American electronic composer Morton Subotnick turns 90 today.
Today marks the ninetieth birthday of American composer Morton Subotnick (Los Angeles, 1933). Although he began as a clarinettist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, he has gone down in history as a pioneer in the development of electronic music and as co-founder, along with Pauline Oliveros and Ramon Sender, of the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1961. Based in New York, in 1966 he was commissioned by the Nonesuch label to compose an electronic piece, Silver Apples of the Moon, which is considered the first electronic composition commissioned by a record label and took thirteen months to create. Coinciding with his birthday, the Roulette in Brooklyn will host a tribute concert on Sunday 23 April featuring several of his works, with performances by Ikue Mori, SooJin Anjou, David Behrman, Shelley Burgon and Joan La Barbara, his wife since 1979, among other musicians. The concert will be broadcast on the Internet, free of charge, at 20:00 New York time (five more hours GMT).