Richard Lerman (Dec 5, 1944 in San Francisco, CA) is a composer and sound artist whose, "work...centers around his custom-made contact microphones of unusually small size,"[1] including, "piezo disks and other transducers".[2] He studied with Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, and David Tudor.[1]
He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Sound Art (Video & Audio) for 1987-88.[3] He also works in film, having had a show at MOMA,[1] and is currently working on advanced programming in DVD creation.[2]
Lerman's work is often site-specific. Pieces include Travelon Gamelon, for amplified bicycles; A Seasonal Mapping of the Sonoran Desert, which includes cactus needles plucked by rainfall; and the collaboration (with Mona Higuchi) Threading History, for which he recorded prison camp barbed wire.[1] In the 80s he lived in Boston and taught at the Museum School and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT.[4]