Hildegard Westerkamp

Hildegard Westerkamp
Born 1946 (age 69–70)
Osnabrück, Germany
Nationality Canadian
Alma mater University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University
Known for composer, radio art, acoustic ecology
Notable work ssh … Noise Handbook; Listening and Soundmaking: a Study of Music-as-Environment
Website www.sfu.ca/~westerka/

Hildegard Westerkamp (born April 8, 1946, in Osnabrück, Germany) is a Canadian composer, radio artist, teacher and sound ecologist of German origin.[1] She studied flute and piano at the Conservatory of Music in Freiburg, West Germany from 1966 - 1968 and moved to Canada in 1975. She received a Bachelor of Music from the University of British Columbia in 1972 and a Masters in Arts from Simon Fraser University in 1988.[2] She taught acoustic communication at Simon Fraser University from 1982 - 1991.

Biography

In 1972, she married the Canadian poet and playwright Norbert Ruebsaat and has collaborated with him on a number of projects.[1]

Music

Many of her compositions deal with the acoustic environment and she often incorporates the medium of tape in conjunction with live instruments or voices, combining, manipulating and processing environmental sounds. She has been influenced by studying the works of composers like Pauline Oliveros, John Cage and Barry Truax.[1]

1973-91

From 1973-80 Westerkamp worked as a research associate along with R. Murray Schafer at the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University. This work fed into Schafer's book The Tuning of the World.[3] In 1974 she began working as a producer and host at CFRO (Vancouver Cooperative Radio). Through her work with Shafer and with radio, she developed a deep interest and concern for noise and the acoustic environment, which greatly influenced her style of composition. After this time, she began to experiment with recording, processing, and mixing environmental sounds in the recording studio.[2]

Westerkamp was involved in several other research projects on noise, acoustic ecology and music. From 1974 - 1975, she was a researcher with the Noise Abatement Project of the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation in Vancouver. In 1982, she was a researcher for the Women in Music project at Simon Fraser University.[2] She is also a founding member of the World Forum on Acoustic Ecology (WFAE).

In the 1980s, she developed an interest in music for live performance, and in creating installations and other "composed environments" (sometimes in collaboration) for specific sites.

After 1991

After 1991, Westerkamp devoted herself to more fully to composing, lecturing, and writing, disseminating her compositions and ideas at concerts and conferences. She was editor of The Soundscape Newsletter[4] from 1991 - 1995 and joined the editorial committee of Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology,[5] for the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology in 2000.

She has also composed soundtracks for radio dramas and film and her music has been featured in movies by Gus Van Sant including Elephant (2003) and Last Days (2005).[2]

Discography

Recordings featuring Westerkamp's compositions, chronologically:

List of works

Compositions

Composed environments and sound installations

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Kirk MacKenzie. "Westerkamp, Hildegard." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed December 5, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Hildegard Westerkamp". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
  3. ↑ Schafer, R. Murray (1977). The Tuning of the World. Knopf. ISBN 0771079656.
  4. ↑ "WFAE Soundscape Newsletter Archive". wfae.proscenia.net. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
  5. ↑ "World Forum For Acoustic Ecology". wfae.proscenia.net. Retrieved 2015-12-05.

Further reading

External links

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