Pauline Oliveros & the University of Michigan Digital Music Ensemble

 Pauline Oliveros & the University of Michigan Digital Music Ensemble, directed by Stephen Rush. This DVD, recorded live at University of Michigan, features three of composer and performer Pauline Oliveros’s compositions: Sound Piece; Sound Fishes; and Heart of Tones.

Pauline Oliveros is one of America's most vital composers. Deep Listening®, her lifetime practice, is fundamental to her composing, performing and teaching. She serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY; Darius Milhaud Artist-in-residence at Mills College, Oakland CA; and executive director of the Deep Listening Institute in Kingston NY.

Stephen Rush is a Professor at the University of Michigan, where he works with students from music, dance, art, and engineering as the director of the Digital Music Ensemble. Rush has had premieres in five continents, and released over 20 CD’s, as well as a book on Jazz theology called “Better Get It In Your Soul”. Rush has premiered and recorded his classical and jazz compositions (over 20 CD’s) worldwide and performed with Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Grimes, Steve Swell, Eugene Chadbourne, Pauline Oliveros, his band "Yuganaut", “Blue” Gene Tyranny, and the late Peter Kowald.  He is also active as an interviewer, with luminaries as disparate as Laurie Anderson, Desmond Tutu, Swami Chinmayananda,  La Monte Young, and Ravi Shankar.

 Students from music, art, engineering and dance make up the Digital Music Ensemble (DME) directed by Stephen Rush, a professor in the School of Music and a composer holding a position that includes music composition and technology, dance and art. Students work to collaborate in the creation of new work, or perform innovative music/art works from the past, works largely ignored by mainstream academe. The fall semester is usually focused on readings concerning the Labyrinth tradition in many cultures, culminating in the recurring work “Gypsy Pond Music”, a sonic, site-specific installation involving sculpture and algorithmic computer music. 

The DME has given performances of varying content and approach, including performances in Berlin's experimental cafe, the "Schmalzwald", as well as presentations/performances and exhibits at the Aurreale Festival in Baitz, Germany, more recently at the Bowling Green New Music Festival. Recently, DME has premiered works by composers John Cage, Philip Glass and LaMonte Young, and performed with Pauline Oliveros and “Blue” Gene Tyranny.