Pauline Oliveros was born on May 30, 1932, and passed away on November 24, 2016. She was an American composer and musician who played the accordion.

She was an important person in the growth of experimental and electronic music after World War II. In the early 1960s, she helped start the San Francisco Tape Music Center and later led it. She taught music at Mills College, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Oliveros wrote books, developed new music theories, and explored ways to help people pay more attention to music. She created ideas like "deep listening" and "sonic awareness," which used metaphors from cybernetics. She was also a resident at Eyebeam.

Early life and education

Pauline Oliveros was born in Houston, Texas, on May 30, 1932. She had Tejana heritage. She began playing music in kindergarten and started learning the accordion at age nine. Her mother, a pianist, gave her the accordion because it was popular in the 1940s. Later, she studied violin, piano, tuba, and French horn during grade school and college. At sixteen, she decided to become a composer.

Oliveros moved to California and had a daytime job to support herself. She also taught accordion lessons to earn extra money. She then attended the University of Houston, where she studied with Willard A. Palmer. While at the university, she joined the band program and helped establish the Tau chapter of Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority.

She earned a BFA in composition from San Francisco State College. Her teachers included composer Robert Erickson, who gave her private lessons and mentored her for six to seven years. During this time, she met musicians Terry Riley, Stuart Dempster, and Loren Rush, who were based in San Francisco. She later worked with them on musical projects.

Career

When Oliveros turned 21, she got her first tape recorder, which helped her create her own electronic music pieces. She was one of the first members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, an important place for electronic music on the west coast of the United States during the 1960s. Later, the center moved to Mills College, where Oliveros became its first director. At that time, the center was renamed the Center for Contemporary Music.

Oliveros often used the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic tool she designed, during her performances and recordings. She received special honors called doctorates in music from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Mills College, and De Montfort University.

In 1967, Oliveros left Mills College to work at the University of California, San Diego. There, she met Lester Ingber, a theoretical physicist and karate expert, and they worked together to study how people pay attention when listening to music. She also studied karate with Ingber and earned a black belt. In 1973, Oliveros studied at the university’s newly created Center for Music Experiment. She led the center from 1976 to 1979. In 1981, she left her job at UCSD to move to upstate New York, where she became an independent composer, performer, and consultant.

In 1987, Oliveros changed the tuning of her accordion from equal temperament to just intonation. She sang and played the retuned accordion (without electronics) in the 1993 opera Agamemnon.

Oliveros was part of Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, a group of composers, artists, and musicians from around the world who use the virtual reality platform Second Life as a musical instrument.

Deep listening

In 1988, after going 14 feet (4.3 m) into the Dan Harpole underground cistern in Port Townsend, Washington, to make a recording, Pauline Oliveros created the term "deep listening." This term became a concept designed to encourage both trained and untrained performers to practice listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and group settings. Stuart Dempster, Oliveros, and Panaiotis formed the Deep Listening Band. Deep listening became a program of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, which was established in 1985. The Deep Listening program includes yearly listening retreats in Europe, New Mexico, and upstate New York, as well as apprenticeship and certification programs. In 2005, the Pauline Oliveros Foundation changed its name to Deep Listening Institute, Ltd. The Deep Listening Band, which included Oliveros, David Gamper (1947–2011), and Stuart Dempster, focuses on performing and recording in spaces that make sounds echo, such as caves, cathedrals, and large underground cisterns. They have worked with Ellen Fullman and her long-string instrument, as well as many other musicians, dancers, and performers. The Center for Deep Listening at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, which was first led by Tomie Hahn, now oversees the former Deep Listening Institute. A special concert was held on March 11, 2015, at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic.

Sonic awareness

Heidi Von Gunden refers to a new musical idea created by Oliveros as "sonic awareness." She explains it as the ability to pay attention to sounds in the environment and in music, requiring constant awareness and a habit of listening carefully. This idea is similar to John Berger's idea of visual awareness, as described in his book Ways of Seeing. Oliveros talks about this theory in the "Introductions" section of her work Sonic Meditations and in other writings. Von Gunden says that sonic awareness combines ideas from the study of how people think, how the body moves in martial arts, and how society views equality between men and women. She describes two ways of processing information: "attention and awareness," which can be shown as a small dot (focal attention) and a circle (global attention). These symbols appear in Oliveros's compositions, such as Rose Moon (1977) and El Rilicario de los Animales (1979). The titles Rose Moon and Rose Mountain are connected to Oliveros's partner, Linda Montano, who was once known as Rose Mountain. Later, the dot and circle symbol was divided into four parts, each representing different actions: making sound, imagining sound, listening to current sound, and remembering past sound. This model is used in Sonic Meditations. Practicing this theory helps create groups of sounds that are rich and full, with a clear main note or sound.

Personal life

Oliveros was publicly known as a lesbian. In 1975, Oliveros met her future partner, performance artist Linda Montano. The names of Oliveros' works, Rose Moon and Rose Mountain, refer to Montano having used the name Rose Mountain in the past. In her later years, Oliveros had a 32-year romantic relationship and worked together creatively with sound artist IONE (Carole Lewis). The two collaborated on several important musical plays, dance operas, and movies. Sound artist Maria Chavez, a friend and student of Pauline, described Pauline and IONE: "they showed a deep love for each other."

Oliveros also supported Soundart Radio in Dartington, Devon, England.

Awards and honors

• In 1994, Pauline Oliveros received a Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
• In 2007, she was honored with the Resounding Vision Award by Nameless Sound.
• In 2009, she was given the William Schuman Award by Columbia University's School of the Arts.
• In 2012, she received the John Cage Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
• In 2025, Long Beach Opera celebrated Pauline Oliveros by performing all of her works during its season, showing how much her ideas and music continue to influence people after her death.

Notable works

• Sonic Meditations: "Teach Yourself to Fly," and other works.
• Sound Patterns for mixed chorus (1961), which received the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1962. It is available on the recordings Extended Voices (Odyssey 32 16) 0156 and 20th Century Choral Music (Ars Nova AN-1005).
• I of IV, included in the collection New Sounds in Electronic Music, published by Odyssey Records in 1967.
• Music for Annie Sprinkle’s The Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop—Or How To Be A Sex Goddess in 101 Easy Steps (1992).
• Theater of Substitution series (1975–?). Pauline Oliveros was photographed as different characters, such as a Spanish señora, a suburban housewife wearing polyester, and a professor in robes. Jackson Mac Low performed as Oliveros at the New York Philharmonic’s "A Celebration of Women Composers" concert on November 10, 1975. Oliveros also performed as Mac Low, as described in Mac Low’s essay "being Pauline: narrative of a substitution" in Big Deal, Fall 1976.
• Echoes from the Moon (1987), which uses Earth–Moon–Earth communication, also called "moonbounce."
• Crone Music (1989).
• Six for New Time (1999), a music score for Sonic Youth.
• "The Space Between with Matthew Sperry" (2003), published by 482Music.

• Oliveros, Pauline (2013). Anthology of Text Scores by Pauline Oliveros 1971–2013, edited by Sam Golter and Lawton Hall. Published by Deep Listening Publications, Kingston, New York. ISBN 9781889471228.
• — (2010). Sounding the Margins: Collected Writings 1992–2009, edited by Lawton Hall. Published by Deep Listening Publications, Kingston, New York. ISBN 978-1-889471-16-7.
• — (2005). Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice. Published by iUniverse, Inc., New York. ISBN 978-0-595-34365-2.
• — (1998). Roots of the Moment. Published by Drogue Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-9628456-4-2.
• — (1984). Software for People: Collected Writings 1963–80. Published by Printed Editions, Baltimore. ISBN 978-0-914162-59-9.
• — (1982). Initiation Dream. Published by Astro Artz, Los Angeles. ISBN 978-0-937122-07-5.

Pauline Oliveros contributed a chapter to Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture (The MIT Press, 2008), edited by Paul D. Miller, also known as DJ Spooky.

Films

• 1976 – Music with Roots in the Aether: Opera for Television. Tape 5: Pauline Oliveros. Produced and directed by Robert Ashley. New York: Lovely Music.
• 1993 – The Sensual Nature of Sound: 4 Composers – Laurie Anderson, Tania León, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
• 2001 – Roulette TV: Pauline Oliveros. Roulette Intermedium Inc.
• 2005 – Unyazi of the Bushveld. Directed by Aryan Kaganof. Produced by African Noise Foundation.
• 2020 – Sisters with Transistors. Directed by Lisa Rovner.

Other works

In 1992, Annie Sprinkle created a production titled The Sluts and Goddesses Video Workshop – Or How To Be A Sex Goddess in 101 Easy Steps with videographer Maria Beatty. This project included music created by Oliveros.

Some of Oliveros’ music was used in the 2014 French video game NaissanceE.

Oliveros’ work titled Deep Listening Room was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial.