Eric Leonardson is a Chicago-based electroacoustic composer, radio artist, sound
designer, instrument inventor, improvisor, visual artist, and teacher. He
has produced, toured, and performed in hundreds of experimental sound
and music concerts throughout North America, Japan, and Germany.
Leonardson's interest in creating new sounds for performance and
studio composition led to the invention of the Springboard, an electroacoustic
percussion instrument made from inexpensive and readily available materials.
Its sounds belie its humble origins. Applying his percussion skills
to the rich enharmonic timbres of coil springs, plastic combs, pocket
radio, and crude wooden daxophones, Leonardson's work has been described
as "...ritualistic music, electronically synthesized industrial
vibrations miraculously created with ordinary household
objects...."—Carol Burbank, Chicago Reader
Leonardson has created numerous sound scores for award-winning works South African choreographer Robyn Orlin. Leonardson was a member of the experimental sound trio Wormwood with Spencer Sundell and Dylan Posa. An ever-growing list of his artistic collaborators include experimental
vocalist Carol Genetti; Philadelphia percussionist Toshi Makihara; Chicago's premiere percussionist Michael Zerang; "noise boy", Jason Soliday; Tokyo computer musique concrète artist Yasuhiro Otani;
avant-bassist Tatsu Aoki; Seattle audio artist Steven A. Barsotti; Oakland guitarist John Shiurba; Pistoia composer Jacopo Andreini; Montreal sound artist, Anna Friz; free improvising saxophonist Jack Wright; multi-instrumentalists Jim Baker and Bob Marsh; "anti-cellist", Fred Lonberg-Holm, and "sound mechanic" Neil Feather, among many others.
Leonardson co-founded the Experimental Sound Studio,
in the 1980s, where he coordinated "Sounds From Chicago," one of the city's first
internationally broadcast radio art programs. He co-founded the physical theater company Plasticene, designing and
performing sound and music for all its productions since 1995. Leonardson is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Media Arts Fellowship in 2002 and 2006, and also Adjunct Assistant Professor in the First Year Program and the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received his MFA degree in 1983.
Leonardson's early audio work is featured on the CD Radio Reverie in
the Waiting Place. His 2005 collaborative work for radio, "Other Music" is available on the CD compilation Deep Wireless 3 from New Adventures In Sound Art.
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