Galas, Diamanda

(Dimitria Angeliki Elena), remarkable American AVANT-GARDE composer and vocalist of Greek extraction; b. San Diego, Aug. 29, 1955. Galas studied biochemistry, psychology, music, and experimental performance at the University of California at San Diego between 1974 and 1979. She also took private vocal lessons.

In her scientific studies, Galas and a group of medical students began investigating extreme mental states, using themselves as subjects in a series of bizarre mind-altering experiments. Her understanding of psychopathology (notably schizophrenia and psychosis) became an underlying subject in most of her work.

After some success as a jazz pianist, Galas began a vocal career, in which her remarkable precision and advanced technique attracted attention. Although she has performed such demanding works as IANNIS XENAKIS'S microtonal N'Shima (Brooklyn Philharmonic, Jan. 15, 1981) and Vinko Globokar's Misère (West German Radio Orchestra, Cologne, 1980), she is best known for her theatrical performances of her own solo vocal works.

Galas has performed at a wide variety of venues ranging from the Donaueschingen Festival to the N.Y. rock club, Danceteria. Her compositions usually include live electronics and/or tape as accompaniment to her vocal improvisations. Her performances have stringent requirements for lighting and sound, and possess a shattering power.

Her brother Philip Dimitri Galas, a playwright whose works are as violent as his sister's music, died of AIDS in the late 1980s. Diamanda's increasing emotional and political involvement in this "modern plague" led to her four-part work Masque of the Red Death (from 1986).