Pauline Oliveros - Early Career

Early Career

Oliveros earned degrees from Moores School of Music at the University of Houston and San Francisco State University where her teachers included composer Robert Erickson. At the University of Houston, she was a member of the band program and was a founding member of the local chapter of Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority.

Oliveros is one of the original members of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, which was an important resource on the U.S. west coast for electronic music during the 1960s. The Center later moved to Mills College, where she was its first director, and is now called the Center for Contemporary Music. Oliveros often improvises with the Expanded Instrument System, an electronic signal processing system she designed, in her performances and recordings.