Joe Catalano (composer/performer) is primarily concerned with drawing the listener's attention to long time structures, forms occuring in the natural word, and the archaeological record. He has written music for the concert hall, theater and gallery spaces. In November of 1994, DreamFrame for guitar was premiered at Roulette, NYC. His most recent theater music was written for Kwan and Iger's Pins and Noodles, premiered at Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA, in November of 1993.
He is currently developing and performing variations of As Oceans Curve, an eight hour performance/installation piece. This series of site specific sound installations is a meditation on different aspects of the physical and psychic nature of the world's oceans as well as the physical space in which the piece is performed. As Oceans Curve's content and form is built up from the site specific elements of geographic location, history and exact physical dimensions of each performance space.
In 1992 he conceived and presently curates the annual High Tides: San Francisco New Music Festival of Bay Area Composers, presented by the Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, featuring new works by Bay Area composers and sound artists.
During January of 1992 he created and produced YesterDay Foretold/Ayer PreSagio, a multi-media theater piece with visual artist Charles Rose at the Mission Theater/Teatro Mision, in San Francisco whose temporal form is based on the meso-american 52 year calendar and whose content is the retelling of the eight dark omens experienced by the inhabitants of Mexico city 10 years before the invasion of Cortez in 1519.
In October of 1992, Joe conceived and organized a six-city live, interactive teleconferenced concert of experimental music, poetry and performance art between The Intermedia Research Foundation, New York, NY; Houston, TX; The Parlour, Kingston, NY; San Francisco; The Electronic Cafe, International, Los Angeles; and The Interarts Consortium, UCSD La Jolla; featuring the work of 50 artists including, among other, Robert Ashley, Linda Montano, Charles Amirkanian and Pauline Oliveros.
Joe's other major works include Five Terrestrial Projections for Guitar and Other Instruments, a set of five major chamber pieces for guitar premiered at New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA and It's In The Cards, an evening length Multi-Media, multi-artist musical performance work based solely on mail art presented at The Lab in San Francisco, CA.
Performances of Original Works
DreamFrame for solo guitar, performed by William Anderson at Roulette, New York City, sponsored by Composer's Forum. November 20, 1994.
As Oceans Curve: Sounding the Sanctuary performance/installation at the Art Gallery of Santa Cruz County. November 13, 1994.
Musical score and live performance for Kwan & Iger's Persona Grata production of Pins and Noodles, Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA, November 11-13, 1993.
As Oceans Curve: Toward the Marin Headlands, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA, June 20, 1993.
Lounge Lizard Night, an Evening of Live Electronic Music, Mountain View, CA. International Computer Music Conference sponsored by San Jose State University, The Center for New Music and Audio Technology at U.C. Berkeley (CNMAT) and the Computer Center for Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), October 13, 1992.
YesterDay ForeTold/Ayer PreSagio, staged performance, Mission Cultural Centers' Teatro Mision, San Francisco, CA January 17-26, 1992.
As Oceans Curve: Sounding the Deep Ocean Layer, The A Gallery, San Francisco, CA. January 12, 1991 linked via live telecommunications to the Electronic Cafe International, Santa Monica, CA, Other Visions, Oakland, CA, and the Western Front Gallery, Vancouver, BC Canada.
YesterDay ForeTold/Ayer PreSagio (excerpts), River Styx at Duff's, February 19, 1990.
Five Terrestrial Projections for Guitar and Other Instruments, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA October 29, 1988 (premier).
Live Environmental Sound Installation for Above the Shoulders (exhibit), San Francisco Craft and Folk Art Museum. May 10, 1988.
It's In the Cards, Sheldon Auditorium, St. Louis, MO, February 19, 1987; The Lab, April 4, 1987; New Harmony IN, July 25, 1987.
Special Projects
Conceived of and presently curates High Tides: San Francisco New Music Festival of Bay Area Composers, Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 1993 - 1995.
Good Sound Festival '92, Life on the Water Theater, San Francisco, CA. Performance timing devices design and implementation. August 21-30, 1992.
Conceived and produced Pauline Oliveros: Four Decades of Composing, A Celebration, a six-city live, interactive teleconferenced concert of experimental music, poetry and performance art, between The Intermedia Research Foundation, New York, NY; Houston, TX; The Parlour, Kingston, NY; San Francisco; The Electronic Cafe International, LosAngeles; The Interarts Consortium, UCSD La Jolla; featuring 50 sound and performance artists including, among others, Robert Ashley, Linda Montano, Charles Amirkhanian, Brenda Hutchinson, Pamela Z, Guy Klucevsek, Ione and Pauline Oliveros.
Articles and Scores Published
"Multi-cultural music resources available on the Internet" presented at the 17th annual Chamber Music America conference, San Francisco, CA January 13th, 1995.
Electronic Midwifery: A Videophone Celebration of Pauline Oliveros' Four Decades of Composing and Community," in Leonardo Music Journal, vol.3, pp. 29-34, 1993, MIT Press.
As Oceans Curve: Sounding the Deep Ocean Layer: Toward the Nevada Desert, in Furnitures: the Magazine of North American Ideophonics, Issue no. 11, June 1993.
Pauline Oliveros celebrates 40 years of composing and community," in Leonardo: International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST), Vol. 2:7 July 15, 1992.
Bibliography
"As Oceans Curve: Sounding the Deep Ocean Layer" interview with Joe Catalano by Mark Bartlet, in Headlands Journal, 1993.
Awards and Grants received in support of original work (partial list) Arts Matters, Inc (NYC) Fleishhacker Foundation (CA) Hewlett Foundation San Francisco Grants for the Arts (CA) L. J. Skaggs Foundation (CA) Zellerbach Family Fund (CA)
Professional Affiliations Co-Artistic Director, Oliveros Foundation, Oakland, CA Chapter Composers' Forum (NYC) Nature Sounds Society, Oakland Museum
Scores and tapes distributed through Deep Listening Publications, (NY) Performance rights, Quiet Cat Music, BMI