The Backyard T'be Continued - Music

Robert Ashley May Be Either Of Two Different Artists - An American Opera Writer Or An American Video-Games Journalist And Podcaster. 1. Robert Ashley March 28 1930 In Ann Arbor Michigan – March 3 2014 Was A Distinguished Figure In American Contemporary Music Holding An International Reputation For His Work In New Forms Of Opera And Multi-Disciplinary Projects. His Recorded Works Are Acknowledged Classics Of Language In A Musical Setting. He Pioneered Opera-For-Television. The Operatic Works Of Robert Ashley Are Distinctly Original In Style And Distinctly American In Their Subject Matter And In Their Use Of American Language. Fanfare Magazine Calls Ashley's Perfect Lives "nothing Less Than The First American Opera..." And The Village Voice Comments "When The 21st Century Glances Back To See Where The Future Of Opera Came From Ashley Like Monteverdi Before Him Is Going To Look Like A Radical New Beginning." A Prolific Composer And Writer Ashley's Operas Are "so Vast In Their Vision That They Are Comparable Only To Wagner's Ring Cycle Or Stockhausen's Seven-Evening Licht Cycle. In Form And Content In Musical Vocal Literary And Media Technique They Are However Comparable To Nothing Else." The Los Angeles Times . Born In Ann Arbor Michigan In 1930 Robert Ashley Was Educated At The University Of Michigan And The Manhattan School Of Music. At The University Of Michigan He Worked At The Speech Research Laboratories Psycho-Acoustics And Cultural Speech Patterns And Was Employed As A Research Assistant In Acoustics At The Architectural Research Laboratory. During The 1960s Ashley Organized The ONCE Festival The Annual Festival Of Contemporary Performing Arts In Ann Arbor Which From 1961 To 1969 Presented Most Of The Decade's Pioneers Of The Performing Arts. He Directed The Highly Influential ONCE Group A Music-Theater Ensemble That Toured The United States From 1964 To 1969. During These Years Ashley Developed And Produced The First Of His Mixed-Media Operas Notably That Morning Thing And In Memoriam...Kit Carson And He Composed The Sound Tracks For Films By George Manupelli. In 1969 Ashley Was Appointed Director Of The Center For Contemporary Music At Mills College Oakland California Where He Organized The First Public-Access Music And Media Facility. From 1966 To 1976 He Toured Throughout The United States And Europe With The Sonic Arts Union The Composers' Collective That Included David Behrman Alvin Lucier And Gordon Mumma. With The Support Of The Rockefeller And Ford Foundations Ashley Produced And Directed Music With Roots In The Aether Video Portraits Of Composers And Their Music A 14 Hour Television Opera/documentary About The Work And Ideas Of Seven American Composers Which Premiered At The Festival D'Automne À Paris In 1976 And Has Since Been Shown Worldwide In Over 100 Television Broadcasts And Closed-Circuit Installations. The Kitchen New York Commissioned Perfect Lives In 1980 An Opera For Television In Seven Half-Hour Episodes. The Opera Was Co- Produced With Great Britain's Arts Network Channel Four In August 1983. First Broadcast In Great Britain In April 1984 Perfect Lives Has Since Been Seen On Television In Austria Germany Spain And The United States And Has Been Shown At Film And Video Festivals Around The World. It Is Widely Considered To Be The Pre-Cursor Of "music-Television." Staged Versions Of The Operas Perfect Lives Atalanta Acts Of God And The Tetralogy Now Eleanor's Idea Have Toured Throughout Europe Asia And The United States. Ashley And His Company Have Been Presented At The Avignon Festival The Festival D'Automne À Paris Musica Strasbourg The Almeida Festival London The Festival De Otono Madrid New Music America New York Chicago Minneapolis San Francisco Philadelphia The Inventionen Festival And The Hebbel Theater Berlin By The Gaudeamus Foundation The Netherlands The USIS Interlink Festival Japan The Next Wave Festival New York And Site Santa Fe. The Florida Grand Opera Miami-Dade Community College And The South Florida Composers Alliance Commissioned An Opera Based On The Experiences Of The Cuban "rafters" . Balseros Was Premiered At The Colony Theater Miami Beach On May 16 1997. Other Commissioned Works Include Operas Now Eleanor's Idea 1993 And Foreign Experiences 1994 For His Own Opera Ensemble With Funds From The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust And Meet The Composer's Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Commissioning Program Van Cao's Meditation 1992 For Pianist Lois Svard Outcome Inevitable 1991 For Chamber Ensemble By Philadelphia's Renowned Relâche Ensemble Superior Seven 1988 For Flute With Orchestra And Chorus By Barbara Held And The Bowery Ensemble EL/Aficionado 1987 Opera By Mutable Music For Thomas Buckner Atalanta Acts Of God 1985 By The Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago For Its Anniversary Celebration Odalisque 1984 For Orchestra Solo Voice And Chorus By The Arch Ensemble Musical Elements Alea III And The Contemporary Chamber Players Of The University Of Chicago Music Word Fire 1981 For Television By Channel 13/WNET. Ashley's When Famous Last Words Fail You For Voice And Orchestra Was Commissioned And Premiered By The American Composers Orchestra On December 7 1997. Your Money My Life Good-Bye A Radio Production For Bayerischer Rundfunk In English And German Has Been Completed And Will Air In Early 1999. Dust An Opera Commissioned By The Kanagawa Arts Foundation Yokohama Japan Premiered On November 15 1998. Ashley Also Provided Music For The Dance Companies Of Trisha Brown Son Of Gone Fishin' 1983 Merce Cunningham Problems In The Flying Saucer 1988 Douglas Dunn Ideas From The Church 1978 And Steve Paxton The Park And The Backyard 1978. Robert Ashley Is The Subject Of A Film By Peter Greenaway One Of A Series Entitled Four American Composers Transatlantic Films London And Mystic Fire Video New York . Perfect Lives Was Published By Burning Books San Francisco With Archer Fields New York October 1991. Ashley's Recorded Music And Videotapes Are Available On Lovely Music Ltd. Nonesuch/Elektra New World Records Mainstream CBS Odyssey O.O. Discs Koch International And Einstein Records. 2. Robert Ashley Is The Podcaster Writer And One Half Of I Come To Shanghai. In His "Internet Radio Show" A Life Well Wasted He Mixes Music And Interviews To Produce An Hour-Long Podcast About Video Games And The Culture Surrounding Them. read less