Kuhn, Laura (Diane née Shipcott)

Kuhn, Laura (Diane née Shipcott), spirited American musicologist, editor, teacher, arts administrator, writer on music, and singer; b. San Francisco, Jan. 19, 1953. She studied at Dominican Coll. in San Rafael, Calif. (B.A., 1981) and the Univ. of Calif, at Los Angeles (M.A., 1986; Ph.D., 1992, with the diss. John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2: The Musical Means of Revolution); also had private instruction in San Francisco (1975–82) with John Hudnall (voice) and Robert Hagopian (piano). She was a member of the San Francisco (1980) and Oakland (1980–82) Sym. Choruses, and also appeared as a vocalist in the Daniel Lentz Group (1983–85) and as a singing talk show guest in Mikel Rouse’s Dennis Cleveland (1999). She was music critic of Marin County’s Independent Journal from 1980 to 1982, and also wrote book and record reviews for the Los Angeles (1982–87) and N.Y. (1986-89) Times. From 1986 to 1992 she worked extensively with John Cage on various large-scale works, including his Europeras 1 & 2 for the Frankfurt am Main Oper and his Harvard lectures as holder of the Charles Eliot Norton Chair in Poetry (publ in 1990 as I-VI). Shortly after Cage’s death in 1992, she instituted, with long-time Cage associate Mercé Cunningham, the John Cage Trust in N.Y., which she subsequently directed. Kuhn also worked extensively with the seeded Russian-born American lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky, giving strong editorial assistance to the 7^th and 8^th editions of his Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (N.Y., 1984, 1992) and to the 4^th and 5^th (rev.) eds. of his Music since 1900 (N.Y., 1986, 1994). In 1995 she inherited the editorship of the present 9^th ed. of Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. She also served as ed. of A Pronouncing Pocket Manual of Musical Terms (5^th ed., N.Y., 1995), Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (N.Y., 1997), Baker’s Student Encyclopedia of Music (3 vols., N.Y., 1999), and Baker’s Dictionary of Opera (N.Y, 2000). She also contributed articles to various scholarly publications. From 1991 to 1997 she served as an asst. prof, at Ariz. State Univ. West in Phoenix; also lectured widely in the U.S., South America, and Europe. In 1995 she joined the board of the American Music Center, serving as its secretary until 2000.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire