Loren Rush

With Vincent Plush

Palo Alto, California

May 30, 1983

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side a                                                                                                                         pp. 1-19

Family background--piano lessons--playing jazz in junior high--writing first piece--jazz influences--hearing Brubeck--studying music at San Francisco State--playing bassoon in Oakland Symphony--theory courses--bohemian life in San Francisco in 1950s--study with Robert Erickson--getting "unstuck."

Side b                                                                                                                                    pp. 19-37

Choosing composition over architecture--interest and training in the arts--studying composition at Berkeley--composition faculty at Berkeley--working at station KPFA--Charles Cushing--auditory ability--Prix de Rome--Seymour Shifrin, Andrew Imbrie, William Denny--improvisation group with Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros--training in serial techniques from Shifrin--alternating writing serial and free pieces at Berkeley--Erickson's help to keep focus on personal musical issues--Prix de Paris--Stockhausen's course at Darmstadt--David Tudor's course--Domaine Musical--hearing first performance of Kontakte--John Cage--Americans at Darmstadt in 1961--music written during Paris years--meeting John Chowning on boat trip home.

Side c                                                                                                                         pp. 37-56

Meeting John Chowning on boat trip home--encouraging Chowning to go to Stanford--teaching at San Francisco Conservatory--ensemble "Performer's Choice" with Dwight Peltzer--Tape Music Center--Ramón Sender--famous performance of In C--Goldfish Piece--winning Royan contest for Nexus--political environment at Tanglewood--anecdote about Copland--decision not to seek New York career--difference between East Coast and California performances of Nexus--tonal pieces.

Side d                                                                                                                                    pp. 56-73

Working with Chowning on computer music--Prix de Rome--Nexus 16--The Cloud Messenger--Song and Dance--Soft Music, Hard Music--Oh, Susanna--A Little Traveling Music--I'll See You in My Dreams--On the Beach--being a conservative composer--computer music at Stanford--digital recording and processing.