Thomas Buckner is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

 vocalist specializing in the performance of contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music

Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...

 and improvised music

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

. In his work, he utilizes a wide range of extended (non-traditional) vocal techniques.

Buckner also works as a concert promoter; in Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, he founded the 1750 Arch Concerts, which presented over 100 musical events per year for eight years. He also founded the record label 1750 Arch Records, which released more than 50 LPs. Also in Berkeley, he co-led the 23-member Arch Ensemble. He operates the record label Mutable Music.http://www.mutablemusic.com/index.html

Buckner has performed with Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell is an African American composer, jazz instrumentalist and educator, mostly known for being "a technically superb—if idiosyncratic—saxophonist." He has been called "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz who has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past...

, Gerald Oshita

Gerald Oshita

Gerald Oshita was an American musician, composer, and sound recordist.Oshita, who was of Japanese ancestry, lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and specialized in unusual wind instruments, particularly those of especially low register...

, Phill Niblock

Phill Niblock

Phill Niblock is a composer, filmmaker, videographer, and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a parallel branch in Ghent, Belgium.-Biography:...

, Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman

Borah Bergman is an American free jazz pianist.Bergman learned clarinet as a child, and did not commence studies on piano until adulthood. He developed his left hand playing to the point where he became essentially ambidextrous as a pianist, and can play equally fast in both hands...

, David Darling

David Darling (musician)

David Darling is an American cellist and composer. He won the Grammy award for Best New Age Album in 2010. He has performed and recorded with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Spyro Gyra in addition to putting out several solo and small ensemble albums as well as albums of his...

, Gustavo Aguilar

Gustavo Aguilar

Gustavo Aguilar, a.k.a. "El Manotas", was a Mexican actor. He was primarily known for his role as the father of the Devil in numerous Eugenio Derbez comedies, but also was a featured actor in many telenovelas as well. He died of kidney failure on 24 September 2007.-References:...

, Wu Man

Wu Man

Wu Man is a Chinese pipa virtuoso and composer. Described as "the artist most responsible for bring the pipa to the Western World" by the Los Angeles Times, US-based, Chinese-born musician Wu Man has carved out a career creating and fostering projects that give this ancient Chinese instrument a...

, and Earl Howard

Earl Howard

Earl Howard is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, saxophonist, synthesizer player and multi-instrumentalist.Howard is one of the pioneers of what is called “new” music. He has been in the industry for over thirty years...

. More than 70 composers have created works for him; these include Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley

Robert Ashley , is a contemporary American composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. Along with Gordon Mumma, Ashley was also a major pioneer of audio synthesis.Ashley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan...

, Noah Creshevsky

Noah Creshevsky

-Biography:Trained in composition by Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Luciano Berio at the Juilliard School, Creshevsky has lived and worked in New York since 1966. He taught at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York for thirty-one years, serving as Director of the Brooklyn College Center...

, Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and...

, Annea Lockwood

Annea Lockwood

Annea Lockwood is a New Zealand born American composer. She taught electronic music at Vassar College. Her work often involves recordings of natural found sounds...

, Bun-Ching Lam

Bun-Ching Lam

Lam Bun-Ching is a composer, pianist, and conductor.She holds a B.A. degree in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong . She obtained a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds,...

, Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...

, Jerome Cooper

Jerome Cooper

Jerome Cooper is an American free jazz musician. Known as a multi-dimensional drummer, Cooper plays balafon, chirimia and electronic tonal activator in addition to trap drums....

, David Wessel, Tom Hamilton, Leroy Jenkins, Wadada Leo Smith

Wadada Leo Smith

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter and composer working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation.-Biography:...

.

Buckner is a grandson of International Business Machines

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

 founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Thomas J. Watson

Thomas John Watson, Sr. was president of International Business Machines , who oversaw that company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956...

. In the early 1970s, while his uncle John N. Irwin, II

John N. Irwin, II

John Nichol Irwin II was a United States diplomat to France and attorney during the Cold War. In government, he served as Ambassador to France, Deputy Secretary of State, in the U.S. State Department, and as an American government official.- References :...

 served as the U.S. Ambassador to France, Buckner was one of approximately 500 left-leaning Americans on Richard Nixon's so-called "enemies list

Nixon's Enemies List

Nixon’s Enemies List is the informal name of what started as a list of President of the United States Richard Nixon’s major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell , and sent in memorandum form to John Dean on September 9, 1971...

."

He grew up in Westchester County

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and has lived in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 since 1983. His wife is the bharatanatyam

Bharatanatyam

Bharata Natyam or Chadhir Attam, is a classical dance form from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, practiced predominantly in modern times by women. The dance is usually accompanied by classical Carnatic music...

 dancer Kamala Cesar, whom he married in 1992.http://www.cuke.com/Cucumber%20Project/interviews/Kamala.html He is the brother of painter Walker Buckner and children's advocate Elizabeth Buckner.

External links

• Thomas Buckner official site
• "Baritone Buckner Follows a Different Drummer", by Sybil Fix, from The Post and Courier (Charleston, South Carolina), June 7, 1997