Alvin Curran

Alvin Curran’s openness towards different artistic approaches is characteristic of his manifold work. Born in the USA in 1938, Curran has lived in Rome since the 1960s, where he co-founded the music collective Musica Elettronica Viva ensemble with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum. In his works, Curran uses different kinds of sound sources such as traditional and exotic instruments, electronically generated sounds and noises taken from the surrounding environment. He frequently incorporates political questions in his compositions, such as in Crystal Psalms, an homage to Kristallnacht.