Robert Scott Thompson is a composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music. He earned the B.Mus. degree from the University of Oregon and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at San Diego. His primary teachers include Bernard Rands, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa and F. Richard Moore. He creates work in a wide variety of forms ranging from chamber and orchestral music to works for the virtuoso soloist, computer music, and video and performance art.

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 200 Pierre Schaeffer competition (Italy) and awards in the XVI Concorso Internazionale “Luigi Russolo” (Italy), Irino Prize Foundation Competition 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 1980’s, assisting significant composers in the realization of advance 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, Space for Music, Zero Music and Aucourant record labels.

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 feature films and as a mastering engineer, creating master recordings for labels such as Funtone and CRI (Composer Recordings Inc.). On the technical side, he has collaborated with MicroTechnology Unlimited, and recently assisted them in the development of DNOISE – a real-time digital audio noise reduction software application. He participates in a similar way with the Composer Desktop Project and is serving as project director and editor for an up-coming book on computer music synthesis techniques featuring the CDP software suite.

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 on the subject of musical signal processing and sonic design. He was named the distinguished Honor’s Professor at Georgia State University in 1994 where he is Professor of Music and Division Head for Composition, Technology and Management in the School of Music.

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