Download Chris Brown

May 21, 2008
Council for Culture
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Dear Sirs or Madams:
I’m writing to express my support for STEIM in its efforts to retain support for its
programs, now and into the future. STEIM is a unique institution, known throughout the
United States and globally for its commitment to and achievements in the field of live
electronic music performance practices and new instrument-building. In many ways, the
world is still catching up to the ideas that it has championed for decades, and it saddens
me greatly to hear that its support from the Dutch cultural ministry is now in jeopardy. It
is precisely its small size and independence from bureaucratic and commercial pressures
that have allowed it to focus on issues so fundamental to the contemporary practices of
electronic music and intermedia. The issues it has addressed have cut across aesthetic
boundaries in assisting the work of musicians and sound artists from the classical and
jazz through the pop worlds, and extending to video and installation artists. This means
perhaps that its achievements are not so easily identified in relationship to particular
compositional or artistic styles – but its role in support of such an eclectic group of artists
over the years should never be underestimated.
Perhaps I should describe my own relationship to STEIM to provide some
examples of how it has influenced this California-based composer. In 1986 I was first
invited to STEIM to perform at an international conference on new electronic
instruments. There I first met, among many others, David Wessel, who was then a
research director at the IRCAM in Paris and is now the Director of the Center for New
Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at the University of California Berkeley. I also
met Klarenz Barlow, who was at that time a free-lance composer in Cologne, and has
since taught at the Sonologie Instiute in the Hague, and currently is Chair of Composition
at the University of California/Santa Barbara. Following this conference, STEIM invited
me twice, once to perform at a performance at the Sonesta Koepezaal in Amsterdam, and
then for a research residency during the summer of 1988, when I began my work on my
composition “LAVA”, for brass, percussion and live electronics. Two years later I was
hired as Acting Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM) at Mills College,
where I have been teaching electronic music ever since. This is one of the most
venerable, electronic music institutions in the world, having been founded in the early
1960s by composers Morton Subotnick and Pauline Oliveros, where the world’s first
electronic music synthesizer was developed (the Buchla 100). It was also directed for
many years by the influential composer Robert Ashley and the current Director of the
CalArts School of Music in Los Angeles David Rosenboom. Over the years, the number
of musicians who have visited and worked at the CCM who have also been supported by
STEIM are to numerous to list; but they form the basis of our continuing relationship
with STEIM as part of an informal, international network of innovators in electronic
music.
The prospect of losing such an important part of the history and present of our
field is alarming. The development of our shared contemporary musical culture would be
seriously damaged by the loss of one of its leaders. Please reconsider this decision and
continue to support one of the most innovative and relevant programs in contemporary
music today.
Sincerely,
Chris Brown
Co-Director, Center for Contemporary Music (CCM)
Professor of Music
Mills College Music Department
Email: [email protected]