Diamanda Galás

Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek- American-born avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer. Known for her expert piano as well as her distinctive, operatic voice, which has a three and a half octave range, Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror". Galás often shrieks, howls, and seems to imitate glossolalia in her performances. Her works largely concentrate on the topics of ... more

Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek- American-born avant-garde performance artist, vocalist, keyboardist, and composer. Known for her expert piano as well as her distinctive, operatic voice, which has a three and a half octave range, Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror". Galás often shrieks, howls, and seems to imitate glossolalia in her performances. Her works largely concentrate on the topics of suffering, despair, condemnation, injustice and loss of dignity. She has worked with many avant-garde composers, including Iannis Xenakis, Vinko Globokar and John Zorn. Galás was born to Greek Orthodox parents. Raised in San Diego, California, she studied both jazz and classical music from an early age, training which reveals itself throughout all her work. She studied a wide range of musical forms, as well as visual-art performance, before moving to Europe. There she made her performance debut at the Festival d'Avignon in France in 1979,... less