Maggi Payne facts for kids

Maggi Payne (born in 1945 in Texas, United States) is an American composer, flutist, and video artist. She is also a recording engineer and works on restoring old recordings. Maggi Payne creates many types of music, including electronic music, music for instruments and voices, and pieces that include visuals like videos, dance, or films.

Early Life and Learning

Maggi Payne grew up in Texas. She attended special music schools like Interlochen Music Camp and Aspen Music School.

She earned her first music degree in flute at Northwestern University. There, she studied flute with Walfrid Kujala and composition (how to write music) with Alan Stout, Ted Ashford, and M. William Karlins.

Later, she received her master's degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She continued studying composition with Gordon Mumma, Ben Johnston, and Salvatore Martirano.

Finally, she studied with Robert Ashley at Mills College. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in electronic music and recording.

Her Work and Achievements

Since the 1980s, Maggi Payne has worked with video artist Ed Tannenbaum. She created music for his live dance and video shows called Technological Feets. She also helped build a special flame speaker at the Exploratorium museum.

Since 1981, Maggi Payne has been a recording engineer for the Music and Arts record label. She has recorded both new music and older, historical music.

Her video artworks include titles like Crystal, Io, Circular Motions, Solar Wind, and Liquid Metal. She also made films such as Orion and Allusions. Some of her works involve dance, like System Test (fire and ice) and Allusions. Many famous choreographers, who create dance routines, have used her music.

Maggi Payne's music is available on many different record labels.

She has received several important awards for her work. These include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for her compositions and interdisciplinary art. She also received video grants from the Mellon Foundation. She has been recognized at international competitions like Bourges and Prix Ars Electronica. In 2022, she received the SEAMUS AWARD, which is a big honor in electronic music.

She has been asked to create music for many different projects. For example, she composed music for a 36-speaker installation called Immersion, Bay Area Soundscape in 2018. She also created pieces for the National Flute Association and for musicians like flutist Nina Assimakopoulos and pianist Sarah Cahill.

Maggi Payne's works were also chosen for the 60x60 project in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. This project features 60 one-minute pieces of music.

From 1992 to 2018, she was a Co-Director at the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM) at Mills College in Oakland, California. She taught students about recording, composing, and electronic music there for many years.

Music Releases

Maggi Payne has released many albums of her own music.

Solo Albums

• 2017 Crystal (LP re-release): This album includes pieces like White Night, Scirocco, Crystal, and Solar Wind.
• 2014 Desertscapes (CD): This piece is for two women's choirs placed in different spots.
• 2012 Ahh-Ahh Music for Ed Tannenbaum’s Technological Feets 1984-1987 (LP): Features music she made for Ed Tannenbaum's dance performances.
• 2010 Arctic Winds (CD): An album of electronic music with tracks like Fluid Dynamics and Apparent Horizon.
• 2003 Ping/Pong: Beyond the Pail (CD): This album features soundscapes, which are recordings of sounds from different environments.
• 1991 Crystal (CD re-release): A re-release of her earlier Crystal album with extra tracks.
• 1986 Crystal (LP): Her original Crystal album.

Music on Other Albums

Maggi Payne's music has also appeared on many compilation albums, which feature music from different artists.

• 2017 BAM, on the Acoustic Deconstruction album.
• 2016 Reflections, a flute solo performed by Nina Assimakopoulos.
• 2015 Beyond, for Steven M. Miller.
• 2014 Black Ice and STATIC on a special boxed set called Gravity Spells.
• 2013 Pop on the SEAMUS Electro-Acoustic Miniatures CD.
• 2008 60X3, on the "60x60 (2006–2007)" CD set.
• 2007 System Test (fire and Ice) on the "Far and Wide" DVD.
• 2007 :60 Fizz on the "60x60 (2004–2005)" CD set.
• 2006 ReCycle on the "Women Take Back the Noise" CD.
• 2006 Of All for solo flute.
• 2006 it's elemental (a soundscape) on the "Overheard and Rendered" CD.
• 2005 Field recordings she edited for the "Twice Around the Earth" CD.
• 2004 60 Spin on the "60X60" CD.
• 2001 Moiré on the soundtrack for Jordan Belson: Collected Films: Bardo.
• 2000 White Turbulence 2000 on the "Immersion" DVD.
• 2000 breaks/motors on the "Oasis: Music from Mills 2001" CD.
• 1999 HUM, Aeolian Confluence, and Inflections on "The Extended Flute" CD.
• 1999 Raw Data on the "End ID" CD.
• 1998 Chris Mann Piece on "The Frog Peak Collaborations Project" CD.
• 1998 She Began, with text by Melody Sumner Carnahan.
• 1996 Desertscapes on the "Desertscapes" CD.
• 1996 Moiré on the "Storm of Drones" CD.
• 1994 Resonant Places on a CD from the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College.
• 1988 Airwaves (realities) on the "Another Coast" CD.
• 1986 Subterranean Network on the "Mills College Centennial" album.
• 1980 Lunar Dusk and Lunar Earthrise on the "Lovely Little Records" boxed set.

As a Performer

Maggi Payne has also played the flute on other artists' albums.

• 1999: Flutist on "The Extended Flute" CD, playing her own works and those by other composers.
• 1996: Flutist on "Non Stop Flight" by Pauline Oliveros.
• 1981: Flutist on Healing Music by Joanna Brouk.
• 1978: Flutist and bowed psalter player on "Summer Music" by Jacques Bekaert.
• 1977: Flutist on "On the Other Ocean" by David Behrman.
• 1977: Flutist on "Star Jaws" by Peter Laurence Gordon.
• 1977: Flutist on "Out of the Blue" by Blue Gene Tyranny.

Books and Scores

Maggi Payne has also contributed to books and had her music scores published.

• 2008: She was an interviewer for the book The San Francisco Tape Music Center, 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde by David Bernstein.
• 2002: She wrote an article about Gordon Mumma in the book Music with Roots in the Aether by Robert Ashley.
• 2000: The music score for her piece Desertscapes was published by Treble Clef Music.