General bio: Marla Goodman Theremin musician

Bozeman, Montana-based artist Marla Goodman has had a 15-year obsession with an amazing electronic instrument invented in the early 1900s: the Theremin. One of the most challenging instruments to master, the Theremin is played by making precise hand gestures in the air. Its two antennae allow the player to control pitch and volume to produce everything from weird science fiction sounds to haunting melodies without ever actually touching anything. A fifth-generation Montanan, grandmother and self-ascribed community art activist, Goodman coaxes music from the air as she highlights the history of this incredible instrument.

Theremin history bio: Marla Goodman Theremin musician

Bozeman-based performance artist Marla Goodman has had a 15-year obsession with a rare and fascinating instrument, the Theremin. One of the first electronic instruments ever invented, the Theremin is played, without being touched, by means of hand gestures in the air around two antennae. A fifth-generation Montanan, grandmother and self-described “community art activist,” Goodman combines history, technology and creativity in a performance you have to see to believe. She intersperses scenes from the fascinating history of the 100-year old instrument that time nearly forgot with live demonstrations of Theremin repertoire that ranges from Russian folk songs and classical works to sci-fi and thriller movie scores, to well-known popular songs.

“Vinyl Sisters” Theremin Concert Promo blurb

An obsession with a rare and fascinating musical instrument propelled Bozeman grandmother Marla Goodman’s unlikely trajectory into performance art. Her “Vinyl Sisters Theremin Show” combines visual art, storytelling, and music produced live on the Theremin, a gesture controlled synthesizer invented in 1920. In an imaginary world enhanced by kitsch-infused contemporary art and quirky collage animations,  Goodman’s personae, Polly & Dolly Vinyl, perform songs spanning from folk to film scores as they share their wildly fictional family history.

Long bio (artist background)
An introverted person who attended a two-room Montana rural school and spent her formative years wandering the hills near Bozeman on horseback, Marla Goodman is the last person anyone would expect to become immersed in performance art. That changed when she started playing an amazing electronic instrument: the Theremin.

Obsessed since she first laid eyes on a Theremin in 2009, Goodman has studied this mind boggling instrument ever since. One of the first electronic instruments ever invented, the Theremin is played by means of hand gestures in the air around two antennae.

Goodman honed her Theremin skills as a street performer and over the years developed three performance

• Goodman’s performance art show (Out of Hand, Mis-remembered Memoirs and Untouched Sounds) evolved from her Theremin street performer personae. In this one-hour show, Polly Vinyl and Dolly Vinyl navigate the pitfalls of child stardom through lively stop-motion animations, videos, storytelling and live performance.
• Goodman’s music history talks tell the truly fascinating story of the Theremin, punctuated by live performance (Theremin: The Crazy Instrument that Time Nearly Forgot)
• Goodman’s creative workshops (Drawing Sound) allow participants to create musical scores through drawing and collage and interpret them on the Theremin.

Though she received a BFA in painting from MSU in 1988, Goodman considers herself an outsider artist, generally preferring to organize and participate in art shows in places that reach out to “people who weren’t looking for art.” With musical influences rooted in folk and jazz, she became interested in the Theremin through her husband, David, a retired electrical engineer.

Since 2018 she has studied the technique and history of the Theremin in earnest, most recently with London-based Russian Theremin virtuosa, Lydia Kavina. Goodman has been featured on the Theremin 30 Podcast and televised on St. Petersburg’s “Thereminfest” Electronic Music Festival. She also enjoys recording soundtracks for independent films. She first performed with her real-life sisters in a folk/comedy group called The Existential Cowgirls and later founded the musical outreach community Bozeman Ukulele Cabaret. She frequently collaborates with Bozeman-based arts outreach nonprofit, Random Acts of Silliness.