Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. was an American experimental composer and sound artist. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which also included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of Lucier's work explores psychoacoustic phenomena and the physical properties of sound.
Robert Reynolds Ashley was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve intertwining narratives and take a surreal multidisciplinary approach to sound, theatrics and writing, and have been continuously performed by various interpreters during and after his life, including Automatic Writing (1979) and Perfect Lives (1983).
Joan Linda La Barbara is an American vocalist and composer known for her explorations of non-conventional or "extended" vocal techniques. Considered to be a vocal virtuoso in the field of contemporary music, she is credited with advancing a new vocabulary of vocal sounds including trills, whispers, cries, sighs, inhaled tones, and multiphonics.
Robert Nathan Sheff, known professionally as "Blue" Gene Tyranny, was an American avant-garde composer and pianist.
David Rosenboom is a composer, performer, interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator known for his work in American experimental music.
Ben Neill is an American composer, trumpeter, producer, and educator. He is the inventor of the "Mutantrumpet", a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument.
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was a pioneer of brain-wave music. He was also involved with world music and used Japanese, Indian, and western classical instruments and notation in both composition and improvisational settings.
George Emanuel Lewis is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19. He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software he has used in interactive performances. Lewis's many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music received the American Book Award. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University.
Gordon Mumma is an American composer. He is known most for his work with electronics, many devices of which he builds himself, and for his performances on horn.
Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. Defined as "something of an irregular institution, a band that has come together intermittently through the years", Musica Elettronica Viva's founding members were Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace and Frederic Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum. and Carol Plantamura. Other members include Ivan Vandor and Steve Lacy. Garrett List and George E. Lewis subsequently joined the group.
Mimi Johnson is a New York City-based arts administrator.
John Lee Bischoff is an American composer, musical performer, teacher and grassroots activist best known as an early pioneer of live computer music. He also gained fame for his solo constructions in real-time synthesis as well as his ground-breaking work in computer network bands.
Shigeko Kubota was a Japanese video artist, sculptor and avant-garde performance artist, who mostly lived in New York City. She was one of the first artists to adopt the portable video camera Sony Portapak in 1970, likening it to a "new paintbrush." Kubota is known for constructing sculptural installations with a strong DIY aesthetic, which include sculptures with embedded monitors playing her original videos. She was a key member and influence on Fluxus, the international group of avant-garde artists centered on George Maciunas, having been involved with the group since witnessing John Cage perform in Tokyo in 1962 and subsequently moving to New York in 1964. She was closely associated with George Brecht, Jackson Mac Low, John Cage, Joe Jones, Nam June Paik, and Ay-O, among other members of Fluxus. Kubota was deemed "Vice Chairman" of the Fluxus Organization by Maciunas.
Maggi Payne is an American composer, flutist, video artist, recording engineer/editor, and historical remastering engineer who creates electroacoustic, instrumental, vocal works, and works involving visuals.
Peter Zummo is an American composer and trombonist. He has been described as "an important exponent of the American contemporary classical tradition." He has called his own work "minimalism plus a whole lot more."
Ron Kuivila is an American sound artist from Boston, MA. He is primarily known for his sound installations, performances, and recorded materials that make use of computers, and for his contributions to the SuperCollider audio programming language.
The Sonic Arts Union was a collective of experimental musicians that was active between 1966 and 1976. The founding members of the group were Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, all of whom had worked together in the instrumental performances of the ONCE festivals. They initially toured under the name Sonic Arts Group, until, at Ashley's suggestion, the name was changed to Sonic Arts Union.
My Father (14:26) is a black and white video recorded on a Sony Portapak produced between 1973 and 1975 by the Japanese Fluxus video artist, sculptor, and performance artist Shigeko Kubota.
Frankie Mann is an American electronic music composer and performance artist. Mann was a part of the New York City avant-garde music scene of the 1970s and 1980s. Mann was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1955 and studied electronic music at Oberlin College and Mills College, where she studied with David Behrman and Robert Ashley. Mann's work was released by the record label Lovely Music, Ltd.
On the Other Ocean is the debut studio album by American composer David Behrman, released in 1978 by Lovely Music, Ltd. Considered a pioneering work in the genre of computer music, the album pairs computers with live players.
