American “democratic, irreverent and traditionally experimental” prolific composer, improviser, sound artist, educator, and writer Alvin Curran (b.1938) has spent some of his most formative musical time in Rome. In 1966, he co-founded the radical and visionary collective Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum), which operated until 1971 and sought to get “beyond the heartless conventions of contemporary music”. From 1975 until 1980, Curran taught vocal improvisation at the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica in Rome.
Roman Ruins is one of Curran’s latest works, composed for the Italian, Rome-based experimental 30-piece IATO Orchestra (with one vocalist and four electronics players), conducted by Curran, and recorded at Angelo Mai Altrove Occupato in Rome in December 2013. The IATO collective was founded by veteran
