Tom Bickley

Tom Bickley listens to the world always hoping to hear more and more fully. He enjoys a wide range of music and finds particular inspiration in the music of Oliveros, Cage, Stockhausen, Landini, Machaut, European plainchant and Japanese gagaku and shōmyo. He grew up in the semitropical soundscape of Houston, sojourned in Washington, DC (studying music, religion, and library and information science) and came to California as a composer in residence at Mills College in Oakland. He performs using recorder (and was described by Early Music America as “one of the most important players specializing in new music for [this] instrument.”), EWI, voice and electronics, teaches music at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training, Deep Listening courses for the Center for Deep Listening at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute. His academic library career included service with the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the National Endowment for the Arts, and California State University East Bay (as their Performing and Visual Arts, Philosophy, and Political Science Librarian). He holds the Certificate in Deep Listening (1998) from Pauline Oliveros. With Monique Buzzarté, he co-edited the Anthology of Essays on Deep Listening (2012). He performs with David Barnett in the recorder duo Three Trapped Tigers, with shakuhachi player Nancy Beckman as Gusty Winds May Exist, with the Doug Van Nort Electro-Acoustic Orchestra, with Viv Corringham and Nancy Beckman as Dream Down Duvet and co-founded, directs the Cornelius Cardew Choir, is the Recording Reviews Editor for the American Recorder Society's American Recorder Magazine, and is active in the Music Library Association. He lives with his spouse Nancy Beckman, and cats 春ちゃん (Haru-chan) and 光ちゃん(Hikari-chan) in Berkeley. (The Tiger Garage [虎のガレージ] is our music studio, named for the wonderful orange tabby cats, including our beloved, departed cat 虎さん (Tora-san), on our block, aka "The Orange Cat Club" [オレンジ猫会] .)