Nicolas Collins is a composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of mostly electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 and former student of Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and...

. He received a B.A. and M.A. from Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

.

Nicolas Collins was "a pioneer in the use of microcomputers in live performance, and has made extensive use of 'home-made' electronic circuitry, radio, found sound

Found art

The term found art—more commonly found object or readymade—describes art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function...

 material, and transformed musical instruments." He has presented over 300 concerts and installations in Europe, Japan, and the United States as a solo artist and as a member of various ensembles. He is a member of The Impossible Music Group with David Weinstein

David Weinstein (musician)

David Weinstein is an American musician and composer. He has been cited as avant garde and postmodern by the New York Times...

, David Shea, Ted Greenwald, and Tim Spelios.

Collins is a prominent curator of performance and installation art, and has been a curator, policy adviser, and board member for numerous cultural organizations. For example, in the early 1990s he was both artistic Co-Director at STEIM

STEIM

STEIM is a center for research and development of new musical instruments in the electronic performing arts, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Electronic music in STEIM's context is always strongly related to the physical and direct actions of a musician...

 (Studio for Electro Instrumental Music), located in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 and a German Academic Exchange Service

German Academic Exchange Service

The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organisation in the field of international academic co-operation....

 (DAAD) composer-in-residence in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Collins is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Leonardo Music Journal

Leonardo Music Journal

Leonardo Music Journal is an annual multimedia peer-reviewed academic journal published by the MIT Press on behalf of the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology. It publishes the work of artists who are inventing media, implementing developing technologies, and expanding the...

, a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the MIT Press

MIT Press

The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...

. He is also the chair of the sound department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 2006 Collins' book Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking was published by Routledge

Routledge

Routledge is a British publishing house which has operated under a succession of company names and latterly as an academic imprint. Its origins may be traced back to the 19th-century London bookseller George Routledge...

. An expanded, updated edition was published in 2009.

Discography

• 1982 - Going Out With Slow Smoke (Lovely Music)
• 1984 - Let The State Make The Selection (Lovely Music)
• 1985 - Devil's Music (Lovely Music)
• 1989 - 100 of the World's Most Beautiful Melodies (Trace Elements)
• 1992 - It Was a Dark and Stormy Night (Trace Elements)
• 1999 - A Host, Of Golden Daffodils (Plate Lunch)
• 1999 - Sound Without Picture (Periplum)
• 2005 - Pea Soup (Appelstaartje)

External links

• Interview February 1995 by and copyright © Brian Duguid
• Leonardo Online
• Nicolas Collins's "Devil"s Music 1" (Excerpt) (3:15) published at Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
  Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine
  Launched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
  
  
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• CDeMusic: Nicolas Collins
• NewMusicBox asks Nicolas Collins: How do composers use the web as a creative medium for music?
• NewMusicBox cover: Nic Collins in conversation with Molly Sheridan, April 18, 2007 (includes video)