PAULINE OLIVEROS CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF COMPOSING AND COMMUNITY

Joe Catalano, 3145 Jordan Rd. Oakland, CA 94602 USA

A simultaneous 6 city celebration was held on November 23, 1991 to open internationally renowned artist Pauline Oliveros' 41st year of composing. The Four Decades of Composing Celebration was a prelude to a global celebration of the 50th anniversary of her work in the year 2001. During the next ten years Oliveros will be collaborating with artists around the world on projects which will be incorporated into the celebration in 2001.

Composer Joe Catalano of Oakland, CA and telecommunications analyst Eric Murphy of NightWire Communications of San Francisco, CA organized over 40 artists in 6 different cities by linking each site together using slow scan video-phone technology. The 6 cities - Houston, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Kingston, represent seminal locations in the composer's career.

This video-phone technology is a dial-up visual communication medium using still video images carried over common telephone lines. The video images are digitized at one end and are sent over phone lines to be reconstituted at the other end. By creating two simultaneous but independent telecommunications conference calls - one for the video- phones and the other for the audio signal - each site was able to broadcast and share continuous sound with images. Each city broadcasted their half hour event to the other cities which was received by all the other sites concurrently. The artists and the 6 cities in order of appearance were:

10:00 PM: The "Parlour" at the Oliveros Foundation, Kingston, NY: Pauline Oliveros-accordion, Ione, Panaiotis, Peter Blum, Michelle Spiro, Julie Lyon- Balliett, Josepha Vaughn and Gisela Gamper, in "Looking and Listening from Kingston." Organized by David Gamper.

10:30 PM: Experimental Interarts Foundation, New York City: Robert Ashley & Yasanao Tone; Brenda Hutchinson-composer; Claire Porter-poet "Home Stretch;" Mary Jane Leach-synthesizer; Guy Klucevsek-accordion & voice; John King-electric guitar. Organized by Guy Klucevsek & Phil Niblock.

11:00 PM: Shadow Productions, Houston, TX: Linda Montano-"Baby Rosita;" Edith Gutierrez, Pauline's mother, read a letter sent to her by Pauline from San Francisco dated November 1963. Organized by Margie Glaser. 11:30 PM: In-Body Performances, Interarts Consortium, UCSD, La Jolla, CA: Laura Esparza, "I dismember the Alamo;" Mary Oliver, violin, Mary Anne Pecquet, voice, music by Frank Pecquet; John Malashok, Dance; Charlie Kronengold & Harold Lemand of "The" performed "I asked you a question", video toasting and editor Eric Knutzen; goodbyes from George Lewis, David Berhman, and Fredreic Rzewski; a few moments from "The Great Ceremony to Straighten the Earth" a video documentary by Jann Pasler. Organized, produced & directed by Jann Pasler, associate producer Charlie Kronengold, video editor Eric Knutzen.

12:00 AM: Wendy Burch & Joe Catalano's home, Oakland, CA: Pamela Z and Barb Imhoff, "Addiction;" Charles Amirkhanian; Shinko Koyama; Wendy Jeanne Burch-poet "Into Wonder;" Michelle Murphy-poet "Chant" & "Waking the Cave." Organized by Joe Catalano & Eric Murphy.

12:30 AM: Electronic Cafe International, Los Angeles, CA: pieces written and performed by David Rosenboom, Richard Zvonar and Bonnie Barnett. Organized by Kit Galloway & Sherri Rabinowitz.

1:00 AM: Joe and Wendy's again, Oakland, CA: The Hub-Tim Perkis, Scott Gresham-Lancaster, Mark Trayle; George Marsh & Jennifer Wilsey- percussion; Ramon Sender-accordion; Good Sound chorus-Loren Rush, Ramon Sender, Andrea Jepson, Tim White and Nan Canning.

1:30 AM: The last half hour was an open improvisation between all 6 cities which was a model for collaborations to be developed between artists nationally and internationally in the future. Contact Joe Catalano at the address above or Pauline Oliveros, 156 Hunter Street, Kingston, NY 12401