James Randolph "Randy" Hostetler
July 28, 1963 - Feb. 1, 1996
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"Life is a gift. Why is it sad that it will only last a
certain length, that we're 'going to die'? Do you watch a movie, read
a book, or listen to music, thinking the whole time how sad it is that
it will soon be over? In fact, the shorter it lasts the closer we get
to the instant, the spark, the mystery."
– Randy Hostetler, June 1987
Celebrate Randy's birthday on July 28 by performing his composition Dinner
Map.
Listen to Randy play Erik Satie
Explore Randy's Room!
Randy's Work | Performances of Randy's Music | Recollections | Works For or Dedicated to Randy
Links Related to Randy's Life | Randy's Words
"I thought he was one of the most talented people I have ever
met, and someone who was bound to make an indelible mark on the culture
of our country sooner or later. Certainly he was a key figure in the world
of struggling Los Angeles artists. With him surely a part of our hopes for
a renewal of the arts in America has vanished. We must carry on."
– Frederic Rzewski
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"During his brief career Randy
Hostetler accomplished a great deal. His catalogue includes over forty
works in a wide range of media - instrumental solo and chamber works,
vocal music, film music, tape music, intermedia works, experimental film
and video, visual art and performance art. His Living Room Series provided
an outlet for experimental composers, artists and performers in Los Angeles,
often attracting participants from as far away as the Bay Area and Las
Vegas."
– Arthur Jarvinen
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My memories are of how he loved
to bring joy to others, but only if he could challenge and stimulate at
the same time. Of his heroic refusal to pander or play down to an audience.
Of his fearless improvisations, his intrepid walking bass lines, his howling,
yelping scats, his impeccably timed and witty musical quotations, of "Ingredients"
and his piece "for piano and 8 ball". And of his physical portrayal
of three-against-two rhythm: pivoting on his right foot, his torso rocking
while his left leg pumped in opposition to his emphatic arms. He was three
against two.
Randy had a wondrous appreciation
for and sensitivity to life as art, as text as music. All sounds were
music to him, from the blank of an old radiator starting up to the rhythm
of a story well told. Randy found the extraordinary in the ordinary, the
uncommon in the common. His was a gift that made those whom he touched
more aware of the richness of their world by his willingness to share
his.
– Mark Heller
"He never heard noise, he heard only music"
– Kate Hostetler
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"Randy was
not an eccentric composer (even though he wrote a piece using billiard
balls to play a piano). He was just an honest composer. The work he did
came directly from his perception of who he was, and what he wanted to
say. We're all the more fortunate because he was so good at expressing
these things, and what he had to say was, and is, such a joy to hear."
– Paul Lansky
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"Whether bringing young struggling
musicians together in his 'Living Room' every two months, or gardening
and cooking with exotic herbs, practicing T'ai chi, reading Zen and Japanese
poetry, composing and performing on the road, Hostetler was a whirling,
eclecic, humorful, detailed, demanding work in prgress....
"But it seems that above all what attracted so
many artists to Randy Hostetler was that always everywhere, he asked the
impertinent questions of others and himself. he jolted them into imagination
and examination."
– Ralph Nader
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"A lot of people make a mistake
in believing that improvisation – or the fact that the types of forms
Randy chose, or the media that he chose – weren't always easily definable
by traditional standards and that somehow that made him quirky or esoteric.
Randy was brilliant. And there's nothing that he approached that didn't
bring that brilliance to it."
– Rick Applebaum
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