Organised on the occasion of the exhibition For Eyes That Listen, curated by Arter’s founding director Melih Fereli, this online conversation will feature Laura Kuhn, Director of the John Cage Trust as Melih Fereli’s guest.
They will discuss John Cage’s practice with respect to concepts and references that are fundamental to his practice as a musician, composer, visual artist, writer, poet, philosopher. The conversation will focus on Laura Kuhn’s experience of working with John Cage, his colourful private life, associations with other artists and musicians, including Merce Cunningham and David Tudor, as well as Kuhn’s most recent publications on Cage.
Laura Kuhn is the executive director of the John Cage Trust, which she helped to found shortly after the composer’s death in 1992. Kuhn began working with Cage in 1986 on a variety of large-scale projects, completing her doctoral dissertation on Cage’s “Europeras 1 & 2” in 1992. From 1991 to 1996 she served as a founding faculty member of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance Program at Arizona State University West in Phoenix. The John Cage Trust went into permanent residency at Bard College in 2007, where Kuhn became the first John Cage Professor of Performance Art.
Melih Fereli OBE is an alumnus of Robert College (BSc) and Virginia Tech (MSc); he started his professional career as an engineer specializing in fluid dynamics and continued in strategic planning at Lucas Industries from 1973 to 1985. Fereli was appointed director-general of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) in 1993; a post he remained in until 2001. Fereli became the culture and arts consultant of the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV) in 2005; he continues to serve on Arter’s board of directors and as its Founding Director since 2010. Fereli is additionally a member of the teaching staff at Istanbul Technical University Dr Erol Üçer Centre for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM).
For Eyes That Listen
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
