Avant-garde musician Amy Denio helps celebrate UNL Women’s Week

Sometimes it takes a worldly, avant-garde musician and feminist to shed a little light on issues at home.

Multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio will be speaking and performing in Lincoln this week as part of the Women in Music portion of UNL's Women's Week. Women's Week is an annual series of events at UNL and has been around since 1978. It's meant to celebrate women's accomplishments towards gender equality, acknowledge the struggles they still face and recognize women's contributions at UNL and in the community.

Shasta Inman, a junior English and women's and genders study major and Resource Assistant of the Women's Center said Denio is certainly a role model to women in music.

"She's not only a musician, but a jazz musician," Inman said, citing that jazz has been a very difficult genre for women to break into.

In 1986 Denio created her label Spoot Music from her base in Seattle, Wash., by releasing her piece, "No Bones," on cassette. Denio has since moved from cassettes to LPs to releasing 35 CDs over the years. With projects both as a solo artists and working with an array of international musicians.

"She's written for movies and theater," Inman said. "She is so multi-faceted."

Denio scores have been heard in films like Jamie Hook's ‘The Naked Proof,' which received honorable mention at its premiere in the 2003 Seattle International Film Festival.

She also scored two animated films by Thomas Edward: "Pangaea's Brood," which won Best Animated Film at the 1999 NY Underground Film Festival and "Synchrony in Estrus" which won Strangest Film at the 2003 Motion Arts Festival in California.

Denio has toured solo and has played with various groups and musicians. Her group projects have taken her to venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Seattle Opera House, Detroit Institute of Art, Venice Biennale, Roman Theater Trieste and on top of three Metro busses in Seattle.

With European and North American tours and festival appearances in Sicily, Sardinia, Bombay, Buenos Aires, Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Tokyo and Hong Kong, Denio has accomplished much in her multifaceted career.

This week, Denio will be sitting in at the Clawfoot House, a working group and educational series for female musicians.

"She's attending and hanging out with us," said Ember Schrag, owner of the Clawfoot House.

The group usually has a jam session, with a time to share new work followed by a guest speaker. Schrag said Denio will be "part of the jam session and a lecture all rolled into one."

Schrag has been working with the UNL Women's Center to plan the event this week. She said it started when she talked to some friends in the center about the Clawfoot House, then they invited her to help bring in some music.

"We've wanted to raise money for musicians who wouldn't normally tour here," Schrag said. "Then we just asked, ‘Who is the biggest name, female, avant-garde composer we had?'"

Denio was at the top of the list.

"She's done it all and is a perfect example of accomplishment in music," said Schrag.

Inman said the Women's Center is more focused on the campus aspect, but they are still always trying to do more outreach in the community. One way to do that is working with the Clawfoot House and Schrag.

On Thursday, Denio will be part of a leadership luncheon.

Inman said the center is "really excited to have the opportunity to have her at the luncheon."

The lecture on music and social change will be at the City Union. The event is free and students can get a free wrap from Maggie's Vegetarian Wraps with a reservation. Those in attendance will sit down to eat with Denio for 15 minutes, then she'll speak, followed by a 20 minute question and answer session.

"The luncheon won't be a ‘this is how awesome I am' deal," Inman said.

She said the talk will be about the struggles and accomplishments of women in the music industry as a whole. The title of the event is, "Reflecting on the Journey" and will cover past and current accomplishments of Denio and women in the industry.

To finish it all off, Denio will be performing at the Clawfoot House that night.

"She is a great artist," Schrag said. "It's a great chance to meet someone with so many accomplishments. She isn't mainstream, but in a cool way."

nateruleaux@dailynebraskan.com