Trombonist, Abbie Conant and Composer William Osborne present a talk on the history of their collaboration through the years. The talk is free and open to the public.

Topics will include:

1. Techniques for creating music theater texts
2. Inter-disciplinary performance practices
3. Compositional theory in music theater
4. Use of computers, surround sound, lighting and video in performance art and music theater
5. The Conant /Osborne collaboration
6. Historical influence of music theater

Abbie Conant
Abbie Conant is somewhat of a legend in the brass world. She was principal trombone of the Munich Philharmonic for 13 years and recorded a critically acclaimed CD entitled, Trombone and Organ/Posaune und Orgel. The story of her struggle for equal treatment and the same pay as her male colleagues in the Munich Philharmonic appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Der Spiegel and many other newspapers and makes up the last chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink which was on the New York Times bestseller list for 18 weeks. A full length documentary called, "Abbie Conant, Alone Among Men," was aired several times on 3-SAT European television.  With her composer-husband William Osborne she has created a grippingly dramatic repertoire of music theatre works for acting/singing trombonist. The artist couple has toured to over 140 cities in Europe and the USA with their own multimedia productions. UC Berkeley composer, Cindy Cox composed the piece Hysteria for trombone and tape for Ms. Conant.

William Osborne

studied with George Crumb in Philadelphia and with Franco Donatoni at the National Academy of Italy. Among his awards are two from the American Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers, a Doctoral Fellowship to Columbia University, and a prize from the Munich Theater Commission. Since 1993 his works have been performed in over 140 cities in North America and Europe. Mr. Osborne has written numerous articles about the social and political influences of symphony orchestras including "Symphony Orchestras and Artist-Prophets" published by the M.I.T. Press. He has appeared on "Good Morning America" and NPR as well as having been the subject of a feature article by MSNBC.