( b Christchurch, 29 July 1939). New Zealand composer and instrument maker. She studied at Christchurch, the RCM in London, the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne and the Electronic Music Centre, Bilthoven. She has been involved in experimental music of several kinds, some involving environmental sound, others involving the burning or submersion in water of old pianos and documenting their decay; but her best-known interest lies in experimentation with glass, as in her Glass Concert (1967-9), which involved different types of glass object. Other works include Humm (for a large number of hummers, 1971) and World Rhythms (using a variety of recorded sounds involving transcendental meditation, 1975). She settled in New York in 1973.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.