John Cage: Song Books is a performance-based class for singers, instrumentalists, actors, composers, and those working with electronics. Song Books (composed in 1970) is a large-scale theater-work consisting of 90 "Solos" which is put together by the performers who choose which Solos they will perform and map them over an agreed-upon duration timeline. In addition to conventional musical notation, we will cover aspects of interpreting graphic scoring, text-based instructions, entrance and exit movements and stage directions. Cage indicated specific "Solos" to be altered electronically which poses a challenge for real-time processing at specific microphone stations. The class will culminate in a public performance. [Note: Composer/Performer Joan La Barbara participated in many performances of Song Books with Cage over a 20-year period and most recently performed this work with The San Francisco Symphony and New World Symphony with Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and Director Yuval Sharon.]