John Whiting (1931 – 2024)
All the directors and staff of October Gallery were immensely saddened to learn that John Whiting, one of our oldest and dearest friends in London, has passed away, at the age of 93.
While recovering from an infection in the Royal Free Hospital in late Summer, John had – unexpectedly, but by no means atypically – enjoyed being completely isolated in a room boasting wonderful views of London, while listening to Radio 3, on the excellent headphones provided, for hours and hours. Having recently returned to his home in Hampstead Garden Suburb, John passed away peacefully, in his sleep, early on the 12th of August.
Raised at the extremity of Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts, during the 30s, John’s early life, was spent as the only son of a Methodist Minister and his wife. Being largely responsible for his own amusement in the lofty parsonage, he read voraciously, although he always credited his Fifth Grade English teacher, Grace Gouveia, for instilling in him that sensitivity to words and language that would remain a guiding passion throughout his life. What he described as “a lifelong excitement in the presence of good writing” eventually saw him cross to the West Coast to study English Literature at Berkeley University, California during those tumultuous times that ushered in that generation of radical, counter-cultural writers and artists who became known as “the Beats”. After being drafted to England as a non-combatant Librarian on a USAF base for two years, John returned to Berkely to work as a sound archivist for a music library. There, he quickly mastered both the unwieldy equipment and the skills necessary to streamlining the lengthy process of transferring old 78 gramophone recordings to more modern tape machines. His growing technical expertise brought him to the attention of the pioneering KPFA radio station, through whose ranks he eventually climbed to become Production Director. The community of people he encountered and the broad range of political and cultural programming with which he became involved conditioned him to think outside the box and led to a lasting political awakening. Under the heady influences of those critical years, the quiet, pragmatic, somewhat conservative, East-coaster developed into the broad-minded, intellectually engaging and progressive bon vivant whom, years later, we all came to know and love.
Working for Pacifica Radio, KPFA’s parent company, John returned to England during the 70s, applying his growing expertise in machines of all kind to his burgeoning interest in acoustics and electronic music. He quite rapidly became one of the most sought-after Acoustics Engineers and Sound Designers in London. [LINK to 1 auto-obit] Soon after October Gallery opened, in 1979, John installed what he described as “the sound studio of my dreams” in October Gallery’s underground basement chambers. As the Sound Designer of Electric Phoenix, the celebrated acapella electro-acoustic group, October Sound quickly became the hub of a remarkable enterprise, recording many of the top musicians, composers and performers on the international stage: John Cage, Luciano Berio, Hedli Anderson, William Burroughs, and many more besides.
Working from October Gallery’s underground basement, John became the Gallery’s firm friend and constant support, being instrumental in recording many of the early Gallery events including those historical concerts produced by Nadabrahman, in the 80s, presenting the cream of Indian musicians, Ravi Shankar, Dr. L Subramaniam, Ustaad Shujaat Khan, etc. He provided those same specialist services to the Institute of Ecotechnics, the Gallery’s parent organisation, travelling to Aix-en-Provence, almost every year, in his old jalopy with a full suite of recording equipment on board. In later years, John also assumed the responsibility for making documentary video recordings of each of the Gallery’s monthly Private Views, hardly missing a single opening. Over three decades or more John’s tape and digital output came to form the backbones of two significant archives of huge importance to us. Other archives and records of his always ingenious writings can be found on his much-admired, Whiting’s Writings website. In recognition of the conscientious professionalism with which John provided these essential services for so long, John was made a Fellow of the Institute of Ecotechnics in 2015.
Although the absence of our very own “recording Angel” will be keenly felt from now on, the memories of his warm, generous and always genial presence will remain with us all. October Gallery sends its sincere condolences to Mary Whiting, who looked after John and, more than anyone else, will miss him most dearly.
There will be a Memorial Celebration to remember the extraordinary life of John Whiting, in the evening of Friday, November 8th at October Gallery.
John Whiting: A biographical sketch
John Whiting’s working life was equally devoted to words and music.
As a musician, John was, for 20 years, the sound designer for the electro-acoustic vocal quartet Electric Phoenix, whose tours regularly took him around Europe and America. He was also principal sound designer with London Sinfonietta and Glyndebourne Opera, for whom he collaborated with Oliver Knussen, Nigel Osborne and Sir Michael Tippett. John provided sound projection for the Kronos Quartet, the Hilliard Ensemble, Frankfurt Opera, Music Theatre Wales, Lontano, Singcircle and over thirty symphony orchestras, while working with such major conductors as Luciano Berio, Andre Previn, Andrew Davis, Isa-Pekka Salonen, Riccardo Chailly and Sir Simon Rattle.
John’s unique 8-channel Ambisonic* Surround Sound amplification system was heard all over the western hemisphere, serving as the basis for several of James Wood’s remarkable electro-acoustic compositions for percussion, amplified choir and complex computer sampling. Besides James Wood, he worked as electro-acoustic collaborator in duo recitals with Terry Riley, John Kenny, Rolf Gehlhaar, William O. Smith, John Potter, Tristram Cary and many others.
In his London studios, October Sound, he produced pre-recorded performance tapes for Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Nigel Osborne, Luciano Berio, Neely Bruce, Barry Guy, Rolf Gehlhaar and other European and American composers, and his recordings have appeared on major classical labels for over three decades. From 1982 until 1994, John performed and taught at the Darmstadt International Summer Course for Contemporary Music, where he had charge of sound projection for the percussion concerts and seminars. He also taught extended residencies at Schloss Solitude, in Stuttgart, where, together with John Kenny, he performed and demonstrated electro-acoustic techniques. In Paris, he performed and lectured on Ambisonic technology, at the prestigious IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) while also teaching Ambisonic recording techniques in London, for over a decade.
As a writer, John regularly contributed articles about food as well as ‘diatribes’ on society and the state of the arts, to both European and American publications. Both John and his wife, Mary, became members of the Guild of Food Writers (Great Britain), and he served, for five years, as the News Editor for Fine Food Digest, the trade journal of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers.
After coming out of the U.S. army, having been drafted as a conscientious objector, John became the Archivist of Recorded Music at the University of California, Berkeley. Then, in 1960, he began work, also in Berkeley, for KPFA, America's first non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, where he subsequently became Production Director. For over 14 years, he presented programs about current affairs and the arts, and entered into a close collaborative relationship with Erik Bauersfeld,** the celebrated radio dramatist, which would later be credited with “keeping radio drama alive in America in the 1960s”. John would later maintain a website devoted to the pioneering station's early history, My KPFA: A historical footnote. His monograph, The Lengthening Shadow, about the first ten years of KPFA’s history, was published by the University of Aarhus in Denmark. From 1966 to 1970 John became the London Correspondent for KPFA’s parent organization, Pacifica Radio.
In 1978 he was the joint recipient with Odaline de la Martinez of a Composer-Librettist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, resulting in Sister Aimee, an opera based on the LA evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson, which was performed in New Orleans, London and California. In the Cage, an opera about Ezra Pound, produced with composer Nigel Osborne, started out as a short music theatre piece that premiered in 1982, but its completion never found an enlightened patron.
In 1997 John established the Diatribal Press, devoted to “entertainment for intelligent readers”. Diatribal’s publications included his travel/food journal, Through Darkest Gaul with Trencher and Tastevin and his wife Mary Whiting’s fourth book, Entertaining Single-Handed.
* Ambisonics was an early full-sphere surround sound format developed in the U.K. in the 1970s.
** Eric Bauersfeld later became famous as the voice-actor for such Star Wars characters as Admiral Ackbar, Bib Fortuna, etc.