Robert Ashley

His training came under Ross Lee Finney, Roberto Gerhard, and Leslie Bassett, after which he earned music degrees at the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music. While pursuing those studies he held positions in the Speech Research Lab, where his focus encompassed psychoacoustics and cultural speech patterns, and served as Research Assistant in acoustics at the Architectural Research Lab. In the 1960s he co-founded the legendary ONCE Group and later, during the 1970s, acted as co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College.

He developed a distinctive operatic form, occasionally labeled New Narrative opera, realized in pieces such as That Morning Thing (1967), Combination Wedding and Funeral (1964), Perfect Lives, an opera-for-TV (1980), and e/L Aficionado (1991). Parallel explorations of social behavior and language illusion appear in works including The 4th of July for tape (1960), The Wolfman (1964), in memoriam ... Crazy Horse (symphony) (1963), and The Trial of Anne Opie Wehrer and Unknown Accomplices for Crimes Against Humanity (1968).
~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny