A couple of dozen Stanford music students lie flat on their stomachs or kneel on cushions in a campus rehearsal space, eyes fixed on laptop computer screens.

The room fills with what sounds like a humming chorus of tuned water-bowls; actually, it's the computer-generated equivalent. Conductor Ge Wang, gesturing, seems to push the pulsing chorus from one side of the orchestra to the other, as the musicians stroke the keys of their MacBooks.

On Tuesday, they will perform - in real time, via the Internet, in front of a live audience at Stanford's Dinkelspiel Auditorium - with musicians from Beijing University, 6,000 miles distant. With the aid of giant video screens, both groups will hear, watch and play along with each other.

Idiosyncratic as hell, Al Margolis’ music must have told something strange to the mind of some director at WDR Köln Radio, commissioners of the American composer in 2006. Upon hearing the material, the liners explain, they stated that it sounded too “new music-y”, deciding against broadcasting it. Did these people really believe that If, Bwana would supply them with a neo-classic score? As Mr. Wilson said, god only knows. The CD features two compositions, both based on Lisa Barnard’s utterances.

So, Yoko and I took a trip the mid-January to NYC to see my professor Pauline Oliveros and Miya Masaoka perform.
I was delighted to see an old troy friend Susane Thorpe there.
It was a great performance and it was such a joy to see Pauline again after what seems like so long now.

Recently I bumped into composer and performer Pauline Oliveros (PO) in San Diego. We got to talking about one of her current projects, the Adaptive Use Musical Instruments for the Physically Challenged. This project introduces software designed to be used in therapy sessions to give children with limited motor skills the opportunity to participate in music, and offer them an outlet for musical expression. I arranged for a follow-up interview by email so that we could learn more about what this project involves. Joining us is Zevin Polzin (ZP), the technical lead in the project.

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - Using subtle motions of her head and a newly developed computer program, 16-year-old Annemarie grinned with the realization that she was making music. The teenager is a student at the REHAB school in Poughkeepsie. Severely physically disabled, Annemarie can't walk or speak and has little control over the movements of her head and arms.

Oct. 15, 2007 issue - A college student's experimental keyboard may help unlock the musical ability trapped inside individuals lacking the physical mobility to play traditional instruments. The keyboard was created by a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute senior, Zane Van Dusen, to be easy to use and inexpensive to set up.

Greg Sandow
Wall Street Journal

Long ago, back in the early 1980s, I used to write about the outer edge of classical music -- events, often staged in lofts, in which music could be rapt and meditative, and was often improvised.

Sometimes it was dedicated to some higher cause, and one of the best composers doing that was Pauline Oliveros, who'd often ask her audience to sing, with magical results. You'd find yourself not just listening, but helping to create rich tapestries of sound, and you'd feel that you belonged to a wonderful community in which everybody felt a deep and soulful sense of peace.

Many people are often uncertain which verb to apply to their experience of attending a concert. “I saw a concert,” one says, then catches himself: “No, I heard it.”

For the 75-year-old composer Pauline Oliveros, the best choice would be the more active “I listened to it.” The distinction between listening and mere passive hearing has been a focus of her activities for decades; in 1985 she founded something called the Deep Listening Institute.

New Zealand Herald
5:00AM Monday July 09, 2007
By William Dart

Alt. Music 2007 was launched by the equivalent of what might have been described 30 years ago as a supergroup.

Composer and accordionist supremo Pauline Oliveros was centrestage in the Herald Theatre, flanked by American word-artist Ione and our own man-of-many-instruments Phil Dadson.