Wendy Mae Chambers is an American composer, currently living in Harvey Cedars, New Jersey

Harvey Cedars, New Jersey

Harvey Cedars is a Borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the borough population was 337. The borough borders the Atlantic Ocean on Long Beach Island....

. Chambers studied at Barnard College

Barnard College

Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...

 from 1971 to 1975, where she received her B.A. in music, and where she studied with Kenneth Cooper, Nicholas Roussakis, Jack Beeson

Jack Beeson

Jack Beeson was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are Lizzie Borden, Hello Out There! and The Sweet Bye and Bye.-Biography:...

 and Charles Wuorinen

Charles Wuorinen

Charles Peter Wuorinen is a prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. His catalog of more than 250 compositions includes works for orchestra, opera, chamber music, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works...

. She earned her M.A. in composition at Stony Brook University in New York, where she studied between 1975 and 1977.

Her large-scale music events were inspired by the work of Christo and Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

, and the desire to reach an audience beyond traditional new music audiences. In addition, she knew John Cage

John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...

 well and her work 12 squared for twelve percussionists (1994) is a voodoo tone poem written in his memory.
By staging works outside the concert halls and into the public sphere, she has succeeded in bringing her music outside the domain of specialists and academics.

Currently she is working on a musical system and set of compositions based on the I Ching

I Ching

The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...

(Book of Changes), an ancient Chinese text, which led Cage to the develop the technique of "chance operations" in the 1950s.

Large-scale works and events

(instrumentation, place, and year of premier)

• REAL MUSIC – for 9 cars (1978)
• STREET MUSIC – for 30 musicians and coordinated radio broadcast based on the theme from “Cose *Encounters” (1978)
• THE KITCHEN – for 9 performers on pots and pans and 3 performers preparing food (1978)
• MUSIC FOR CHOREOGRAPHED ROWBOATS for 24 musicians in rowboats Central Park
  Central Park
  Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
  
  , NYC (1979)
• BUSY BOX QUARTET – for 4 crib toys (1980)
• CLEAN SWEEP – for 9 vacuum cleaners (1980)
• PRIME TIME – for 9 televisions (1980)
• THE VILLAGE GREEN – for 3 marching bands, town siren, and guns (1980)
• ONE WORLD OF PERCUSSION – for 50 percussionists and solo Tibetan horn (1981)
• TEN GRAND – for 10 grand pianos Lincoln Center Fountain Plaza, NYC (1983)
• THE GRAND HARP EVENT – PLUCK for 30 harps Cathedral of St. John the Divine (1984)
• SOLAR DIPTYCH – for 30 trumpets (1985)
• MARIMBA – for 26 marimbas (1985)
• LIBERTY OVERTURE New York Harbor
  New York Harbor
  New York Harbor refers to the waterways of the estuary near the mouth of the Hudson River that empty into New York Bay. It is one of the largest natural harbors in the world. Although the U.S. Board of Geographic Names does not use the term, New York Harbor has important historical, governmental,...
  
  , NYC (1986)
• QUILL – for 6 harpsichords and surround sound tapes of bird calls (1987)
• SYMPHONY OF THE UNIVERSE – Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC (1989)
• A MASS FOR TROMBONES – requiem for 77 trombones Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC (1993)
• TWELVE SQUARED – for 12 percussionists (1994)
• NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS – for 16 percussionists (2005)
• ORBIT - for 16 percussionists, click track and 2 conductors (2008)
• KUN - for 64 toy pianos Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, Fl(2009)

Chamber works, small ensemble pieces, and solo instrument works

• POPCORN – for percussion quartet (1977)
• MINIATURES – for piano 4 hands (1983)
• SUITE FOR TOY PIANO (1983)
• SET FOR PERCUSSION QUARTET (1985)
• z-1 MOMENTS – for solo harp (1985)
• MEDITATION AND AIR – for flute and harp (1992)
• SERENADE – for trumpet and vibraphone (1992)
• OCEANIC VARIATIONS – for piano solo (1992)
• ECLIPSE – for solo violin (1994)
• SOLARSONICS – for solo viola (1994)
• BLUES for solo violoncello (1996)
• RAZZMATAZZ – for solo contrabass with time portals (1996)
• PSALMS OF THE BUTTERFLY – for violin and viola (1996)
• MANDALA – for toy piano (1997)
• MANDALA – for solo clarinet (1997)
• MANDALA IN FUNK – for percussion quartet (1997)
• ENDANGERED SPECIES SONG CYCLE – for mezzo soprano, harp & percussion (1997)
• ANTARCTICA SUITE – for solo piano (1999)
• SONGS FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES for percussion, harp and baritone – parts 2 – (1999, 2000)
• SONGS FOR VOODOO ON THE BAYOU (2006)

Commissions

• MARIMBA! (26 marimbas) – Kennedy Center, Washington DC (1986); Percussive Arts Society
• SOLAR DIPTYCH (30 trumpets) – Central Park
  Central Park
  Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
  
  , NYC (1985); New Wilderness Foundation
• MANDALA IN FUNK (percussion quartet) - American Composers Forum and J.B. Smith and the Arizona State University Percussion Department