Orchid McRae is a percussionist, composer, improviser, and mixed media artist based in New York City. Her deeply collaborative process is often centered around structured pieces that ignore or subvert the dimension of “time” in composition.
Projects
Orchid’s primary compositional vehicle is the ensemble orchiddBB (with Vivek Menon, Jen Sapiro, and Mario Fontes); a project that fuses song, improvisation, and dense ensemble figures to explore themes of queerness, violence, and tropes in contemporary media. Their work has been described as having “this experimental, almost skramz type of sound, but then the singing came through in this operatic way” (Raised by Casettes). orchiddBB’s debut album, recorded with Oliver Ignatius at Holy Fang Studio, will be released in 2025.
She is a founding member of the longstanding collaborative trio Dot Iso (with Vivek Menon and Dylan DelGiudice), whose music is largely based in improvsational dialogue. On May 18th and 19th 2024, the group presented “Dot Iso performs 26.2” at Ki Smith Gallery, a continuously performed improvised installation that lasted 26 hours, 13 minutes, and 8 seconds. This arduous task was aided by 20 musicians who represented multiple genres, generations, and performance practices. The group released its debut album I Read Too Many Things in 2024.
She also leads the ensembles House of the Ax, 5 Ribbons, and Wind Band/Songs for the Summer. Past projects include the now-defunct experimental band Bald Uakari and the short-lived improvisation
collective Active Field 6.
Collaborations, Etc.
Orchid collaborates extensively with artists outside of music including digital/textile artist Vân Anh, experimental theater troupe Rhymes with Orange, choreographers Alicia Steeves and Andrea Muñiz, and video artist Jon Denton. In late 2024, she launched EXOSKELETON, a performance series dedicated to structures built outside of/in support of the body.
Orchid has performed with Michael Foster, Selendis Sebastian Alexander Johnson, Hans Young Binter, Billy Martin, Daniel Carter, the Creative Music Studio Improvisers Ensemble, Mike Ladd, Kissy Noises, and many other musicians and ensembles. In addition to her own ensembles, Orchid’s works have been performed by S.E.M. Ensemble, Terence Blanchard & Neil Leonard, the Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute, and others.
Contact
orchidmcrae (at) gmail (dot) com