Sun September 7, 2025
Blue + Bob: Keyboard Music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley
at Mills College Littlefield Concert Hall
(7:00 PM)
Other Minds welcomes pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera to present a two piano recital of the music of "Blue" Gene Tyranny (1945-2020) and Robert Ashley (1930-2014) on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. This concert is part of Other Minds's PastForward series, presented in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts.
Robert Ashley and "Blue" Gene Tyranny were both iconic and beloved teachers at the Mills College Music Department. They were opposites in many ways, but when they met in the early 1960s working with the legendary ONCE Group, while Tyranny was still a teenager, they forged a fifty-year collaboration and lifelong friendship.
"Blue" Gene Tyranny, born Robert Nathan Sheff in San Antonio, Texas, performed a diverse repertoire throughout his career, from the piano music of John Cage and Charles Ives to collaborations with Laurie Anderson and Iggy Pop. Following his involvement with the ONCE Festival of New Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he taught and worked as a recording studio technician at Mills College in Oakland from 1971-1982, later moving to New York.
After co-founding the ONCE Group in his native Ann Arbor, Robert Ashley directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College from 1969-1981, before also moving to New York. He was known for his experimental approach to opera, a fruitful source for his collaborations with Tyranny, notably in Perfect Lives.
This concert celebrates these two composers' work with Tyranny's two-piano gems Decertified Highway of Dreams and Letters from Home and Ashley's Viva's Boy and Details (2b), along with solo compositions by both composers. Kubera and Cahill worked on these scores with both composers, and will perform pieces that Tyranny dedicated to each of them, including The Drifter and Spirit.
show less
Robert Ashley and "Blue" Gene Tyranny were both iconic and beloved teachers at the Mills College Music Department. They were opposites in many ways, but when they met in the early 1960s working with the legendary ONCE Group, while Tyranny was still a teenager, they forged a fifty-year collaboration and lifelong friendship.
"Blue" Gene Tyranny, born Robert Nathan Sheff in San Antonio, Texas, performed a diverse repertoire throughout his career, from the piano music of John Cage and Charles Ives to collaborations with Laurie Anderson and Iggy Pop. Following his involvement with the ONCE Festival of New Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he taught and worked as a recording studio technician at Mills College in Oakland from 1971-1982, later moving to New York.
After co-founding the ONCE Group in his native Ann Arbor, Robert Ashley directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College from 1969-1981, before also moving to New York. He was known for his experimental approach to opera, a fruitful source for his collaborations with Tyranny, notably in Perfect Lives.
This concert celebrates these two composers' work with Tyranny's two-piano gems Decertified Highway of Dreams and Letters from Home and Ashley's Viva's Boy and Details (2b), along with solo compositions by both composers. Kubera and Cahill worked on these scores with both composers, and will perform pieces that Tyranny dedicated to each of them, including The Drifter and Spirit.
Other Minds welcomes pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera to present a two piano recital of the music of "Blue" Gene Tyranny (1945-2020) and Robert Ashley (1930-2014) on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland. This concert is part of Other Minds's PastForward series, presented in cooperation with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University and Mills Performing Arts.
Robert Ashley and "Blue" Gene Tyranny were both iconic and beloved teachers at the Mills College Music Department. They were opposites in many ways, but when they met in the early 1960s working with the legendary ONCE Group, while Tyranny was still a teenager, they forged a fifty-year collaboration and lifelong friendship.
"Blue" Gene Tyranny, born Robert Nathan Sheff in San Antonio, Texas, performed a diverse repertoire throughout his career, from the piano music of John Cage and Charles Ives to collaborations with Laurie Anderson and Iggy Pop. Following his involvement with the ONCE Festival of New Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he taught and worked as a recording studio technician at Mills College in Oakland from 1971-1982, later moving to New York.
After co-founding the ONCE Group in his native Ann Arbor, Robert Ashley directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College from 1969-1981, before also moving to New York. He was known for his experimental approach to opera, a fruitful source for his collaborations with Tyranny, notably in Perfect Lives.
This concert celebrates these two composers' work with Tyranny's two-piano gems Decertified Highway of Dreams and Letters from Home and Ashley's Viva's Boy and Details (2b), along with solo compositions by both composers. Kubera and Cahill worked on these scores with both composers, and will perform pieces that Tyranny dedicated to each of them, including The Drifter and Spirit.
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Robert Ashley and "Blue" Gene Tyranny were both iconic and beloved teachers at the Mills College Music Department. They were opposites in many ways, but when they met in the early 1960s working with the legendary ONCE Group, while Tyranny was still a teenager, they forged a fifty-year collaboration and lifelong friendship.
"Blue" Gene Tyranny, born Robert Nathan Sheff in San Antonio, Texas, performed a diverse repertoire throughout his career, from the piano music of John Cage and Charles Ives to collaborations with Laurie Anderson and Iggy Pop. Following his involvement with the ONCE Festival of New Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he taught and worked as a recording studio technician at Mills College in Oakland from 1971-1982, later moving to New York.
After co-founding the ONCE Group in his native Ann Arbor, Robert Ashley directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College from 1969-1981, before also moving to New York. He was known for his experimental approach to opera, a fruitful source for his collaborations with Tyranny, notably in Perfect Lives.
This concert celebrates these two composers' work with Tyranny's two-piano gems Decertified Highway of Dreams and Letters from Home and Ashley's Viva's Boy and Details (2b), along with solo compositions by both composers. Kubera and Cahill worked on these scores with both composers, and will perform pieces that Tyranny dedicated to each of them, including The Drifter and Spirit.
show less
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Mills College Littlefield Concert Hall
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5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA 94613
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