Composer, instrument maker, and performer Ellen Fullman has focused on the development of her signature project, The Long String Instrument, for over forty years. Using dozens of tuned strings, each over 50 feet in length, Fullman transforms physical space into a site-specific musical instrument.
Soundless is composed by Fullman and her longtime collaborator, cellist and guitarist Theresa Wong (b. 1976, Schenectady, NY). The work explores string resonance and its capacity to create a space of connection, empathy, and multiplicity. The spectrally undulating drones of the Long String Instrument combine with rhythms created by Fullman’s unique 'box bow' and 'shoveler' tools as well as Wong’s performance on cello and electric guitar, which is specialized through four-channel amplification. Together, Fullman and Wong create a work that responds to and is shaped by the industrial architecture of WAREHOUSE at MOCA.
Soundless was commissioned by room40 following the label’s critically acclaimed release of their album, Harbors.
Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong, Soundless is presented at MOCA as part of Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs founded by Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family.
Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs is organized by Alex Sloane, Associate Curator, and is produced by Amelia Charter, Producer of Performance and Programs with Michele Huizar, Programming Assistant, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.
Ellen Fullman
Ellen Fullman began developing her Long String Instrument in 1980, after graduating with a BFA in sculpture from Kansas City Art Institute. The instrument comprises two sets of twenty stainless steel and bronze strings suspended horizontally across forty-five feet, attached on one side to a wooden resonator. Enough space is left between the two sets of strings so that Fullman can move up and down the length of the instrument to play it, moderating the volume and pitch of the strings’ vibrations with her hands.
Theresa Wong
Theresa Wong is a composer, cellist, vocalist, and intermedia artist active at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and the synergy of multiple disciplines. Her works include Fluency of Trees for solo cello and voice which premiered at the Other Minds Festival in 2022, She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees, commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill for The Future Is Female project, and Harbors, co-composed with Long String Instrument inventor Ellen Fullman and chosen as one of The Wire’s top 50 releases of 2020. Wong is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area.