Photo by Rafael Hernandez
Jacqueline Bobak is a singer, composer, and educator committed to creating, interpreting, and teaching adventuresome music made with and for the voice. She has performed extensively throughout the US and Europe, conducted research in experimental music and art, and taught since 1991 at the California Institute of the Arts. She is considered one of the leading teachers of contemporary vocal repertoire, techniques and performance in the US.
Her most recent creative work, Dada Divas, is an opera and research project centered on important female artists who were among the originators of Dada. Her other major work includes Vir2Ual Cage, an expansive multi-media interpretation of John Cage's Song Books. While concentrating on new and emerging works—including many composed especially for her—she also performs and teaches classical repertoire from the traditional to the avant-garde.
Currently she is preparing a recording of selections from Dada Divas for CD release in late 2023. Her compositions-in-progress include Crimean Curses, an experimental opera for singer-actor and pianist-actor, and Mina-Lieder, a staged song cycle for soprano, electronics, and video based on poetry by Mina Loy.
Watch excerpts from Jacqueline Bobak’s experimental opera "Dada Divas," performed at REDCAT in Los Angeles on February 8, 2020. Performed by Jacqueline Bobak, Meltem Ege, Sharon Chohi Kim, and Micaela Tobin, with special guest Juris Žvikovs. Sound design by Mark Bobak, staging by Paul Berkolds, dramaturgy by Cordelia Istel, set design by Ming Chieh Wu and Tzu-Hsiang Hung, costumes by Nan Zhou, and lighting by Matthew Johns.
Read about Jacqueline Bobak’s “riotous and sometimes fittingly unruly opera” Dada Divas in Jacki Apple’s essay Restaging History: Legacy, Homage, and Interpretation in the March 2020 issue of Fabrik magazine.
Jacqueline Bobak and pianist Juris Žvikovs perform a scene from Dada Divas at REDCAT in Los Angeles on February 8, 2020. Photos by Steve Gunther.
Watch an interview with Jacqueline Bobak, joined by Carmina Escobar, about Dada Divas. Produced by TV UNAM, the educational television network of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, on the occasion of the performance of Dada Divas on the Vértice Festival in Mexico City on 26 October 2018. Featuring Jacqueline Bobak, Carmina Escobar, Micaela Tobin, and Meltem Ege.
"Jacqueline is Jacqueline without hesitation." —Gertrude Stein