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| Stephen David Beck is a composer of electro-acoustic music, orchestral and chamber music, and most recently, music for theater. His main focus of research is in Virtual Musical Instruments, a system of human-computer interaction for live performance and improvisation. He holds a Ph.D. in music composition and theory from UCLA, where he studied with Henri Lazarof, Elaine Barkin, and Alden Ashforth. In 1984, he was awarded a Boulez Fellowship from UCLA and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In 1985, he received a Fulbright Fellowship to study computer music at the Paris research center, IRCAM. While his studies have included both traditional and technological media, his recent works have focused on computer-based interactive compositions, where acoustic performers play with and in counterpoint to computer-controlled synthesizers. He has received numerous commissions, grants and awards, most recently from saxophonist Griffin Campbell, harpist Ann Benjamin, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, the ProArte Chorale, and the Misade Trio.
Beck teaches composition and computer music at Louisiana State University. He directs the LSU Electro-Acoustic Music Studios which are part of the LSU MADStudio (The Music & Art Digital Studio) which he co-directs with Michael Daugherty of the LSU School of Art. He is chair of the LSU Festival of Contemporary Music Steering Committee, which directs the oldest university-based new music festival in the US. His music has been performed throughout the world, including performances at Weill Recital Hall, Sao Paolo Bienal '91, SCREAM Radio Series, New Music America, World Harp Congress, and on the Triforium Series in Los Angeles. Beck has also presented lectures and papers on his research in interactive computer music at recent meetings of the International Computer Music Association, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), and the Society of Composers, Inc. He also serves on the board of officers of SEAMUS, currently as President. About his music, Beck writes: "...the use of technology in my music is not meant to replace musicians, but rather to enhance and expand a performer's potential for expressiveness, technique and, most importantly, timbre. There is an uncanny beauty in the physical and mathematical laws of nature, a beauty of intense complexity bound by simplicity, order and logic. For me, this is a constant and powerful source of inspiration, and the use of modern technology seems the perfect tool for expressing that inspiration and awe." |
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