In Her Own Words: Conversations with Composers in the United States

9. Pauline Oliveros

9 Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros’s creative process accepts that everyone is part of the composition . Widely considered one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, she encourages deep listening, being open to what comes, and she has spent a lifetime actively creating communities of participation so that anyone can be part of the music-making experience. Born in 1932, Oliveros is a composer, performer, author, and philosopher known around the world as an explorer of and experimenter with sound. Raised in Houston, she grew up listening to radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic , and the NBC Orchestra. During our conversation, she mentions her mother as one of her earliest influences on her own creative thought and sense Gisela Gamper PAULIne OLIverOS · 153 of play, her introduction to the accordion, and the possibilities of improvisation and experimentation. After three years at the University of Houston, Oliveros left for San Francisco to study further in composition. After graduating from San Francisco State College in 1957, she and her schoolmates Terry Riley and Loren Rush began experimenting with free improvisations. She explains that, while the conventional music circles of the 1950s were not exploring music in this manner, the jazz world was exploring the breadth of improvisatory sounds. During the mid-1960s, Oliveros served as the first director of the Tape Music Center at Mills College in Oakland, California, later renamed the Center for Contemporary Music. While Oliveros is highly regarded as an experimentalist and early pioneer of connecting music to technology, she considers one of her greatest musical breakthroughs to be the creation of her Sonic Meditations in 1974. A series of improvisation experiences with directions written in English as opposed to scored notation, Sonic Meditations was composed in such a way that participation is not reserved for those who read conventional musical language. Oliveros encourages participants to listen deeply to themselves and the sounds of their environment, creating community as a path toward healing. Oliveros has been an active scholar for decades, publishing many uncollected articles, conference presentations, and two book collections: The Roots of the Moment and Software for People. She has taught her philosophy of listening and creation by example as a professor of music and the director of the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California at San Diego, and she currently teaches as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. She also serves as the Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College via telepresence teaching. During our conversation, Oliveros describes her nontraditional style of teaching, creating “improvatory” experiences (contrasting with the goals of a conservatory). Her students over the years are numerous, whether in a classroom, a performance space, or simply through a listening ear, aware and accepting of alternative creation. For instance, even though neither Pamela Z, nor Beth Anderson, nor even Svjetlana Bukvich were direct students of Oliveros, they all mention her during their interviews, and the influence of Oliveros’s work can be heard in their music. Concerned more with the present and the future than with the past and continuing to challenge standard practice, Oliveros’s current research focuses on the collaborative development and distribution of the Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) software interface, which enables people with severe mobility limitations to create music. During our conversation, she explains the significance of AUMI, continuing her leadership as one of the most innovative thinkers in music. Oliveros is also the founder and executive director of the Deep Listening Institute. The institute’s Web site explains how Oliveros “pioneered the concept of 154 . chapter 9 Deep Listening, her practice based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation, designed to inspire both trained and untrained musicians to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations.”1 Oliveros has been awarded three honorary doctorates, the Beethoven Prize from the City of Bonn, the Gaudeaumus Prize, and the John Cage Award; she was honored with Pauline Oliveros Day in Houston on March 3, 1984. She is also the recipient of the William Schuman Award from Columbia University for lifetime achievement, resulting in a thirty-year retrospective performed in 2010. *** June 2010, via Skype JENNIFER KELLY: I’d like to ask about people’s evaluation of music. There is so much music out there today, and we seem to be encouraged, almost...