RIP: Pauline Oliveros, 1932-2016

Composer, accordionist and champion of deep listening Pauline Oliveros died on Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 26) at the age of 84 at her home in Kingston.

An internationally acclaimed avant-garde composer who began her restless, boundary-stretching musical career in the 1960s, Oliveros served as distinguished research professor of music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy since 2001.

Her most famous work was Deep Listening, a drone-based improvisation that was recorded 14-feet underground in 1988. The recording launched the Deep Listening Band as well as the Deep Listening Institute, which merged with RPI’s Center for Deep Listening in 2005.

She was a true musical philosopher, describing Deep Listening as “listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what one is doing.”

ALSO READ:
Pauline Oliveros’ obituary at The New York Times