In Dial Zero, a constellation of telephones begins to behave like a nervous system. Each call opens a different corridor of voices, interruptions, and sonic afterimages, as though the room itself is trying — and failing — to remember who it once connected.
In After Dark, a night unfolds in multiple directions at once. Conversations drift, disappear, and return altered, as if the same story is being told from different rooms. The work doesn't ask to be followed, only entered.
An eleven-movement cycle scored for Pierrot and mixed ensembles, coloristically exploring the mysteries of irrationality, nightmare, and memory. Released on Pinch Records as Chasing Light (2023) and Chasing Light: Live (2024), it is the chamber writing out of which the installation practice opens.
Ms. George's work deserves a place in the American operatic repertory.
Whitney George's music traverses the affective terrain between tragedy and ecstasy, fragility and strength, bringing together romantically delicate intimacy and the spectacular darkness of the macabre.
Composer, conductor, and interdisciplinary artist, she works across installation, staged opera, and film — rooms, librettos, and scores haunted by ghosts and/of love. Since 2009 she has led The Curiosity Cabinet, the ensemble through which much of this work reaches the public.
Whitney studied at CalArts, Brooklyn College, and the CUNY Graduate Center. Her work has been recognized by the Elebash Award and a 2024 Discovery Grant; her recordings appear on Pinch Records, and her teaching continues through Luna Lab.