This Junto Profile is part of an ongoing series of short Q&As that provide some background on various individuals who participate regularly in the online Disquiet Junto music community.<\/em><\/p>\n What\u2019s your name?<\/strong> My name is Marjorie Van Halteren, which I seem to use in its entirety most of the time.<\/p>\n Where are you located?<\/strong> I am based in Lille, France. I was born in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, went to college in Ann Arbor, then landed in New York City for my first 20 years after college. In 1992 I moved to.<\/p>\n What is your musical activity?<\/strong> I am currently a member of a collective in Lille called Muzzix (muzzix.info<\/a>). The collective has been around for around 25 years, incorporating 30 improvisational and experimental musicians.\u00a0I was invited to join about 5 years ago. My so-called musical evolution is very atypical. The others come largely from conservatory backgrounds, free jazz,\u00a0or DIY branching off from their relationships to their instruments (percussions, saxes, guitars, horns, keyboards, voice, various electronics, etc.). My background was theater, studying performance at NYU, where I also taught, and a radio career in New York City and nationally. I was a successful spoken word producer when I up and moved to France.\u00a0<\/p>\n I made a lot of radio dramas (commissioned writers), hybrid documentaries, etc. in the US as well as a handful for the BBC. I won a lot of awards, including three Peabodys. I became frustrated with radio, it felt too formatted, a little \u201con the nose.\u201d I began to create more experimentally, and it became clear that music had more to offer me than literature or playwriting. I was at WNYC in the 80\u2019s during the brief period when the station broadcast only living composers, and I heard and met a number of them, including John Cage, when I made my first audio art piece for WDR Cologne. It was much later that I began to understand what any of them were actually doing.<\/p>\n In the last decade my actual musical life experience has come into play, from my childhood piano lessons, my fantastic choral teacher in junior high, my love of jazz, and my awareness and understanding of the music of my generation. The French love American music, and my singing is actually appreciated. I have always written sound poetry, and although it was hard to leave my accomplishments and reputation behind and start over (the French could have cared less), I have begun to write and perform in French a bit. Who would have thought it?<\/p>\n My current projects include: a composition with and for an excellent pianist who plays prepared piano, with field recording and voice; a solo project with midi controller, electronics and voice that I plan to play in Germany in April called \u201cCan\u2019t Draw, Can\u2019t Paint,\u201d and a folk duo with a great guitarist of songs of the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s that I have unearthed from my youth, called \u201cSpring Chickens.\u201d The collective tries to do Grand Orchestra projects with everyone once a year, and this year I played voice and electronics with 25 other musicians for a piece by and with Ingrid Laubrouck. Fantastic.<\/p>\n What is one good musical habit?<\/strong> I put myself in challenging situations. For example, a few years ago I did a jazz singing master class which was pretty terrifying, I participated in scat improv evenings, I perform my sound poetry in poetry evenings, and I do the monthly improv session with the collective, with voice and monosynth (which I don\u2019t really play that well \u2014 yet). Now I\u2019ve booked my solo. Ah ha. When I first got here decades ago, I had this idea that people should know what I can do, and just ask me to do things. They do not. And when I can I do the Junto! I realize that I am only as good as what I am working on now, and although I am well past the age when many people retire, I need to keep learning. I also learn as many new tools as possible.<\/p>\n What are your online locations?<\/strong> I\u2019m still on Facebook and Instagram, but I just joined Blue Sky at @marjorievh.bsky.social<\/a>. And mastodon mastodon.social\/@vanwindmill<\/a>. Let\u2019s make that work!! And at electroacousticalpoeticalsociety.com<\/a>. This summer I updated it to show my whole story so that I no longer feel compelled to constantly explain myself, which is a really bad habit.<\/p>\n What was a particularly meaningful Junto project?<\/strong> I think I enjoyed this one in particular, because it used favorite existing drop-in recordings \u2014 I keep absolutely everything \u2014 some of them are really old \u2014 and it gave me the opportunity to try effects that I was curious about, like granular delays. My Junto projects are a bit simple \u2014 I don\u2019t do a lot of rhythm or evolving repetition. I need to try that.<\/p>\n \n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/disquiet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/marjorie.png?resize=640%2C640&ssl=1\")
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