Multimedia artist Rosśa Crean (they/them) jokingly says they “create
strange things that they like to appreciate when they are by themself,
eating raw cookie dough in a dark closet,” but in truth, their music has
been referred to as being “funny...and virtuosic” (Classic Concert Nova
Scotia), having “exceptionally different, outstanding
quality” (Download), and music that “stirs you deep, undertones of
humanity” (Access Contemporary Music). Composing and creating
music with a focus on the evocative and lyrical, they began their
professional career as a Bass- Baritone, specializing in avant-garde
and Contemporary Classical music, many of which were their own
compositions. While pursuing their Masters at Illinois State University in
Composition, they have studied with Stephen Taylor, David Feurzeig,
and Nancy Van de Vate. They have trained in several vocal styles,
including rock, opera, sean-nós (traditional Gaelic singing), and Indian
and Middle Eastern vocal ornamentation.
As a person with synesthesia, Crean occasionally creates projects that
focus on their own neurological responses between sound, color, and
emotional states. Their chromesthesia was a creative tool in the
creation of the Edward Gorey partnering art installation entitled
"Summerland: A Ghost Story," a collaboration with visual artist Ken
Gerleve. It has most recently been featured in their American Prize
winning opera, "The Great God Pan," where the prepared piano was
notated with specific color designations for each note of a pitch class
Crean saw as representing the other world that threatened the moral
existence of humanity in the original story on which it was based. Their
one-act opera “The Times Are Nightfall,” a queer sequel to “Don
Giovanni,” premiered at Opera America in July 2018. Their most recent
commission, “The Priestess of Morphine,” a monodrama in song cycle
style, was commissioned and premiered by the International Museum
of Surgical Science in Chicago in June 2019, and will be released as a
recording with Navona/Naxos Records in 2021. Rosśa’s most recent
opera “The Harbingers,” an a cappella performance about several
harbingers of death convening on Halloween night to decide the fate of
a recently-departed soul, premiered on Halloween Night 2019 at
Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
As a painter, Crean specializes in what they call “liminal abstract”
works. Crean considers their chromesthesia as a tool that puts them in
a liminal space between mind and body. Most of their paintings consist
of acrylic paint with massive amounts of water. “I love the chaos that
water brings to a work. I never know what I am going to be putting on
the canvas at the beginning,” Crean says, “but the element of water
also encourages adaptability, and I love it when I feel like I can co-
conspire with my own synesthesia and creativity to create something I
never expect. It is like my own personal teamwork within me.” Crean
has done development work with MoMA, and has been a resident artist
at Lakeside Inn in Lakeside, MI, Illinois State University, and Loyola
University Museum of Art.
A prolific collaborator, Crean has received commissions from and
worked with numerous artists, including The Mozart Players at Oberlin
College, the International Museum of Surgical Science, clarinetist
Andrew Hudson, bassist Gahlord Dewald, The New Consort,
Constellation Men’s Ensemble, and the Lynx Project. Their musical
work has also been featured on Skope TV, Much Music, Fuse TV, and
Comcast OnDemand.
A staunch advocate for queer and gender equality, Rosśa founded the
“Rosśa Crean Presents” performance series in Chicago, Illinois, which
showcases emerging BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ composers and
performers.