The Grieving Place electroacoustic performance by Dr. Adrienne Baker

The Grieving Place is an electroacoustic performance by Dr. Adrienne Baker that explores the landscapes of grief. Stemming from her ongoing academic and artistic research, the work investigates how music communicates emotion, belonging, and safety, asking: what grounds our sense of place when we grieve? Fusing her training in classical, jazz, and New Music styles with electronic sampling and live manipulation, Baker creates a sonic journey that gives voice to the uncomfortable, holding space for these emotions without shame.

Historical context

This work is rooted in the lineage of free jazz improvisation, serving as a contemporary extension of American musical traditions that weave together Western Classical music and the music of the African Diaspora. My practice engages in an ongoing dialogue with Black women improvisers, including pioneers such as Alice Coltrane and Matana Roberts.

This artistic framework is deeply informed by my musicological research into how performance practices shape group musical expression. Central to the work is an exploration of 'sonic signifiers'—the specific sounds we are socialized to associate with grief. The Grieving Place serves as a modern musical ritual that bridges this historical research with personal experience, transforming theoretical analysis into a socially driven performance that holds space for profound human emotion.

What's the music?

Adrienne Baker (she/her)

Where does this music come from?