Malina Rauschenfels, born in 1978, began to study the cello with her mother at age five in Duluth, Minnesota. Her serious musical study began at the age of 15 when she started taking lessons with Tanya Remenikova in Minneapolis.
In 2001 Rauschenfels received her BM in cello performance and composition from the Eastman School of Music. At Eastman, she studied cello with Steven Doane and Rosemary Elliott. She studied composition with Sydney Hodkinson, David Liptak, and Augusta Read Thomas. She was a section leader in Nuove Musiche, a student-run ensemble dedicated to the performance of classical works in a historically informed manner. Over twenty of her compositions were premiered during her stay at Eastman. She was also a winner of the Alliance for Excellence Scholarship and a three-time winner of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. During the summers, Rauschenfels attended the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival where she studied and performed for Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliott, Elizabeth Simpkin, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Peter Howard, and Nicholas Jones.
While completing her MM in cello performance at The Juilliard School, she studied with Harvey Shapiro, James Kreger, and Fred Sherry. She performed regularly with New Juilliard Ensemble and her piano trio. She performed Davidovksy’s Divertimento for cello and orchestra (1984) under Reinhert de Leeuw with the Juilliard Orchestra and Kurtag’s Ligatura for two violins and cello with two bows with new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound in Boston. At Carnegie’s Weill Hall, she performed an original composition in addition to works by Adam Roberts and David Liptak.
She discovered the art of collaboration beginning with a Composers and Choreographers workshop in 2001. Since this class, she has collaborated with choreographers in many different ways. Two of her interactive music/dance pieces, in collaboration with choreographers Elisabeth Motley and Jane Sato, were performed at Alice Tully Hall. Another, in collaboration with Luke Wiley with the help of The Juilliard Electric Ensemble’s touch-sensitive sensors included a soundscape, sound clips set off by sensors, a dancer, and a dancing flutist. Since graduating, She has written for numerous dance companies. She frequently puts on concerts featuring her collaborations. She wishes to continue collaborating and performing with artists of all areas.
In her own words: “When we come together as artists, I believe we can create something greater, more inclusive, and more multidimensional. I want the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts. I want to create a more all-encompassing artistic/emotional experience and break down the barriers between the separate art areas, the audience and performer/creator, and life and art itself.”
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