BIO

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Gina Leishman was born in England, studied music at the Vienna Conservatory and Edinburgh University, and has made her home in the U.S. since the late 1970s, first on the west coast, and since 1994 in New York City. She has written for the theater, opera, dance, film, TV and concert stage, garnering numerous awards.

She is co-founder of the septet Kamikaze Ground Crew, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Concert appearances include the Donaueschingen New Music Festival in Germany, the Vossa Jazz Festival in Norway, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle, Merkin Hall and Joe's Pub in New York, as well as regular gigs downtown at Tonic. Their recordings can be found on Koch Jazz, New World and Busmeat Records. The latest, Postcards from the High Wire, is due for release in spring 2007.
She also co-leads the Mr. Wau-Wa band, a quintet dedicated to the songs of Bertolt Brecht, for which she is the chief arranger and lead singer.

Her work as singer/songwriter is featured on two CDs, Bed Time (2004) and In My Skin, (2007) (see discography). She performs with infrequent regularity as a solo artist and in various and sundry downtown projects. Her instruments include piano, alto and baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, accordion, harmonium, baritone ukulele and the glass tiers (see Projects). Aside from the regular members of her ensembles, musicians with whom she's had the pleasure playing include Greg Cohen, Marc Ribot, Jenny Scheinman, Rob Burger, Miguel Frasconi, Sanda Weigl, Beth Custer, Frank London, Ben Perowsky, Briggan Krauss, Trevor Dunn, Roberto Rodriguez and many others.

Her first opera, Burning Dreams, commissioned through the Meet The Composer/ Rockefeller/ AT&T Jazz Program, was premiered in San Diego. Her second, Actaeon, Part One of Paul Zimet's Black Milk Quartet, premiered in New York at La Mama E.T.C. A Feast of Fools, a performance piece with Geoff Hoyle, was premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse (Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Score), with further runs in San Francisco and Chicago.

Other recent theater work includes a new score for Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children (La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Rep)(both Critic Circle Awards) and for Ellen McLaughlin’s adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedipus The King (Guthrie Theater Minneapolis); scores for NYSF/Public Theater, Vineyard Theater and CSC in New York; ODC/SF dance company, the Flying Karamazov Brothers, Joseph Chaikin, and numerous regional theaters across the country. She is also an Associate Artist at the California Shakespeare Theater, for whom she has created many scores including 12th Night, Love’s Labours Lost (Critics Circle Award), Cymbeline, Winter’s Tale, Much Ado and As You Like It.

Collaborations with other artists include directors Robert Woodruff, Lisa Peterson and Daniel Fish, writers Ellen McLaughlin, Tony Kushner and Paul Zimet, choreographers David Gordon, Bebe Miller and Deborah Slater, composer Doug Wieselman (with whom she co-leads Kamikaze Ground Crew and Mr. Wau-Wa), and performance artists Rinde Eckert and Theo Bleckmann.

Her theater credits also include critical acclaim as an actor at Lincoln Center, BAM's Next Wave Festival, the Los Angeles Olympic Arts Festival, Goodman Theater of Chicago and many other regional theaters. She is an award-winning reader for Recorded Books in New York City, and Mind's Eye in San Francisco.

Ms. Leishman has been the recipient of grants from the NEA, Meet The Composer, Rockefeller Foundation, Chamber Music America, Arts International, Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Fund, American Music Center and the California Arts Council, amongst others.

She has taught at the University of Iowa, NYU, and LIU. She lives in New York City.

“one of New York’s most versatile composers” – Time Out NY
“gifted and idiosyncratic” – San Diego Union Tribune
"an inspired composer" - Robert Hurwitt, S.F. Chronicle
"Leishman stole the show" - Jon Pareles, New York Times

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