Leila Bordreuil is a Brooklyn-based cellist and composer working in the realm of improvisation, noise music, and sound art. The New York Times has described her work as “steadily scathing music, favoring long and corrosive atonalities”.
Bordreuil’s cello playing focuses on the inherent sonic qualities of her instrument, paying careful attention to timbre and texture. She challenges conventional cello practice through extreme extended techniques and imaginative amplification methods. Her composed works frequently incorporate sound-spatialization by way of site-specific pieces and multi-channel installations.
She has collaborated/performed with many artists such as Marina Rosenfeld, Eli Keszler, Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh, Toshimaru Nakamura, Lee Ranaldo, Bill Nace, Weasel Walter and Lea Bertucci. Her work has been showcased at The Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, The Stone, Café Oto (London), All Ears Festival (Oslo), Ausland (Berlin), Ftarri (Tokyo) and many basements across the US. Leila Bordreuil is a 2017 MacDowell Fellow in Composition, was a visiting composer at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (2017), and an artist-in-residence at Issue Project Room (2016).