On May 30, 1932, composer, accordionist, and theorist Pauline Oliveros was born in Houston.
At age 16, she acquired her first accordion and decided she wanted to be a composer. She relocated to San Francisco in 1952 where she studied with early innovators of avant-garde electronic music like La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich.
For her 21st birthday in 1953, Oliveros received a gift from her mother that proved a major inspiration in her work: A tape recorder. Throughout the decade, Oliveros established her practices with tape and electronic music, and in 1959 she co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center.
In 1974, Oliveros began her pursuit of Sonic Meditations, focusing on “the introspective and meditative nature of hearing and listening.” Oliveros continued these efforts with what she called the practice, which would become the core of her work and life.
She once said, “Listening is a lifetime practice that depends on accumulated experiences with sound.” Composer John Cage sung her praises along the same lines, writing that “through Pauline Oliveros and Deep Listening, I finally know what harmony is… It’s about the pleasure of making music.”
