Composer's Voice Concert Strange Experience September 3, 2005 UNDER St. Marks 94 Saint Marks Place New York, New York

"Strange Experience" is a special composer's Voice concert bringing the contemporary music combo Allen and Patricia Strange to New York City from their home base on Bainbridge Island in Washington State.

Title Composer Performer SideShow: - Shadowboxer -Venus and Phroso -Zip -White Lady -Flying Pigs -The FeeJee Mermaid Allen Strange tape Heros IV Allen Strange tape Goddess Allen Strange Patricia Strange - amplified violin and computer-driven instruments Misty Magic Land Allen Strange unspecified sustaining instruments and digital media

Composer American composer and performer Allen Strange, studied composition with Michalsky at State University, Fullerton (BA, MA 1967) and later with Erickson, Partch, Gaburo and Oliveros (composition and electronic media) at the University of California, San Diego (1967--8, 1970--71). He received two grants from the San Jose State University Foundation (1969 and 1974) for research into electronic music and in 1970 became professor of music and director of the electronic music studios at the university. In 1973 he attended Chowning's music seminar at Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Center. Strange is one of the leading authorities on analogue electronic music; his Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls (1972) is now a classic text. He also wrote Programming and Meta-Programming the Electro-Organism (1974), the operations manual for the Buchla Music Easel and has documented the 200 Series synthesizers made by Buchla. He co-founded two performance groups, Biome (1967--72), in order to make use of the EMS Synthi, and, with Buchla in 1974, the Electronic Weasel Ensemble. He was president of the International Computer Music Association (1993--8) and has appeared as a guest artist-lecturer throughout the world. With his wife, Patricia, they have recently published The Contemporary Violin: Extended Performance Techniques. Strange composes for live electronic instrumental ensembles, for live and taped electronics with voices and acoustic instruments, and for the theatre; most of his works for acoustic instruments require extended performance techniques He is particularly interested in linear tuning systems (as in The Hairbreath Ring Screamers, 1969, and Second Book of Angels, 1979), spatia distribution of sound (Heart of Gold, 1982, and Velocity Studies, 1983), the isolation of timbre as a musical parameter, and composing for groups of like instruments or voices. Elements of vaudeville, rock-and-roll, country-and-western music, and the guitar techniques of Les Paul are found in his works. His theatre pieces employ various media including film, slides, and lighting effects; he produced a series of such works in collaboration with the playwright and director Robert Jenkins, of which the most important are Jack and the Beanstalk (1979) and The Ghost Hour (1981), an audio drama. In the mid-1980s, Strange became interested in alternate tuning systems.

Performers Patricia Strange is an active performer of contemporary violin literature and has concertized throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico and Europe. With her husband, Allen Strange, she co-founded two live electronic music ensembles, BIOME and The Electric Weasel Ensemble. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from California State University Fullerton and a Masters of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego. Ms. Strange has held positions in the San Diego Symphony, Opera San Jose, San Jose Cleveland Ballet Orchestra, Mid Summer Mozart Orchestra and was principal second violin with the San Jose Symphony. She has also taught violin and viola at San Jose State University. She and her husband, Allen Strange, have published a book entitled The Contemporary Violin; Extended Performance Techniques, available from Scarecrow Press. She currently lives on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound and remains active as a performer, teacher and director of the SoundScape Contemporary Chamber Players.

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