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Electro-acoustic music, Contemporary World Music, Folk, Jazz, Composer, Musicologist
A composer, international concert-artist, and world music specialist, Randy Raine-Reusch has studied music in over ten countries with numerous teachers, from former headhunters to National Treasures. He has premiered works at three World Expos, and in concert tours to Europe and Asia. A prodigious multi-instrumentalist with a collection of over six hundred world instruments, Randy has worked a wide range of artists from Pauline Oliveros, to Aerosmith and The Cranberries, to Cirque du Soleil.
Biography
Randy Raine-Reusch is an improvisationally based composer / concert-artist specializing in New and Experimental Music for world instruments. An innovator interested in extending the boundaries of music, he has created distinct new performance styles on a number of instruments including Chinese guzheng (23-string zither), Japanese ichigenkin (1-string zither), and the Thai khaen (16-reed bamboo mouth organ). Raine-Reusch has also been heralded as a "very multi-instrumentalist" (Folk Roots Magazine), due to his ability to play many of his collection of 600 world instruments.Raine-Reusch has spent over thirty years exploring the relationship of music to psychology, philosophy, and spiritual or religeous practices. He has studied the social, ritual and mystical uses of traditional and indigenous music in Australia, Borneo, China, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, and has had the great honour of studying with two "National Treasures" in Korea and Japan. As a result his music now contains clear influences from a variety of indigenous cultures and is heavily influenced by Taoism and Zen. Raine-Reusch's western influences range from studying with improvisors Jack Dejohnette, and Karl Berger at the Creative Music Studio in the 70's, to conversations with John Cage.
Raine-Reusch's unique combination of Experimental, Contemporary and World Musics have led him to record and perform with a wide range of artists, including; Rock's Aerosmith, Yes, and the Cranberries, New Music legend Pauline Oliveros, Creative Improvisers Barry Guy, and Robert Dick, and World Music artists such as Tuvan vocalist Sainkho Namtchylak, Korean kumungo innovator Jin Hi Kim, Indian mrdingham master Trichy Sankaran, Chinese zheng virtuoso Mei Han ,Vietnam's master performers Khac Chi and Ngoc Bich, and the Japanese Iemoto, or hereditary Grand Master, of Seikyodo Ichigenkin. Raine-Reusch is the leader of the internationally touring world beat group ASZA, and performs internationally with Han Mei. Han and Raine-Reusch's CD Distant Wind was nominated for a Juno and two West Coast Music awards. In 2002, Raine-Reusch performed a concert in Tianjin, China telecast live through Tianjin TV and CCTV to 500 million viewers!
Raine-Reusch has premiered many of his compositions on concert tours to Australia, South Africa, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, England, China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. In addition, his piece Trombones Over Water had over 60 performances at Expo 88 Brisbane and Expo 92 Seville, and his most recent collaboration with Electro-acoustic composer Barry Truax entitled Bamboo, Silk and Stone, for guzheng, hun, suling gambu and Granular Synthesis, was premiered at the International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong, 1996.
Raine-Reusch's experience in, and knowledge of, the music of a number of different cultures has led him to be a consultant and musical coach for Cirque du Soleil's recent production Quidam, produce a CD ROM for DNA Multimedia entitled Taqsim, Musics of the Silk Road, produce a CD entitled Moonlight in Vietnam, by the Khac Chi Ensemble, for Henry Street / Rounder Records as well as record and produce two CDs on the music of Borneo for Pan Records entitled Sawaku - The Music of Sarawak and Masters of the Sarawakian Sape. Raine-Reusch is also very active as a writer, artistic director and media personality.
Randy is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, and a member of the Canadian League of Composers, and a member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community.
Aspects of work
Randy Raine-Reusch is a diverse artist, working in many fields simultaneously. He enjoys exploring numerous mediums of expression which inform and enrich his work. He has designed performance pieces for World Expos, and created interactive performance systems that link audiences in numerous theatres together by satellite. Besides being an occasional poet, choreographer, radio announcer and teacher, Randy has also been active in the following areas:Artistic Direction
Randy has assisted the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak as an 'ad hoc' Artisitic Director, for the international artisits. He was the Artistic Director for the nationally televised Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Western Canada Summer Games 1990 and the accompanying Royal Visit of Britain's Prince Edward. He also was the Artistic Director of the Music from the Pacific Horizon Festival series, and has assisted in the selection of artists for a number of festivals in Canada and Asia.Consulting
Randy worked with the Sarawak Tourist Board to create the Rainforest World Music Festival in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, and to create, produce and present a concert of traditional Sarawakian music and dance at the World of Music Exposition (WOMEX) in Marseilles, France in 1997. He also worked as a consultant on Cirque du Soleil's production "Quidam", DNA Multimedia's CD-ROM "The Silk Road", and for numerous Government agencies in Canada and Asia.Artist Support
Randy has acted as a mentor and advisor to a number of emerging artists in World Music for over 15 years. He was a founder of the World Music mentoring programme for B.C. Festival of the Arts which actively provides opportunities to traditional artists beginning their professional careers or to established artists wishing to venture into new territories. He is currently assisting the musicians and instrument makers of Borneo to maintain and preserve their art, by providing opportunities for musicians to perform overseas, and creating a market for the sale of traditional instruments.Lectures
Randy has lectured internationally on the topics of Music, Acoustic Ecology, Psychology and Creativity. These include the following presentations: " Music in Sarawak" for the Chime Conference of Chinese and Asian music in Prague in 1999; three lectures in "World Music as an Educational Tool" for the 1999 NESA Conference in Cairo, Egypt; "World Music and the Traditions of Sarawak" at the Sarawak Museum, Kuching, Malaysia in 1997; "World Music Languages" at the Inter-cultural Music Conference, London England in 1996; "Endangered Music, Endangered Life" at the World Soundscape - Tuning of the World Conference in Banff, Alberta in 1993; "Contemporary Composition on World Instruments" at the University of the Philippines, Quezon City in 1987; and "Composition and Performance in North America" at Srinakarinwirot University, Mahasarakham, Thailand in 1985.Psycho-Physical
Randy Raine-Reusch was the co-Founder of Canada's first Holistic Health Centre in Victoria, BC in the early 1970's, with two Medical Doctors practising acupuncture, and two Psychologists. Although Raine-Reusch was initially trained as a medical massage therapist, licensed in BC and Ontario, he went on to work in the area of Pscho-physical Body Work. He gave a number of lectures and workshops in Body Work at Eselan Institute in San Francisco and at Humanistic Psychology national and regional conferences throughout the United States.After leaving the Holistic Health Centre and moving to Vancouver Raine-Reusch continued in private practice and became the President of the Massage Section of the British Columbia Association of Physiotherapists and Massage Practitioners. Randy no longer practices professionally, but does continue to teach and lecture in the areas of psycho-physical associations and Body Work.
Contact details and further information
E-mail Randy Raine-Reusch
For further details, see Randy Raine-Reusch's website