麻豆视频

When trailblazing composer and multimedia artist was a student at the College of Music in the 1970s, she was already a singer-songwriter, performing gigs at local venues by night while pursuing rigorous undergraduate voice and music education studies by day.

She wasn鈥檛 a composition major. In fact, it didn鈥檛 even dawn on her that composition studies might be the right path to pursue until she was well into her senior year.

鈥淚 joined the early music group, and the lute player was a composition major. So I thought, 鈥極h, if I want to be involved with people doing experimentation, I should have been a composition major.鈥�

鈥淭hat was when Richard Toensing had his synthesizer lab, but I had no idea about that.鈥�

But this summer, the truly multifaceted musician is preparing for an upcoming stint in Italy, joining the elite ranks of scholars, historians and artists awarded the Rome Prize. In April, the American Academy in Rome awarded Pamela (pictured above; photo courtesy Rubra/Ars Electronica) the Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize for musical composition.

The prestigious prize鈥攁warded to just 30 people each year, only 10 of whom are artists鈥攃arries with it an 11-month fellowship at an immersive and interdisciplinary setting in the heart of Rome. It鈥檒l be the first time the San Francisco-based artist will spend so much time away from her live-work artists鈥� building for a residency.

鈥淲ith most fellowships, there are eight or 10 artists in residence, and it鈥檚 all artists,鈥� Pamela says. 鈥淭his time, it鈥檒l be a much broader range of intellectual minds who I can connect with. I get a lot of energy from being around interesting people, and just being in Rome will be amazing.鈥�

Pamela says she鈥檒l use the time and the diversity of her fellow prizewinners to her advantage as she creates a new piece she鈥檚 calling 鈥淪imultaneous.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a little open ended, but the intention is that it鈥檒l be a performance work that involves a lot of interactive video components and live processing on my voice.鈥�

She has always been moved by the stories and passions of the people around her. As a student at the College of Music, Pamela says despite her budding career in non-classical music making鈥攕upported by former faculty member John Paton鈥攕he came late to the notion of academic study of composition. The revelation was thanks, in part, to her interest in a wide range of musical styles.

鈥淚n my senior year, I decided to do something different, so I did Collegium Musicum, which was an early music ensemble. I learned that鈥檚 where all the new music people were.听

鈥淭here鈥檚 kind of an affinity between early and new music people. New music people usually like early music, and vice versa, and neither is terribly interested in what falls in between.鈥澨�

Since graduating in 1978, Pamela has become known as a pioneer of digital looping during performances. She鈥檚 collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and many others and was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004. Now, 鈥淪imultaneous鈥� will draw on past experiences and her interest in language translation and synchronicity.

鈥淥ne of the inspirations was that idea of things happening simultaneously,鈥� Pamela explains. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been fascinated by people who can do simultaneous translation, listening to one language and speaking in another at the same time. I love that 鈥楿nited Nations鈥� sound where you hear the chatter of people translating into different languages.

鈥淚鈥檓 also thinking about the magic of finding out that someone somewhere else in the world is doing what you鈥檙e doing at the same time as you, or coming up with the same ideas at the same time.鈥�

Throughout her career, Pamela has pocketed ideas like this one, along with the two thoughts she says should guide current music students as they venture into the world of artistic expression:

鈥淚f you really want to be an artist, you need to do two things: You need to make work. Don鈥檛 just sit around saying, 鈥楽omeday I鈥檓 going to do this or that project.鈥� Just do the project.听

鈥淭he other thing is that you have to be supportive of the community of people doing things you want to be doing. Go to events and concerts, hear other people鈥檚 work. That will have a really strong impact.鈥�

Pamela Z leaves for Italy this September. To read more about the Rome Prize, visit