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Larry Austin

Larry Austin (born 1930, died December 30, 2018) was an American composer from Oklahoma City, emeritus professor of music at the [l=University of North Texas]. He studied with Canadian composer [a=Violet Archer] at UNT and French composer [a=Darius Milhaud] at [l=Mills College], following by graduate studies under American composer [a=Andrew Imbrie] at the [l=University of California, Berkeley] in 1955–58. Austin learned electronic music at the [l=San Francisco Tape Music Center] (1965–66) and computer music at [l=Stanford University] (1969), and was closely associated with composers [a=John Cage], [a=Karlheinz Stockhausen], and [a=David Tudor] in California. Prominent both in traditional and experimental genres, Austin's works had been performed and recorded by [a=The New York Philharmonic Orchestra], [a=Boston Symphony Orchestra], [a=National Symphony Orchestra], and other major American and European ensembles. Since 1964, he wrote over 70 electroacoustic and computer music works: solo tape compositions, various combinations of instruments, voices, orchestra, video, live-electronics and real-time audio processing. Some of the notable performances include the 1994 premiere of Austin's complete realization of [i]Universe Symphony[/i] (1911-51) by [a=Charles Ives], performed and recorded by the [a=Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra] and conductor [a=Gerhard Samuel]. More performances followed by [a=The National Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra] at the Warsaw Autumn Festival (1995) and [a=Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken] (1998) in Germany. Austin has received numerous commissions, grants, and awards, including the Prix Magisterium (1996) in the 23rd Concours International de Musique Électroacoustique in Bourges, France for his [i]BluesAx[/i] (1995-96) for sax and electronics, as well as over three decades of influential leadership in electroacoustic music. From 1958 to 1972, Austin was a faculty composer at the [l=University Of California, Davis], where he also acted as [a=New Music Ensemble] conductor and co-founded, edited, and published a seminal journal, [i]SOURCE: Music of the Avant-Garde[/i], in 1966–71. Larry Austin continued his teaching career at the [l=University Of South Florida], where he established and directed [b]SYCOM: Systems Complex for the Studio and Performing Arts[/b] until 1978. After learning computer music at [l=Massachusetts Institute of Technology] in the summer of 1978, Austin joined the faculty at the University of North Texas. He oversaw the transition from hybrid analog/digital systems to software synthesis on UNIX-based workstations at the [url=https://www.discogs.com/label/572991]Center for Experimental Music & Intermedia[/url] (CEMI) and became co-director of the Center with [a=Phil Winsor] in 1983. Subsequently, Larry Austin served as CEMI director in 1990–91 and 1995–96. In 1986, the composer founded a Consortium to Distribute Computer Music and served as CDCM president until 2000. The organization produced over 30 compact disc releases in [l=CDCM Computer Music Series] on [l=Centaur Records]. [b]On the last photo[/b]: Larry Austin posing with [a=Phil Winsor] (in the back) and Synclavier for the promotional CEMI photo-shoot in the 1980s