Video History Project

People

Pauline Oliveros

Oliveros's life as a composer, performer and humanitarian is about opening her own and others' sensibilities to the many facets of sound. Since the 1960's, she has influenced American Music profoundly through her work with improvisation, meditation, electronic music, myth and ritual. Many credit her with being the founder of present day meditative music. All of Oliveros's work emphasizes musicianship, attention strategies, and improvisational skills.

She has been celebrated worldwide. During the 1960's John Rockwell named her work Bye Bye Butterfly as one of the most significant of that decade. In the 70's she represented the US at the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan; during the 80's she was honored with a retrospective at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and the 1990's began with a letter of distinction from the American Music Center presented at Lincoln Center in New York.

Seeking to support the creation of new works, their presentation and dissemination, Oliveros established Pauline Oliveros Foundation Inc. in Kingston, NY, a nonprofit program for the arts in 1985. As a composer, her recent awards include the Bessie Award from Dance Theater Workshop for Contenders (1991), a work for Susan Marshall Dance Company, a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992) for composing Epigraphs in the Time of Aids for the Deep Listening Band and a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance (1994) for her work. Oliveros's work is available on more than 17 recordings produced by companies internationally. Pauline has written articles for the Leonardo Music Journal.

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"Pauline Oliveros." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/pauline-oliveros.

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Summary

Pauline Oliveros was a composer, performer and humanitarian who opened sensibilities to sound; since the 1960s she influenced American Music through improvisation, meditation and electronic music. Her recognitions include John Rockwell's naming of Bye Bye Butterfly, US representation at the Osaka World's Fair, a Kennedy Center retrospective and a letter of distinction from the American Music Center at Lincoln Center. She founded the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Inc. in Kingston, NY (1985); her awards include a Bessie and an NEA Fellowship, she appears on more than 17 recordings and has written for the Leonardo Music Journal.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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