Electroacoustic music is a genre of popular and Western art music in which composers use technology to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds, sometimes by using audio signal processing, such as reverb or harmonizing, on acoustical instruments. It originated around the middle of the 20th century, following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition to fixed media during the 20th century are associated with the activities of the Groupe de recherches musicales at the ORTF in Paris, the home of musique concrète, the Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne, where the focus was on the composition of elektronische Musik, and the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City, where tape music, electronic music, and computer music were all explored. Practical electronic music instruments began to appear in the early 20th century.
Mario Davidovsky was an Argentine-American composer. Born in Argentina, he emigrated in 1960 to the United States, where he lived for the remainder of his life. He is best known for his series of compositions called Synchronisms, which in live performance incorporate both acoustic instruments and electroacoustic sounds played from a tape.
The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) is a nonprofit US-based organization founded in 1984 that aims to promote the performance, creation, and research of electro-acoustic music in the United States. SEAMUS comprises composers, performers, and teachers of electroacoustic music and is known for its annual conference, which provides a venue for the presentation and performance of electro-acoustic music from around the world. The organization was formed in 1984 as a U.S. chapter of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (ICEM) which had been formed 2 years prior in Bourges, France. The U.S. representative to ICEM, Jon Appleton, suggested to composer Barry Schrader the formation of such a chapter in 1983 and the inaugural meeting was held at the California Institute of the Arts in November 1984. Significant supporters have included CalArts, ASCAP, and The Alexander Family Foundation.
Founded in 1986, La Communauté électroacoustique canadienne / The Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) is Canada's national electroacoustic / computer music / sonic arts organization and is dedicated to promoting this progressive art form in its broadest definition: from "pure" acousmatic and computer music to soundscape and sonic art to hardware hacking and beyond.
Maggi Payne is an American composer, flutist, video artist, recording engineer/editor, and historical remastering engineer who creates electroacoustic, instrumental, vocal works, and works involving visuals.
Jan Bach was an American composer. He taught at the University of Tampa (Florida) from 1965 to 1966 and at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois from 1966 to 2002. His primary performing instrument was the horn, and he was renowned among hornists for his horn pieces. He also played the piano.
Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre, or as it is more commonly known, BEAST, is a sound diffusion system specifically designed for the performance of electroacoustic music. It consists of a set of loudspeakers connected to a computer, usually controlled by a diffusion console. It is a long-running project of the Electroacoustic Music Studios at the University of Birmingham, founded in 1982 under the directorship of Jonty Harrison. Since 2014 BEAST has been directed by Scott Wilson, with Annie Mahtani as co-director from 2020. James Carpenter was technical director until 2018. The current technical director is Simon Smith.
Scott Wilson is a Canadian composer. He studied music and composition in Canada, the U.S., and Germany, and his teachers include Barry Truax, Wolfgang Rihm, Christos Hatzis, Gary Kulesha, Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, Owen Underhill, Neely Bruce and David Gordon Duke. Since 2004 he has lived in Birmingham, UK, where he is Reader in Electronic Music and Director of Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre and the Electroacoustic Studios at the University of Birmingham.
Debra Richtmeyer is an American classical saxophonist born June 19, 1957, in Lansing, Michigan.
John Melby is an American composer.
Michael Holmes is an American classical saxophonist, originally from Findlay, Ohio.
Mark Applebaum is an American composer and full professor of music composition and theory at Stanford University.
Margaret Mara Helmuth is an American composer. She studied at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, and then continued her studies at Columbia University, graduating with a doctorate in music.
Judy Klein is an American composer, music educator. She is the founder of the Computer Music Studio at New York University and served as its director in 1980's. Her music is primarily acousmatic, and includes works for the electronic medium, sound installations, music for theatre and collaborations with visual artists.
Priscilla McLean is an American composer, performer, video artist, writer, and music reviewer.
Kurt Stallmann is an American composer who lives and works in Houston, Texas.
Juan Carlos Vasquez is a Colombian composer and sound artist.
The Experimental Music Studios (EMS) is an organization or center for electroacoustic and computer music, focusing on synthesis and concert performance of art music, founded by Lejaren Hiller at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1958.
Scott L. Miller is an American composer best known for his electroacoustic chamber music and ecosystemic performance pieces.
The International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music (ICEM), or Confédération Internationale de Musique Électroacoustique (CIME), cofounded by the Bourges International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music, formerly Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges, in 1981 in Bourges, is a music organization in support of electroacoustic music, including computer music.
