Justin Greene

Improviser, composer, and interpreter Justin Greene explores queerness, memory, and grief through abstractions of sounds to their independent elements and their resultant amalgamations when sounded or silent in acoustic spaces. They create aggregate percussion instruments in real-time by utilizing objects such as drums and porcelain sheets as amplifiers for seemingly inconspicuous sounds. Their practice interrogates and deconstructs layers of toxicity ingrained in societal norms through anti-virtuosic playing centered on intensity and fragility. They have been commissioned by New Works Project, smol ensemble, and numerous solo artists.

Justin has performed in the U.S. and Canada in queer bookstores, experimental clubs, art museums, college campuses, and international conferences. They frequently collaborate with artists including poet and essayist Elizabeth Theriot; experimental poet Hank Lazer; smol ensemble, with musicians Amy O’Dell, Monica Pearce, Paul Stevens, and Olivia Kieffer; Trio der Kinderspiel, with percussionists Arin Levy and Austin Lemmon; and many others. As an interpreter of contemporary compositions, Justin performs and commissions delicate, sparse music, and has played alongside artists such as Gino Robair, Tim Feeney, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Sarah Hennies, and Michael Pisaro.

Justin is from the Deep South. They are currently based in Birmingham, Alabama.

Artist’s Statement