Annea Lockwood (1939) is an American composer of New Zealand origin whose work focuses on the physical and environmental experience of sound. She has long explored how sounds affect our bodies and our environment. Her works range from concert music and performance projects to sound and multimedia installations, and often incorporate field recordings and natural processes.

Lockwood studied composition in London and later in Europe, and was strongly influenced by American experimental composers such as Pauline Oliveros and John Cage. She has lived in the U.S. since 1973, where she worked as a professor at Vassar College. Her music has been performed at major international festivals, and in recent years she has received several awards for her life’s work. She is also known for large-scale projects focused on the sounds of rivers and landscapes, such as A Sound Map of the Hudson River or A Sound Map of the Danube, in which she combines field recordings with the stories of people living in those environments.

Dig a sloped trench and slide the piano into it so that it is half buried in the ground.
Plant fast-growing trees and climbing plants under and around the piano.
Don’t shield it from the weather. Leave it there forever.

– Piano Garden score

1972
no language barrier