|
||
