Oberlin Portrait: Pauline Oliveros By Michael Chipman
	Related Sites: Pauline Oliveros Foundation Inc. • Pauline Oliveros • Calendar • Publications • Discography Pauline Oliveros, Professor of Composition, Talks About 'Deep Listening' Behind-the-scene looks into concerts and events Preview CD's released by faculty, staff & students Past articles from the Oberlin Portrait		Pauline Oliveros, in performance with the Deep Listening Band at the Cat in the Cream PHOTOGRAPH BY Ramon Owens Think One Professor Can Change the World? So do we! Pauline Oliveros, professor of composition, has devoted her life to creating music and helping others create music. Presently based in Kingston, N.Y., she is president of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, Inc., a non-profit program for the arts that she founded in 1985 to support the creation of new works in the arts. She composes and performs for a variety of ensembles. By normal standards, Pauline Oliveros - professor of composition, composer, performer, humanitarian - has had a remarkable month. But then, Oliveros doesn't follow any pattern for "normal standards." A few examples: In March, she received the SEAMUS99 Award for Lifetime Achievement. SEAMUS is the acronym for the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, and recipients are recognized for quality and artistic production. On March 14, Oliveros performed as part of the Deep Listening Band (along with acting director of the jazz studies program Hugh Ragin) at the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse. From March 15-29, she journeyed to Egypt where she, as part of Ione's Ministry of Maat (with Andrea Goodman and Alessandro Ashanti) performed in the King's Chamber at the Great Pryamid, and recorded a digital video. On April 1, Sonic Youth performed her work at NYC's Bowery Ballroom. On April 2, Anita Gates reviewed the film "Paulina" in The New York Times. The film's soundtrack was written by Pauline Oliveros. On April 6, Oliveros, performing as part of the Circle Quartet, takes to the stage at an east side NYC club called Tonic. On April 10, Oliveros will offer the keynote address for the Improvising Across Borders conference at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In April, her Prayer for a Thousand Years is slated for publication by HarperSanFrancisco. What is your first memory of music? The sound of piano music from the lessons my mother and grandmother were teaching at home. How old were you when you started playing? Four or five years old - maybe earlier. What inspired you to be a musician? Love for music and sound. What keeps you inspired on discouraging days? The ecstasy of creating and listening to music. What is the most memorable performance you have ever seen and why? Maybe it was being a part of a one hundred-piece accordion band performing during the Rodeo at the Coliseum in Houston, Texas when I was about nine years old. If you could perform with one musician living or dead, who would it be and what would you perform? I'd love to do my see-saw piece for accordion and bandoneon with David Tudor again. If you could master another instrument, what would it be? I always wanted to play the trumpet. If you couldn't be a musician what profession would you choose? I would be a biologist. Which profession would you definitely not choose? Wrestling. What do you listen to after a long day? Silence is preferred. What do you like to read? Too many different things. It depends on current interests - music, science, news, biography. The three words that best describe you: Persistent, determined and happy.