Molly Joyce is a composer, performer, and recording artist. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in composition at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Early life and education

Molly Joyce was born in 1992 in

Pittsburgh, PA Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. She started her instrumental music education on the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

. After a car accident permanently damaged her left hand at the age of 7, she began playing the

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

by using her left hand for the bow and right hand on the fingerboard. She also learned to play the

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

and began composing on the computer. Joyce attended

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

for her undergraduate degree (graduating with scholastic distinction). She also earned degrees at Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where she was the recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund Grant, and

Yale School of Music The Yale School of Music (often abbreviated to YSM) is one of the 12 professional schools at Yale University. It offers three graduate degrees: Master of Music (MM), Master of Musical Arts (MMA), and Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), as well as a joi ...

. Joyce has studied with Samuel Adler,

Martin Bresnick Martin Bresnick (born 1946) is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music. Education and early career Bresnick grew up in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and A ...

Guus Janssen Guus Janssen (born 13 May 1951) is a Dutch composer of contemporary music and a recording artist. A pianist and harpsichordist, he is also active as a jazz performer. He studied piano and composition at the Sweelinck Academy of Music in Amster ...

, David Lang, Han Lash,

Missy Mazzoli Missy Mazzoli (born October 27, 1980) is an American composer and pianist who has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and operatic work. In 2018 she became one of the first two women to receive a commission from the Metropolitan ...

Martijn Padding Martijn Padding (born 24 April 1956) is a Dutch composer and educator. Padding was born in Amsterdam, and was taught by Louis Andriessen (composition), Geert van Keulen (instrumentation) and Fania Chapiro (piano). He also studied sonology at the ...

, Christopher Rouse, and

Christopher Theofanidis Christopher Theofanidis (born December 18, 1967, in Dallas, Texas) is an American composer whose works have been performed by leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Moscow ...

Career

Joyce has contributed compositions to many recordings of other artists. As a solo artist, she released an EP, ''Lean Back and Release'', in 2017 and an LP titled ''Breaking and Entering'' in 2020. Among her many live performances was a talk and performance given at TedxMidAtlantic in 2017.

Disability and composition style

After the car crash that deformed her left hand, Joyce began to explore ways to be musical that accommodated her disability. In graduate school, Joyce began an independent study on disability and the arts. During this study, she found that her disabled hand allowed her to create distinct music that incorporated the differing abilities of her hands. Consequently, her view of ability and disability developed, viewing them not as a dichotomy but as a spectrum that affords opportunities to people based on their individual capabilities. Her primary instrument is a vintage Magnus Electric Chord

Organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

Model 391, which she found in 2011 after years of searching for an instrument that would fit her body, with individual chord buttons placed on the left side and a small

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

keyboard on the right. Joyce realized that the instrument was “made for my form and made for my deform.” Joyce’s musical style is not only influenced by her disability, but by other musical genres such as

Minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, and

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. Joyce has composed for large ensembles, chamber groups, and soloists.

Discography

LPs

EPs

As contributing composer

External links

* *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joyce, Molly New York University faculty Living people 1992 births Musicians from Pittsburgh 21st-century American musicians 21st-century American women musicians