GEORGE CRUMB. Composer, won Pulitzer Prize in Music, a Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition, used traditional instruments in nontraditional ways, scores often in circles or spirals, musicians often coming and going on stage, playing their notes and leaving, etc.
CHARLES AMIRKHIAN. Text-Sound Poet, musician, winner of Am Music Center's Letter of Distinction (twice), two awards from ASCP, and scores of other accolades and grants.
JOHN GIORNO. Poet, performance artist, founder of Giorno Poetry System (involving Wm H Burroughs, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Robt Rauschenberg, Robt Mapplethorpe, et al), created Dial-a-Peom, subject of Warhol's film Sleep.
ALWIN NIKOLAIS. Founder of Nikolais Dance Theatre, awarded National Medal of the Arts, Kennedy Center Honors, Grande Medaille de Vermeille de la Ville de Paris, 5 honorary doctorates. BTW this was his only appearance at BU ever. But that's true for all these folks.
BONNIE SHERK. Environmental Performance Sculptor, changed perception of environment by adding human and animal presence (e.g., set up a farm beneath an underpass in SF, CA, floated in an inner tube in evening gown in a pond in a city dump, etc), won NEA Individual Artist Fellowship. BTW, "performed" at Lake Lieberman on campus here.
RAY JOHNSON. Collagist, correspondence artist, seminal member of early Pop, Neo-Dada, Fluxus movts, founded NY Correspondance [sic] School, student at Black Mountain College, working with Merce Cunningham John Cage, Josef Albers, Buckminster Fuller, Willem de Kooning, et al, close collaborator with Andy Warhol.
ANDREICZ WIRTH. Theatre critic, producer, author, early champion of Robt Wilson, Professor/administrator Giessen Univ, Germany. NB: Cheryl Faver studied with him before she went to Yale.
RALPH LEE. Puppeteer. Founder of Mettawee River Puppet Theatre, organizer of 1st Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, designed puppets for Lincoln Center Rep Th, NY Shakespeare Fest, The Living Th, won Guggnheim Fellowship in Drama, AM Th Wing Design Award (several times) ODIE, created the Land Shark for SNL.
MICHAEL SNOW. Canadian filmmaker, videographer, holographer, multi-media artist, won Order of Canada Award (2), Governor General Award in Visual and Media Arts, Chevalier d'ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), also, like Nikolais, 5 honorary doctorates, incl Sorbonne.
CREATION PRODUCTION COMPANY. Theatre group experimenting with language/sound/structure, new music, visual arts, technology, architecture, etc, won OBIE, Bessie awards. Recommended by founders/editors of Performing Arts Journal.