Suzanne Ciani (1946)
Suzanne Ciani got started with electronic music in the 1970s and currently gives live improvisatory concerts using the Buchla modular synthesizer and quadrophonic sound.
She was born in Indiana and raised in a suburb of Boston. She began playing piano at the age of six and later studied music at Wellesley College. She first learned about music technology through evening classes at MIT. She earned a master’s degree in composition at University of California, Berkeley.
Around 1968 she met the early electronic music instrument designer Don Buchla, and she quickly became a strong proponent of his machines. In the late 1960s she began earning money doing music for commercials, and throughout the 1970s, she composed musical logos, sounds for pinball machines, and other commercial work, including synthesizing the sound of a Coca-Cola bottle being opened and poured.
In 1980 Suzanne Ciani appeared on the David Letterman Show demonstrating electronic music:
In 1981 she composed the film score for The Incredible Shrinking Woman (starring Lily Tomlin), which was the first Hollywood feature with a score composed solely by a woman. She has released over 20 solo albums since 1979. A documentary about her (A Life in Waves) is available on Amazon Prime Video. She is also featured in the documentary Sisters with Transistors.
In recent years, Suzanne Ciani has been doing “Live in Quadraphonic” concerts where she improvises on the Buchla. This video is a 2019 appearance at the LA Public Library. The music starts at about the 6-minute mark:
At about the 44-minute mark, the performance is followed by a fascinating and informative interview with Suzanne Ciani conducted by author Claire Evans.