“You stupid kite, come down out of that tree!” The large crowd huddled in the top floor of the Rose Art Museum was completely silent as Tony Arnold echoed these words from the bottom of the stairs. As she continued to sing a variety of sounds — including animal sounds and quotes from comic strips — the audience remained speechless. 

Arnold, the soprano of the International Contemporary Ensemble, is the recipient of the 2015 Brandeis Creative Arts Award. On Wednesday, Arnold received the award at the Rose and performed a series of musical pieces. 

According to Eric Chasalow, the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Brandeis Creative Arts Award honors excellence in the arts in the realm of active American artists. 

The award was founded in 1956, shortly after the University was founded. In 1995, the award evolved into the Poses Institute of the Arts, which celebrated artistic achievements by awarding annual residencies to artists. This year, the Creative Arts Award was revived.

“To mark the University’s distinctive role in the art world — and its renewed commitment to the arts — we are bringing back the award, which has been on hiatus,” Chaslaow explained. “As the first recipient in the 21st century, Tony represents the core goals of the University, which are to pioneer new models of expression and generate connections, not just across the arts, but the entire university.” 

After Arnold’s opening piece, “Stripsody” by Cathy Berberian, she continued with “Sequenza III” by Luciano Berio, a piece that incorporated vocal sounds such as laughter and chattering teeth. The audience then migrated downstairs to the Lois Foster Gallery, preparing to hear a third piece: “Récitations” by Georges Aperghis. 

The gallery filled with the sounds of Arnold’s voice, but Arnold was nowhere to be seen. As the volume of the singing increased, the audience was drawn toward the ceiling — only to see Arnold performing her solo while walking on the roof of the gallery. 

Interim President Lisa Lynch officially presented the award to Arnold. “Tony is a pioneer who expands musical boundaries like no other,” Lynch said. “[With] her unsurpassable vocal artistry … she sets the gold standard today in contemporary musical performance.” 

After receiving the award, Arnold participated in a conversation with Department Chair Prof. Yu-Hui Chang (MUS). Chang asked Arnold why she picked the pieces to perform that she did that day and how they related to the topic of voice and identity. Arnold said that after seeing the artwork on display in the Rose this semester, she saw immediate connections with the pop art exhibit to Berberian’s piece, which Berberian based upon comic strips of the 1960’s. According to Arnold, Luciano Berio was Berberian’s husband and wrote his pieces — including “Sequenza III” — for her. 

“It brought up all kinds of questions for me, [and for] everybody, about identity, the identity of the composer, the identity of the creator, what voice is being spoken through what vessel, what message [and whose] message is being given through that vessel,” Arnold explained.

Arnold concluded the program with a performance of “Life Story” by Thomas Adés, asssisted by double bass player Randall Ziegler and bass clarinet player Michael Norsworthy. This piece interpreted a 1955 poem of the same name by Tennessee Williams. The poem humorously ended with Arnold saying “[A]nd that’s how people burn to death in hotel rooms!”

“It’s an overwhelming honor [to receive this award],” Arnold exclaimed. “What I knew is that there’s an opportunity here to engage process in a way that I don’t often get to do. … But what you don’t realize is that over time, you have embodied and taken in inspiration from so many avenues of life.” 

Arnold is very excited for her year-long residency here at Brandeis, where she will lead an ongoing conversation about voice and identity. In addition, she will be singing and teaching as the Kunkemueller Artist-in-Residence at the Boston Conservatory. “The opportunity for me to engage the process and to help students become the architects of their own process is rare,” she said. “I’m so grateful, and really looking forward to exploring this.”