Norman Lowrey Explained

Norman Eugene Lowrey (born 1944, Midland, Michigan) is a composer, mask-maker, performance/sound/video artist, and music educator. He studied composition privately with Samuel Jones in 1964–65, earned a Bachelor of Music from Texas Christian University in 1967, and completed his formal music education at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester New York. He received an M.M. in theory (1970), and a PhD in composition in 1974. Lowrey is also well known as an associate of the American composer Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016).

Lowrey spent many years as a professor of music, specializing in composition and theory. He was a composer in residence and Assistant Professor of Music at California State University at San Diego from 1971 to 1972, Instructor of Humanities at Stephens College (Columbia, Missouri) in 1972 to 1976, and Professor of Music at Drew University (Madison, New Jersey) from 1977 to 2016, where he taught composition and theory, along with analog and digital electronic composition. He also instructed students in environmentally-based composition.[1] [2]

Often specializing in lyric and poetical settings, his orchestral works include a setting of Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales" for narrator and Orchestral and a setting of "Breaking Open," a poem by Muriel Rukeyser for Women's Chorus and Orchestra.[3] He has also expanded his work into multimedia, including the composition "Orchestrophonia for Mechanical Musical Instruments and Orchestra,"[4] [5] [6] a commissioned collaboration with the Colonial Symphony and the Morris Museum's Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata.[7]

Lowrey has also worked in sculpture. He is the originator of "Singing Masks" and creates musical automata.[8] The masks, fabricated with ceramic, carved wood, and leather represent archetypal animistic characters based on mythical and quasi-mythical entities.[9] Many of the masks and automata use electro-acoustic sound sources, often developed by Lowrey. The masks are featured in site-specific rituals and have been exhibited and performed in such diverse locations as Plan B SITE Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Roulette[10] and Lincoln Center in New York City, The Deep Listening Space in Kingston, New York, The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton,[11] and at a site of pictograph caves outside Billings, Montana.[12]

As an outgrowth of his performances with Singing Masks, he collaborated with Cynthia Poten, previously the Delaware Riverkeeper, on a project funded by a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in the spring of 1994 called 'River Sounding.' This included people participating in listening sessions along the 350 mile length of the Delaware River, and culminating in an exhibit with performances at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

He has created collaborative virtual performances online in the Second Life platform with the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, an international virtual collaborative ensemble, using animated versions of his Singing Masks. A recording of one of his compositions for the group was included in an article published by MIT Press Leonardo Music Journal.[13]

His work with Pauline Oliveros included assisting in the certification training program of her Deep Listening practice, being a member of the Board of Directors of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation, which then became the Deep Listening Institute, and collaborative performances with his masks. He has continued her methodology of Deep Listening for the program now located at the Center for Deep Listening of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and at Deep Listening Retreats in Sweden, California, and New York State.

His most recent work has included performances in the CRAIVE Lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York) and as a video/sound artist, he received a commission in 2016 to create an installation piece in the Smithsonian's Freer|Sackler Galleries of Asian Art for an exhibit of 2500-year-old Chinese Bells.[14] [15]

Selected works

Discography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bio . Drew University.
  2. Web site: Vivaldi Is Featured in Drew's Winter Concert . Drew Today.
  3. Web site: Breaking Open. www.carlfischer.com.
  4. News: Musical past and present join hands. Tschappat. Mike. May 11, 2007. Morristown Daily Record.
  5. News: Mechanical, but original Orchestra and museum pieces make beautiful music together. Finane. Ben. May 14, 2007. Newark Star-Ledger.
  6. News: Experience 'Orchestrophonia'. Abrams. Bernie. May 31, 2007. Recorder Community Newspapers.
  7. Web site: Malarcher . Patricia . Crafts . The New York Times . 6 December 1981.
  8. Web site: Connections: Deep Listening/Singing Masks/Ceremonial Dream Time . Drew University.
  9. Web site: Thoughts On Listening. osborne-conant.org.
  10. Web site: Norman Lowrey. Roulette. en-US.
  11. News: Malarcher. Patricia. 1981-12-06. Crafts (Published 1981). en-US. The New York Times. 2021-03-13. 0362-4331.
  12. Web site: Review of Norman Lowrey at Ione's 1997 Dream Festival . Drew University.
  13. Oliveros. Pauline. 2009. LMJ19 CD Companion: Listening for Music through Community. Leonardo Music Journal. 19. 98–111. 10.1162/lmj.2009.19.100 . 0961-1215. 40926358. 57567760 . free.
  14. Web site: A Rare Collection of Bronze Age Chinese Bells Tells a Story of Ancient Innovation. Landers. Jackson. Smithsonian. en.
  15. Web site: Resound: Ancient Bells of China. FreerSackler. en-US. 2019-06-28.
  16. Web site: Soundscape: River of Bells . Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
  17. Web site: On The Towns . The New York Times . 2 April 2000.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Norman Lowrey".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.