Laurie Anderson - Biography

Illinois-born composer and musician who launched her career as a "performance artist" in the late 1960s. Widely known in the arts community for her performance pieces that often included musical interludes (Anderson is a trained violinist), she entered the international mainstream when her 8-minute single "O Superman" unexpectedly rose to No. 2 on the British pop charts in 1980. Although she has never reached the same heights, Anderson went on to record a series of well-received albums including Big Science, the 5-LP (4-CD) United States Live (a transcription of a two-night-long performance piece that is considered her magnum opus), Mister Heartbreak (on which Beat author William S. Burroughs provided some vocals), Strange Angels and Heartland. She also collaborated with Peter Gabriel on a song that was released as "Excellent Birds" on Mister Heartbreak and "This is the Picture" on Gabriel's album "So."

In 1986, Anderson starred in and directed the concert film Home of the Brave and composed the musical score for Spalding Gray's performance film Swimming to Cambodia in 1987. She was also the host of the PBS series Alive from Off Center in the late 1980s and in the early 1990s released an interactive CD-ROM app for Macintosh called Puppet Motel. She has the distinction of being the first and only NASA Artist-in-Residence.

She is the widow of Lou Reed and continues to tour the world performing her blend of monologues and music as of 2014.

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