Maybe you’ve heard of “Deep Listening”, but are you familiar with the queer feminist avant-garde composer and pioneer of electronic music behind that concept? Ahead of our Pique programming devoted to the memory of this late great artist and thought leader, we wanted to share some insight into why Pauline Oliveros matters.
Pauline Oliveros was born in 1932 in Houston, TX, and started playing the accordion at age 10. In 1961, she co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center, an important resource for electronic music on the U.S. West Coast, making her a pioneer of early electronic arts.
In the late 1960s, Pauline Oliveros began composing pieces that incorporated natural sounds—such as the performers’ own breathing. Listening both outwards and inwards, she found this private music-making to be soothing mentally and physically, a respite from the traumatic news of the US civil rights era. Developing from a self care practice into listening as a form activism and collective healing, the Sonic Meditations, published in 1971, laid the foundation for her concept of deep listening.
““The Sonic Meditation group began at the time the women’s-liberation movement was emerging. I decided it would be good to have women only for a while. They had been held down, musically, so long.””
Later in the 1990s, Oliveros began teaching “deep-listening” retreats for “ear-minded people” in collaboration with her creative partner and spouse IONE. Students of Pauline and IONE’s who carry their legacy forward include cellist and composer Anne Bourne, and sound artist Maria Chávez, whose abstract turntablism practice was developed under Oliveros' Deep Listening guidance.
Deep Listening is one of Pauline Oliveros’ most renowned legacies, but her lesser-known work on the Adapted Use Musical Instrument (AUMI) software demonstrated her dedication toward improving accessibility to improvised music for all ages, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Guided by Oliveros and developed by a group of engineers and improvising musicians, including Ottawa composer and educator Jesse Stewart, the AUMI software interface enables the user to play sounds and musical phrases through movement and gestures. Developed with a focus on physically disabled users with limited range of motion, AUMI attempts to make musical improvisation and collaboration accessible to the widest possible range of individuals.
At Pique, we are excited to present multiple performances and workshops dedicated to Pauline Oliveros’ legacy. The Ottawa premiere of the Pauline Oliveros documentary titled Deep Listening will be screened followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Daniel Weintraub and Pauline’s creative partner and spouse IONE. Preceding the screening will be a Deep Listening workshop by a devoted student of Pauline and IONE’s, cellist and composer Anne Bourne. Plus, Oliveros’ collaborator Jesse Stewart will present an interactive sound installation and performance using the AUMI software to mark the launch of the new book Improvising Across Abilities (2024). Later in the program, Stewart and local artist Dimitri Georgaras will both perform interpretations of two Pauline Oliveros text scores, and Maria Chávez will showcase her Oliveros-inspired abstract turntablism practice in a performance and workshop.
All of this takes place at Pique festival on March 9 and 10 at the Arts Court in Ottawa. Get your tickets now.
March 9, 2024:
2:00 pm - Abstract Turntablism workshop by Maria Chávez
4:30 pm - Going, Going Gong installation and performance by Jesse Stewart
6:00 pm - Dimitri Georgaras performs Pauline Oliveros' score "Noise — Silence" (2005, Kyoto, Anthology pg 63)
6:30 pm - Jesse Stewart performs Pauline Oliveros' score "Pauline's Solo"
7:45 pm - Maria Chávez performance
March 10, 2024:
2:00 pm - Listening and Sounding in the Dark: The Text Scores of Pauline Oliveros workshop by Anne Bourne
5:00 pm - Screening: Deep Listening: The Story of Pauline Oliveros
7:00 pm - Deep Listening Documentary Q&A with Daniel Weintraub and IONE