Stridulation by Katinka Kleijn (2026) is a new work for string quartet, electronics, resonating body and narration. Part of the Formosa Quartet’s American Mirror Project, which explores questions of history, identity, and the meaning of "America" through personal reflections collected from local communities, Stridulation offers different angles of juxtaposition between these collected texts and the concepts of reflection and mirroring, utilizing sonified words and rhythm of speech, internal processes for improvisation, composed sound forms, and the physicality of vibration and amplification. Stridulation takes its inspiration from crickets — some of Earth's first sound communicators — and the fascinating periodicity of their song: how it affects our physical ear canal and psyche, how their files and scrapers resemble the bow and string of a string instrument, a vocal chord and its breath, and how their nightly song can offer a sonic bird's-eye perspective. Amid diverse reflections about America, the crickets return each night — periodic, impartial, ancient.
"Bionic Synthmap" is an interactive sound sculpture that explores shared circuits between human bodies and synthesizers. A site-specific audiovisual installation, it researches interactive connectivity, perceptual experience and psychophysics. Touch-sensitive synthesizers activate when a human body bridges a circuit. The unique variable resistance of each participating body steers the audiovisual expressions of Bionic Synthmap, translating touch into live sound and projection. While every person is given a private experience, the map terrain becomes a giant communal public instrument. "Bionic Synthmap" by Katinka Kleijn—April 8, 2026, Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago.
Scratching by CSO cellist Katinka Kleijn (“Demonstrates that the vagina is a glorious and underexplored sonic pocket “, “the best kind of “fuck you” to Beecham and Solti” —VAN Magazine) is a sound and action work. It is a direct commentary on a famous quote by the late conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Scratching has been presented at EXPO Chicago 2025 and at The Momentary Museum at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
"Perceptual Motion" for mylar, cello, cellist and electronics, is an interactive, moving sound sculpture sonifying circuits between bodies, matter and ideas, literally and conceptually. Site-specific performance at Avaloch Farm Institute (2022)
Conducted Vault (2022) by Katinka Kleijn. Performance for Cellist, Synth and Vault, April 15 2022. Presented by Industry of the Ordinary's 'Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow', Design Museum of Chicago.
In Intelligence in the Human-Machine, co-created by Katinka Kleijn, cello, and Daniel DeHaan, composer, a cellists’ EEG monitored brainwaves respond to words, tasks and musical fragments, triggering live sonic and visual translations of those data.
Synthsation (2023) is an action and sound work created by Rin Peisert and Katinka Kleijn, and was premiered at Elastic Arts, Chicago. (Photos by Ricardo Adame)
Katinka Kleijn and Lia Kohl’s shared practice explores vulnerability and resilience through the cello as an object, a body, and a sound-making tool. Water on the Bridge (2019) was created and performed at the Eckhart Park Natatorium as part of Chicago Park District’s ‘Night Out in the Parks’. A surreal and playful exploration of tenderness, violence and letting go through the unlikely pairing of cellos and water, it incorporates elements of theatre, movement, and improvisation. More information about Kohl and Kleijn’s work, and Augmented Geology (2022), a body of work created while in residence in Joshua Tree here.
Scratching by CSO cellist Katinka Kleijn (“Demonstrates that the vagina is a glorious and underexplored sonic pocket “, “the best kind of “fuck you” to Beecham and Solti” —VAN Magazine) is a sound and action work. It is a direct commentary on a famous quote by the late conductor Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961); "Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands and all you can do is scratch it." Kleijn builds immersive multi-channel soundscapes by scratching her body and cello, both sonified by microphones, while realizing actions ridiculed by Beecham. Simultaneously, the actions explore ownership of both bodies. As a result, Beecham and Kleijn approach the cello as a body corollary to the human body in distinctly different approaches. Scratching has been presented at EXPO Chicago and The Momentary Museum at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Bionic Synthmap by Katinka Kleijn is an interactive sound sculpture that explores shared circuits between human bodies and synthesizers. A site-specific audiovisual installation, it researches interactive connectivity, perceptual experience, and psychophysics. Touch-sensitive synthesizers activate when a human body bridges two copper wires, completing an electrical circuit. The unique variable resistance of each body steers the audiovisual expressions of Bionic Synthmap. Each synthesizer acts as a marker on a floor map, triggering the instant translation of a participant’s location and resistance into live sound via headphones and live visual projections. While every person is given a private sound world, the map terrain becomes a giant communal public instrument. Bionic Synthmap by Katinka Kleijn for handbuilt synthesizers, copper and insulated wires, wireless headphones, projection, interactive audio, interactive visuals
@themomentary , Bentonville, AR October 10-12, 2025. Project Support: Stephan Moore: Audio programming Kelley Sheehan: Visual design, integrated computing
'Feetback" by Katinka Kleijn for feet, cello, bow, contact mics, amplifiers and electronics, solo set at km28, Berlin, 3/27/2024
The Body as a Variable Resistor for Cellist and Cellosynth (2021) by Katinka Kleijn is a performance in which the bodies of a cellist and a cello share a 9V circuit.
Dai Fujikura, Cello Concerto, Katinka Kleijn, solo cello, Karina Canellakis, conductor, International Contemporary Ensemble, Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, New York, NY, World Premiere, August 23, 2016
Conducted Map (2022) by Katinka Kleijn, for map, cellist, synth and copper wires, a live interactive performance engaging with the Chicago map at the Chicago History Museum at Chicago Night of Ideas, May 12, 2022.
RESIDUUM for Cello and Trash (2022) is an experimental short film created by composer-performer/video artist, Aliya Ultan for cellist/interdisciplinary artist, Katinka Kleijn.