CharlieMorrow
Biography
Charles (Charlie) Morrow is an American sound artist, composer, and performer. His creative projects include original compositions, cinema and commercial soundtracks, large-scale installations, and radio and television broadcasts. Morrow initially attended Columbia College in New York, majoring in composition and ethnomusicology and investigating oral cultures and shamanic traditions. He completed his studies at the Mannes College of Music in New York, while participating in the city’s vibrant avant-garde scene of the 1960s. Morrow collaborated closely with Philip Corner, James Tenney, and Malcolm Goldstein and met John Cage, Andy Warhol, and Max Neuhaus. Along with Charlotte Moorman, he participated in and co-organized the 1964 New York Avant Garde Festival featuring Nam Jun Paik, Karl Heinz Stockhausen, Mary Bauermeister, and David Tudor. In the following years, Morrow presented New Music for Trumpet and Ensemble at Carnegie Hall and intensified his collaborations with several Fluxus artists. Some of his most notable compositions also date from this period, such as the Marilyn Monroe Collage (1967), presented at the Sidney Janis Gallery on the occasion of Andy Warhol’s exhibition of silkscreened portraits of Marilyn Monroe, and the soundtrack for Francis Thompson’s Moonwalk One, which premiered at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1972. In the early 1970s, together with Jerome Rothenberg, Morrow co-founded the New Wilderness Foundation, a platform to promote sound explorations in a mix of experimental and traditional arts. Their activities expanded to a series of events and the creation of a publishing house dedicated to New Music, culminating in the publication of the notable EAR Magazine. From 1973 onwards, he ceased performing in concert halls, favoring public venues, parks, and city streets, aspiring to reach a wider audience. For over a decade, Morrow organized the Solstice Sun Celebration, a largescale event in New York. Similarly, the ambitious Citywave, which took place on the streets of Copenhagen in 1985, involved more than 2,000 participants. Since the 1980s, Morrow has investigated new technologies and virtual reality, founding MorrowSound®, dedicated to research in spatial sound design and software development. During his career, Morrow has worked with leading international musicians. His sound installations have been presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (1990), the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. (2000), and the Denver Museum of Art and Science (2003). In addition, he has lectured on sound art and design at numerous venues, including Columbia University, the Helsinki University of Technology, the University of Copenhagen, and Central Saint Martins in London.
