Sxip Shirey is an international composer, producer, sound artist, and sonic pioneer. His compositions, performances and curated evenings Sxip’s Hour of Charm established him as a fixture in New York’s underground art scene and internationally. He makes music, sound design and Foley for theater, dance and film. Shirey presented at TED, is a United States Artist Fellow, and has been artist curator and artist in residence at National Sawdust, Brooklyn. He was the composer and music director for the circus arts production LIMBO, produced by Melbourne based Strut N Fret Productions House and London based, Underbelly and South Bank Center. LIMBO toured internationally (2013-2019) to critical acclaim, including Sydney Opera House, London’s Southbank Center, the Bogota International Theater Festival, and Madonna’s 57th Birthday Day party. Shirey teaches workshops in Text and Object Oriented Composition at Norwegian Theater Academy in Fredrickstad which he considers a contemporary Black Mountain College. His community-inclusive, immersive choral works, The Gauntlet, developed with Coco Karol, have been created for Rockefeller Center, The Sydney Opera House, Bard College, Friends of the Highline, Cleveland Museum of Art, and virtually in 3D immersive sound for NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center. He is a collaborator of singer, scholar, and song composer, Rhiannon Giddens, and released tracks together that include, “All Babies Must Cry,” “Woman of Constant Sorrow,” and “Just the Two of Us.” Shirey composed for the short Neil Gaiman film Statuesque which premiered on Christmas Day on SKY TV, UK. Other compositional highlights include music for choreographer Morgan Thorsen’s Still Life, for choreographer Dan Safer’s The One You Feed at M.I.T., the Pearl D’Amour production Ocean Filibuster which premiered at A.R.T. in Boston, music for Little Amal’s visit with the artist SWOON’s Sibylant Sisters presented by Saint Anne’s Warehouse, and music and Foley for puppeteer Kate Brehm's The Poacher at Harvard University. He is currently working on a new 3D sound radio opera with co-composer Paola Prestini based on a play written by Winter Miller, No One Is Left Behind. And is in pre-production for the film Sibylant Sisters, by the artist SWOON.
“…his performances seem a combination of careful planning and spur-of- the-moment inspiration.” — The New York Times
“Sxip fascinates me. His music sounds like stories. He works in the places where noise becomes music and does things that make you realize there are no boundaries between noise and music—or not like you imagine.” — Neil Gaiman
“The multifaceted New York-based musician is renowned for his kaleidoscopic array of gewgaws and gadgets repurposed for performances by a one-man gonzo orchestra…his résumé doubles as a passport of imposing sophistication and variety.” —The Wall Street Journal