(1932–2016)

American composer, she studied composition with Paul Koepke and accordion with Willard A. Palmer at the University of Houston (1949–52).In 1957 she graduated from the San Francisco State College, and continued her composition studies privately with Robert Erickson (1954–60). In 1966 she completed postgraduate studies at the University of Toronto with Hugh Le Caine. From 1961, she worked with the improvised music group Sonics (with Morton Subotnick). In the 1960s, she was active at two electronic music centres in California: the San Francisco Tape Music Center (1961–65) and the Mills College Tape Music Center in Oakland (1966–67). In 1967–81 she lectured at the University of California in San Diego, and was composer-in-residence at many US universities, including Mills College where she headed the composition class from 1996. In 1985, retrospective concerts of her music were featured at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

Her accolades include an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland in College Park (1986), Foundation for the Arts Award in New York (1989), and Foundation for Contemporary Performance Award (1991). Apart from composition, she was an active accordionist, notably performing her own music.

Pauline Oliveros was also a Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and Darius Milhaud Artist-in-Residence at Mills College.

She was the founder of “Deep Listening,” which came from her childhood fascination with sounds and from her works in concert music with composition, improvisation and electroacoustics. Pauline Oliveros described Deep Listening as a way of listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you are doing. Such intense listening includes the sounds of daily life, of nature, of one’s own thoughts as well as musical sounds. She funded the Deep Listening Institute, Ltd., formerly the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, and now the Center For Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

Selected works: Trio for clarinet, horn and bassoon (1955), Three Songs for soprano and piano (1957), Variations for Sextet for flute, clarinet, trumpet, horn, cello and piano (1960), Trio for accordion, trumpet and double bass (1961), Sound Patterns for a cappella choir (1961),Time Perspectives for tape (1961), Seven Passages for mobile, tape and dancer (1963), Duo for accordion and bandoneón, (1964), George Washington Slept Here for amplified violin, film and tape (1965), Winter Light for tape and mobile (1965), Light Piece for David Tudor for electronically modified piano, lights, film and tape (1965), Five Thousand Miles for tape and electroacoustic media (1965), Before the Music Ends for tape and dancer (1965), Bye Bye Butterfly for tape (1965), The Chronicles of Hell for tape (1965), Rock Symphony for tape (1965),Big Mother Is Watching You for tape (1966), Participle Dangling in Honor of Gertrude Stein for tape, mobile and work crew (1966), The C(s) for Once for voices, flutes, trumpets and tape delay(1966), Hallo Piece for Halloween for mimes, instruments, tape and lights (1966), Circuitry for five percussionists and lights (1968), Festival House for mimes, lights, film projection, choir and orchestra (1968), Valentine for SAG for four card players and amplified sound (1968),Music for Lysistrata for tape and electroacoustic (1968), Aeolian Partitions for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1969), To Valerie Solanasand Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation for orchestra (1970), Music for Tai Chi for voices, accordion, strings, wind and percussion (1970), 1000 Acres for string quartet (1972), Sonic Meditations for voices, performers and instruments (1972), What to Do for performers and sound media (1972), Crow Two. A Ceremonial Opera (1974), Horse Sings from Cloud for harmonium, accordion, bandoneónand concertina (1975; rev. for voice and accordion, 1977), King Kong Sings Along for a cappella choir (1977), Fwyn for two bandoneóns (1979), Angels and Demons for choir and instrumental ensemble (1980), Travelling Companions for dancers and percussion ensemble(1980), Tashi gomang for orchestra (1981), The Wanderer for accordions (1982), 3 Meditations for accordion (1982), The Seventh Mansion. From The Interior Castle for amplified accordion (1983), The Wheel of Time for string quartet and electroacoustic media (1983), Go for accordion and two violins (1983), Tree/Peace for violin, cello and piano (1984), The Wandering. A Love Song for voice and digital delay(1984), Wings of a Dove for two pianos and double wind quintet (1984), Earth Ears for accordion, vibraphone and violin (1984), Song forthe Ancestors for voice, conch shell trumpet and didgeridoo (1984), Legend for choir, amplified accordion and percussion (1985), TheChicken Who Learned How to Fly for voices, narrator and synthesizer (1985), Lion’s Eye for gamelan / synclavier (1985), Tara’s Room fortape (1988), Portraits for wind quintet (1989), The New Sound Meditation for voices (1989), Grand Improvisation for oboe, double bass and synthesizer (1990), What If for accordion (1991), In Memory of the Future for voice (1991), Listening for Life for tape (1991), Midnight Operasfor a cappella choir (1992), Cicada Song for accordion (1996), Beyond the Mysterious Silence for voice, clarinet, trombone, piano and accordion (1996).