Janet Feder is a

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

–based composer and guitarist. She is a classically trained guitar player best known for her work in the prepared guitar genre. In addition, Janet Feder is: a lecturer at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

; co-curator of MediaLive, an annual festival in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Colora ...

; and an Artistic Associate of Square Product Theatre.

Biography

Solo projects include ''T H I S C L O S E'' (2015), ''Songs with Words'' (2012), '' Ironic Universe'', a CD & DVD featuring

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

(AdHoc Records/USA 2006), and ''Speak Puppet'' (

Recommended Records Recommended Records (RēR) is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler with Nick Hobbs in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected mus ...

/UK 2001), as well as compilations for Zerx Records (Albuquerque, NM; 1999-07) and the compilation The $100 Guitar Project (Bridge Records, 2012). She also appears on Jane Rigler's ''Rarefactions'' (Neuma 2015) and Honey Barbara's ''Wave Grass'' (2015), in addition to ''156 Strings'' produced by Henry Kaiser for

Cuneiform Records Cuneiform Records is a record label in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1984, the label releases an mixture of musical styles, all with a Rock in Opposition aesthetic, including progressive jazz, jazz fusion, the Canterbury scene, and elec ...

(USA, 2002) and ''I Never Meta Guitar'' produced by Elliott Sharp for Clean Feed Records (Portugal, 2010), both featuring guitar players from around the globe. In conjunction with Paul Fowler, Feder composed the film score ''Leavings'' (2014), plus the score and sound design for the Square Product Theatre adaptation of Selah Saterstrom's novel ''SLAB''. Feder was one of several contributors to Paul Riola's Bottesini Project, where her work was featured alongside

Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex, a percussionist. He has w ...

, Keenan Wayne, CacheFlowe, Glenn Taylor, and Mark Harris on the 2009 album Naima's Grass Pajamas. The album began as "collective improvisations recorded live in the studio" which "were then later reconstructed." ''T H I S C L O S E'' (2015) and ''Songs With Words'' (2012) were both recorded live at Immersive Studios in Boulder, Colorado in DSD Pure on Gus Skinas' 32 channel Sonoma System and are currently available on both vinyl and

SACD Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips Electronics and intended to be the successor to the Compact Disc (CD) format. The SACD format allows multiple au ...

. There are no digital effects on either ''Songs With Words'' or ''T H I S C L O S E''. A reviewer noted that ''Songs With Words'' "explores the outer reaches of sonic possibility yet never loses the thread of melody and beauty." while ''T H I S C L O S E'' has been described as "Feder's most fully realised album...Unique and highly moving music" Previously the Chair of the Music Department at

Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university describes itself a ...

, Feder has performed or collaborated with

, Henry Kaiser,

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...

, Elliott Sharp, Mike Keneally, Bryan Beller,

Amy Denio Amy Denio (born June 9, 1961) is a Seattle-based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Her inspirations include world music, and is mainly known as a voca ...

, Chris Cutler, Mike Johnson/ Thinking Plague, Susie Asado, Nikmat Hatraktor, Paolo Angeli, Wu Fei, Thomas Dimuzzio, Tatsuya Nakatani, Erin McKeown, Jane Rigler, Shoko Nagai, Satoshi Takeishi, James Sidlo, Pauline Oliveros and poet

Anne Waldman Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activ ...

. Feder's solo work was featured in a June 2012 Tiny Desk Concert on NPR. Feder is also currently half of Denver-based duo Cowhause with Colin Bricker.

Discography

Solo: *''icyimi'' (1994) *''Speak Puppet'' (2000) *''Songs With Words'' (2012) *''T H I S C L O S E'' (2015) With Paul Flowler: *''Leavings'' (2014) With

: *'' Ironic Universe'' (2006) With Various Artists *''I Never Meta Guitar'' (2010) * $100 Guitar Project (2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feder, Janet Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women guitarists Guitarists from Colorado Musicians from Denver 21st-century American women