The Gas Chamber Orchestra is a noise music ensemble consisting of Michael Andrade, Mark Grey, Gary Singh, and Ryan Torchia, which was formed in 1991 at San José State University in San Jose, California while the four were electroacoustic music composition students. From 1992-1995, they performed many Free improvisation music concerts with surrealist, fluxist and dadaist overtones, incorporating such absurd elements to performances such as cooking on stage with amplified utensils, destroying a car with sledgehammers, performing in unusual spaces like bathrooms and workshops, overnight, or to empty concert halls. They performed throughout California and in Las Vegas, and on KFJC radio. They also composed the soundtrack for Do What Do, a performance art piece created by the CADRE Laboratory for New Media. The Gas Chamber Orchestra stopped performing regularly in 1996, after its members completed their MAs. Andrade died from undetermined natural causes on 2 March 1996. Mark Grey is composer-in-residence at the Phoenix Symphony. Gary Singh writes for the San Jose Metro. Ryan Torchia completed a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University at Buffalo in 2005, and now works in Daly City, California as a tester for Digidesign.
Famous quotes containing the words gas, chamber and/or orchestra:
“Man moves in all modes, by legs of horses, by wings of winds, by steam, by gas of balloon, by electricity, and stands on tiptoe threatening to hunt the eagle in his own element.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“O birds, your perfect virtues bring,
Your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight,
Your manners for your heart’s delight,
Nestle in hedge, or barn, or roof,
Here weave your chamber weather-proof,
Forgive our harms, and condescend
To man, as to a lubber friend,
And, generous, teach his awkward race
Courage, and probity, and grace!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
““Pop” Wyman ruled here with a firm but gentle hand; no drunken man was ever served at the bar; no married man was allowed to play at the tables; across the face of the large clock was written “Please Don’t Swear,” and over the orchestra appeared the gentle admonition, “Don’t Shoot the Pianist—He’s Doing His Damndest.””
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program. Colorado: A Guide to the Highest State (The WPA Guide to Colorado)