Pauline Oliveros is celebrating her 80th birthday Thursday night with a concert at EMPAC at Renssalaer Polytechnic in Troy New York.   If there is any way for you to be there, do it.  It should be a brilliant celebration of an iconic artist.  The concert starts at 7:30 and is free, so get there early.

I have known Pauline for 22 years.  We first collaborated in 1990 on a dance performance called Skin.  For Skin, Pauline performed live with us using her Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed.  That was followed by the international project (Mexico and Russia) Ghostdance, for which she created the score. Our last project was Antigone’s Dream. More recently, I have been a part of her AUMI project:  an improvisational, adaptive use computer music system for profoundly disabled children that allows them to create sound and participate in music-making with other children.

Pauline is the fiercest artist I know.  At 80, she is gathering momentum when many are settling. She was recently awarded the John Cage Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.  For decades, Pauline’s music has lived deep within the worlds of digital and electronic possibility.  She pushes boundaries, challenges assumptions, and is an untiring, uncompromising advocate for the improvisational arts and the under-served.  Pauline’s music is not for the faint of heart.  She will take you down the slot, into the wild heart of the moment.

See you there!