Glass shards, glaciers, trees, hyenas, and whales Cheryl E. Leonard’s music finds its raw materials just about anywhere. Her works embrace the spectrum of musical possibilities: improvised to composed, acoustic to electronic, diaphanous to bombastic, notes to noise. These investigations often include the creation of new instruments, primarily from found materials.

In Music for Rocks and Water three performers play water and a variety of rocks, which are dripped, drizzled, poured, rolled, rocked, brushed, rubbed, stacked and even tickled. Sometimes the rocks are played underwater. Listen:

Jiku (excerpt) - for wobbling rocks and air bubbles in water

Umi (excerpt) - for sand and granite rocks

Leonard will premiere a new work from her forthcoming Tides: Estuary project at the 2007 International Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music in Boulder, CO on October 13, 2007. A collaboration with visual artist Rebecca Haseltine, the installation and compositions are based on tidal flows in estuaries; the instruments include water, sand, mud, seaweed, rocks, and shells.