Tessa Brinckman
TESSA BRINCKMAN - BIO
Interdisciplinary flutist/composer Tessa Brinckman has been praised for her “chameleon-like gifts” and “virtuoso elegance” (Gramophone), and as "an adroit creator of sound worlds” (Fanfare). Originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand, she has premiered hundreds of new works (commissioning over forty), with prominent classical music creators across the globe. In New York since 2022, she builds work that honors synesthesia, dialect, innate meter and collaboration. Tessa is co-director of the bi-coastal duo, Caballito Negro, with percussionist Terry Longshore, commissioning ground-breaking flute and percussion works, including composers Juri Seo and Baljinder Sekhon. She directs WildLine, a new, interdisciplinary chamber group based in northern Manhattan. Her collaborative videos have won 22 film festival awards for music scoring, animation and experimental film.
Numerous recent projects include her critically acclaimed album Take Wing, Roll Back (New Focus Recordings), AEON (Rattle Records, New Zealand), commissions from flutists Lisa Bost and Lisa Cella, performances at Baltimore's Livewire Festival, Princeton Sound Kitchen, and headlining with Mexico's Duo Duplum at Festival Cervantino and New Music Forum (Mexico City). www.tessabrinckman.com
ABOUT THE PIECE SPIDER BOOTS
Spider Boots
By Sarah Bassingthwaighte & Tessa Brinckman (2026)
Years ago, Tessa was living in an old building on the corner of Bellevue Ave and Olive Way. She was reading at her kitchen table at midnight when she heard a "ticka-tacka-ticka-tacka" sound. She couldn't figure out where it was coming from. When she turned around to look towards the refrigerator, she saw a spider on the floor, walking towards her. It was so quiet, the floors so resonant - that spider had boots.
We've made this piece as a double tribute - and we're grateful to Unsound Symphony for this opportunity. It's a tribute to Deep Listening composer matriarch, Pauline Oliveros, who nurtured listeners to hear the world and themselves anew. And it's a tribute to the back-ity-back days of 70's Seattle, when life was more affordable - it was possible to make a living as musician from jazz clubs - and where talents like Quincy Jones came up, surrounded by all the old jazz and improvisation greats. Ancestors, everybody!
Spider Boots invites you to remember the things that made sense to you and yours, to kick them back up, and put the sauce back into your lives. We invite you to join us in creating this music – participation is optional - trust yourself. Listen intently, play your part, allow space for others, and leave the sound world better than you found it.