Robert Scott Thompson (born 1959, California) 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 ambient

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

, instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

 and electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...

. He earned the B.Mus.

Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...

 degree from the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

 and M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 and Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 degrees from the University of California at San Diego. His primary teachers include Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands is a composer of contemporary classical music.Rands studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy.He held residencies...

, Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds is an American composer born July 18, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. He is a professor at the University of California at San Diego. He received an undergraduate degree in engineering physics from the University of Michigan where he later studied composition with Ross Lee Finney...

, Joji Yuasa

Joji Yuasa

is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:Born in Kōriyama, Fukushima, he is self-taught as a composer.In 1951 or 1952, together with the composer Tōru Takemitsu and other contemporary artists and musicians, he founded Jikken Kobo , an organization dedicated to the...

 and F. Richard Moore. He creates work in a wide variety of forms ranging from chamber

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 and orchestral music to works for the virtuoso

Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...

 soloist

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

, computer music

Computer music

Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...

, and experimental video art

Video art

Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...

.

He is the recipient of many prizes and distinctions for his music including the First Prize in Musica Nova 2003 (Czech Republic), First Prize in the 2001 Pierre Schaeffer competition (Italy) and awards in the XVI Concorso Internazionale “Luigi Russolo” (Italy), Irino Prize Foundation Competition 1995 for chamber Music (Japan), and Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (France), among others. He was a Research Assistant of the Center for Music Experiment (CME)Computer Audio Research Lab (CARL) throughout the 1980s, assisting significant composers in the realization of advanced computer music works.

In 1991, he was named a Fulbright Research Scholar and was Composer in Residence at the Danish Institute of Electroacoustic Music (DIEM) where he collaborated on fundamental research and composed the long-form computer music work – The Strong Eye. Over the past decade, he has become increasingly well known internationally for his instrumental and computer music works and also for his many recordings which have been broadcast worldwide.

His music is published on recordings by EMF-Media, Neuma, Drimala, Capstone, Hypnos, Oasis/Mirage, Groove, Lens Records, Space for Music, Zero Music and Aucourant record labels, among others.

While composing and recording takes up most of his creative time, he is also involved in various tangent activities. He is active as a composer for films and often collaborates as an audio mastering engineer, creating master recordings for labels such as Funtone and CRI (Composer's Recordings, Inc.)

Composers Recordings, Inc.

Composers Recordings, Inc. was an American record label dedicated to the recording of contemporary classical music by American composers. It was founded in 1954 by Otto Luening, Douglas Moore, and Oliver Daniel, and based in New York City....

. On the technical side, he has collaborated with Micro Technology Unlimited, and assisted in the development of DNOISE – a real-time digital audio noise reduction software application.

He is a contributing author for two books, Computer Music Techniques for the Electronic Musician and Software Synthesis, Sound Design and Programming, both by Dr. Eduardo Reck Miranda and published by Focal Press in 1998 and 2002 respectively. He is currently under contract for a book with A-R Editions, Inc. on the subject of musical signal processing and sonic design using Csound 5. He was named the Distinguished Honor’s Professor of Georgia State University, College of Arts and Sciences in 1994 where he is Professor of Music Composition and Coordinator of Music Technology Studies in the School of Music.

Listening

• Art of the States: Robert Scott Thompson one work by the composer (Acouasm - composed in 2001)

Websites

• robertscottthompson.com Personal website.
• Aucourant Records Publisher/Distributor website.
• Lens Records Publisher/Distributor website.
• EMF Media Publisher website.
• CDeMusic Distributor website.