Shelley Burgon

Shelley Burgon is a harpist, composer, and sound-installation artist working at the edge of new and experimental music. She holds an MFA in Electronic Music from Mills College, where she studied with Pauline Oliveros, Maggi Payne, Fred Frith, and Maryanne Amacher, and has recorded and performed with Björk, Anthony Braxton, Zeena Parkins, and John Zorn.

Approach. Burgon treats the harp both as a chamber instrument and as the primary source for her electronic music, dissolving the line between composition and improvisation, and extending into handmade sound-and-light sculptures that braid scientific theory with mysticism.

Selected. The solo album The In Between (Thin Wrist, 2024) — a single dusk-lit take for solo harp; the duo record The Life and Behavior with Fred Frith (Relative Pitch, 2025); installations for New Museum's Ideas City and commissions for Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Dive deeper
Website
Bandcamp
ISSUE Project Room
Interview (15 Questions)