university professor violinist jazz musician
Oliver studied for her Master of Fine Arts in violin and viola at San Francisco State University and at Mills College. In 1993 she obtained a doctorate from the University of California, San Diego in Theory and Practice of Improvisation (Constellations in Play: A Model of Improvisation), which substantially informed her methods as a performer.
She currently lives in Amsterdam, where she is professor at the Hogeschool voor Kunst and musical director of the Magpie Music Dance Company. She also performs and releases albums with the Instant Composers Pool. As a soloist she performs as much composed as improvised music, giving first performances of works by, for example, Richard Barrett, John Cage, Chaya Czernowin, Morton Feldman, Brian Ferneyhough, Liza Lim, George Lewis and Richard Teitelbaum.
She has performed with, among others, Ab Baars, Sean Bergin, Tobias Delius, Scott Fields, Ig Henneman, Tristan Honsinger, Achim Kaufmann, Joëlle Léandre, Thomas Lehn, George Lewis, Misha Mengelberg, Philosophy Minton, Michael Moore and Evan Parker.
She has received invitations to perform at festivals all over the world, such as the North American New Music Festival, Xenakis Festival in Buffalo, New York, Darmstadt Summer Course, Donaueschingen Festival and Ars Electronica (Linz). Mary Oliver is referred to as an internationally acclaimed Amsterdam violinist.
Her equally brilliant work as an improviser is a rarity in the ranks of first-rate classical interpreters.".
Oliver is a member of the Nieuw Ensemble, SONOR and KIVA, as well as the International Center of Photography-Orchestra.
