Sunday, November 26, 2023

Catherine Christer Hennix








Catherine Christer Hennix died last week in Istanbul, at the age of 75. Hennix was a musician, poet, philosopher, mathematician and visual artist, and led the just intonation live-electronic ensembles Hilbert Hotel and The Deontic Miracle.

She studied with both legendary electronic composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and raga master Pandit Pran Nath, whose other students included La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Terry Riley, Michael Harrison, Yoshi Wada and Henry Flynt. She became a pioneer in Swedish computer generated sound in the nineteen sixties. 

At the urging of Nath, she also pursued a career as a professor of mathematics and computer science.   She was affiliated with MIT's AI Lab in the late 1970s and was later employed as research professor of mathematics at SUNY New Paltz. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, she played with Arthur Russell and Arthur Rhames, as well as in Flynt's group Dharma Warriors. 

I met her once, briefly, at La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s home in NYC. I had made a pilgrimage into the city during the final months of a ten year long multi-tone drone project. When I arrived I was told that the hardware had malfunctioned and it was temporarily down. Luckily, I was invited back that evening for a talk by Hennix and Henry Flynt. 

She died at her home in Turkey, on November 29th. 



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