Tower Ring program

The Cornelius Cardew Choir sings at the intersection of inclusive community and experimental music, strongly influenced by Cornelius Cardew and his circle in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in England. We draw inspiration from the experimental music tradition and musicians such as Pauline Oliveros and John Cage. In our decade as an ensemble we have performed with the Deep Listening Band at Sounding the Margins (for the 70th birthday of Pauline Oliveros), at the Chapel of the Chimes, for the International Society for Improvised Music, at the St. Gregory’s Spring Music Festival, and in a variety of celebratory surreptitious performances. Oliveros’ Heart Chant and WindHorse have become core repertory for the choir. The initial meeting was held in Berkeley on Mayday 2001 organized by cofounders Tom Bickley, Bob Marsh and Kattt Atchley. We intend our mutually supportive work to be compassionate, joyful and liberating political action. As Bertolt Brecht noted, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”

Stuart Dempster--Sound Gatherer--trombonist, composer, didjeriduist, et al, and Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, has recorded for numerous labels including Columbia (Sony), Nonesuch, and New Albion. The latter includes In the Great Abbey of Clement VI at Avignon - a “cult classic” - and Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel consisting of music sources for a 1995 Merce Cunningham Dance Company commission. Grants include: Creative Associate at SUNYAB; Fellow, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois; Fulbright Scholar (Australia); NEA Composer, US/UK, and Guggenheim Fellowships. Dempster’s book The Modern Trombone: A Definition of Its Idioms published in 1979. A founding member of Deep Listening Band, TAIGA celebrated 20 years with a DLB LP Then & Now Now & Then 2008. Dempster sooths aches, pains, and psychic sores with his healing, yet playful, Sound Massage Parlor.

Two Golden Ear Awards; Deep Listening 2006; Earshot Jazz 2009.

International Trombone Association Lifetime Achievement Award 2010.

David Gamper moves freely among the worlds of composition, improvisation, and electronic instrument design and construction. These passions merge in his performer controlled sound processing environments for improvising acoustic musicians.

Recordings include many with Deep Listening Band. At the IJsbreker has been described as “the pinnacle of the Oliveros-Gamper collaborations, music that through its depth, reveals ever more profound expression.” His solo piece Conch was in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2001 BitStreams. His current primary focus is SeeHearNow, a collaboration with photographer Gisela Gamper, which performs immersing music and video live improvisations in site specific installations. www.seehearnow.org John Granzow is a musician, instrument builder, and puppet maker.

He also conducts cognitive research, investigating action perception links in audition. He is presently a PhD student at the Centre for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University