Joan Jeanrenaud is a cellist, composer, arranger, and improviser. She was the cellist of the Kronos Quartet for 20 years. Her work with Kronos included more than 30 recordings and over 2000 performances that took her to virtually every major concert hall worldwide. During those years the group became, in the words of The New York Times critic John Rockwell, "the world's best known, most innovative contemporary-music quartet." Jeanrenaud's cello is a Deconet, ca. 1750. A copy of that cello was carved out of ice and played with "bows" made of saws, barbed wire and sandpaper in her four-hour performance piece Ice Cello, an adaptation of Charlotte Moorman's Ice Music for London. Her solo CDs include ‘Strange Toys’ (nominated for a ’08 Grammy), ‘Pop-Pop’, ‘Metamorphosis’ and soon to be released ‘Visual Music’, featuring her compositions for Dance, Theater and Art Museums. She has also recorded with dozens of other artists, and performed on many film scores.
I have been involved in music for over 40 years. Growing up in Memphis Tennessee I was exposed to the sounds of the blues, Elvis, soul, folk and classical music. I studied with cellists Peter Spurbeck, Fritz Magg and Pierre Fournier, studied jazz with David Baker and Joe Henderson and worked with Kronos Quartet as cellist for 20 years. Now for the past 20 years I am involved with solo and collaborative projects in composition, improvisation, electronics, and multi-disciplinary performance. I have completed more than 60 compositions for cello and small ensembles, and continue to be involved in teaching privately and at Mills College.
Some of my other projects have included the installation work ‘ARIA’ with collaborator Alessandro Moruzzi premiered at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the composition and performance of ‘ODD’ with choreographer Shinichi Iova-Koga and the AXIS dance company and a collection of pieces for a sculpture exhibit at the NY MET. In addition to performing my own compositions, several composers have written new works for me, including Terry Riley, Hamza El Din, Steve Mackey, Fred Frith, Kevin Volans, Karen Tanaka, Paul Dresher, Mark Grey, Anthony Davis, Alvin Curran, Steed Cowart and Annie Gosfield. As an improviser I’ve collaborated with Larry Ochs, Miya Masaoka, Stephen Vitiello, Fred Frith, Dohee Lee and PC Muñoz among others.

Please refer to www.jjcello.com for a more complete listing of works and activities.