Bios

The musical brains of The Curious Shape of Hens birth from the branches of American folk music – mostly jazz, with occasional nods to Southern hymns and ballads. They twist free improvisation through and between their tunes with voice, upright bass, tenor horn, alto sax, cello and percussion. They are: Emma Alabaster, Erin Bell, Cassandra Burrows, Emily McCabe and Laura Vuksinich.

Emma Alabaster – Upright Bass, Vocals

Born and steeped in the arts of New York City, Emma Alabaster began her formal study of upright bass and voice at Fiorello H. Laguardia High School for the Arts.  She went on to receive her B.A. in Music from Bard College, where she studied jazz composition and performance under Erica Lindsay, John Esposito, Ira Coleman and Kenny Davis.Upon graduation, Emma returned to Brooklyn to work as a bassist, composer, singer, poet, and educator.  In 2009, her CD, In the Third Generation the Daughters are Free, was released on the independent label Proliferate Music.Currently, Emma has several projects she gigs with regularly.  In Fall 2010 she went on a nationwide tour with experimental pop group, SCHOOL, on electric bass and backup vocals.  Emma also plays in Scrap Relation is a collective quartet- with each member contributing compositions as impetus for improvisation – performing at The Stone under the curation of Matana Roberts. Emma performs with jazz- South Asian group Paghel Meshuggah, featuring Duane Eubanks and Roy Nathanson.  She works with pianist John Esposito, as a duo and in his multi-media septet.  She plays original and improvised music regularly with improvisation-laden, female quintet The Curious Shape of Hens.  She’s also enjoyed collaborations with poets, dancers and video artists.  She currently studies bass with Mark Helias.

Erin Bell – Tenor Horn, Vocals

After Erin moved to New Orleans and found that horn playing was the coolest thing on the planet she bought herself a baritone. She carried that horn around glued to her face,  and nigh on demanded musical know how form her bevy of professional-musician friends. She joined Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship? in 2006. She recorded two albums with the band (Self Titled 2007 and No Blood No Blooms 2008) before moving to Brooklyn in 2007.

In New York, Erin joined Veveritse Brass Band, an ensemble focused on Roma-Serbian brass music. Veveritse released their first recording in 2010 (Self Titled). In 2009 Erin had the good fortune to play in the theatre piece Songs My Mother Never Taught Me at the Ruhrfestpiele Recklinghausen, Germany. In Brooklyn, Erin also became seriously enamored of Klezmer music and was awarded a student scholarship to KlezKanada in 2010.

She is the primary culprit for the songs and vocals in The Curious Shape of Hens.

Cassandra Burrows – Alto Sax, Vocals

For over a decade, Cassandra Burrows has played in and toured with art-punk and brass bands and has performed in a variety of freakazoid cabarets in New Orleans, Brooklyn, and Chicago.  She currently plays saxophone and vocalizes with The Curious Shape of Hens.  Past and current musical projects also include The Faeries, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Himalayas, and Mommy?. Cassandra recently toured with brooklyn brass pop band Apocalypse Five and Dime and recorded on several tracks for Molly Alice’s album Pilgrim.

Emily McCabe – Cello

Emily McCabe began playing the cello and studying the Suzuki Method at age 6.  She received a BA in Music Performance at Bard College were she studied under Colorado Quartet member Diane Chaplin and Luis Garcia Renart, a student of Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich.  She currently lives in Brooklyn and is a student in the Suzuki Teacher Training Program at the School for Strings where she is learning from Cellist/Suzuki Instructor/Trainer Pamela Devenport how to teach little ones to make music.  Emily currently plays cello with lady-band The Curious Shape of Hens, and has recorded with Quitzow and PA bands And the Moneynotes and The Sw!ms. She frequently participates in The Brain Rain Players, a musical ensemble that accompanies plays and operas written by fellow Bard alum, Zeke Virant.  Emily collaborates with many of New York’s classical musicians as a member of the Amateur Classical Musician’s Association, an organization that recently awarded her the opportunity to perform in Carnegie Hall.

Laura Vuksinich – Percussion

Laura’s background in percussion spans Cuban batá, Balinese gamelan and drumming with activist brass band The Rude Mechanical Orchestra. She is currently studying with Frank Cassara at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music where she performs with the Contemporary Percussion Ensemble and collaborates with members of the Brooklyn Composers Society to premier new works. She also plays percussion on original improvisatory songs with The Curious Shape of Hens and glockenspiel and bass drum with experimental folk artist Adrienne Anemone. As an educator, Laura has worked at the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls since its inception in 2004 teaching drums as well as a workshop on
 soundmaking and improvisation. Through the Harmony Program, she also teaches percussion based on Jose Antonio Abreu’s “El Sistema” from Venezuela.