Robert Scott Thompson (born 1959, California) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

and

electroacoustic music Electroacoustic music is a Music genre, genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of Acoustics, acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated a ...

. He earned the

B.Mus. A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

degree from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. His primary teachers include

Bernard Rands Bernard Rands (born 2 March 1934 in Sheffield, England) is a British and American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna ...

Roger Reynolds Roger Lee Reynolds (born July 18, 1934) is an American composer. He is known for his capacity to integrate diverse ideas and resources, and for the seamless blending of traditional musical sounds with those newly enabled by technology. Beyond com ...

Joji Yuasa was a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.Luciana Galliano, ''The Music of Joji Yuasa'' ed. Peter Burt. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. Early life and education Joji Yuasa was born in Kōriyama, Fukushima on 12 August 1929 ...

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

orchestral music An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

to works for the

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'', or ; Late Latin ''virtuosus''; Latin ''virtus''; 'virtue', 'excellence' or 'skill') is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as fine arts, ...

soloist,

computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...

, and experimental

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

. He is the recipient of many prizes and distinctions for his music including the First Prize i
Musica Nova
2003 (Czech Republic), First Prize in the 2001 Pierre Schaeffer competition (Italy) and awards in the XVI Concorso Internazionale “Luigi Russolo” (Italy)

for chamber Music (Japan), an
Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (France)
among others. He was a Research Assistant of th
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 th
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.). On the technical side, he has collaborated with Micro Technology Unlimited, and assisted in the development o
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. In March 2021, Thompson released the double album ''Escapeology'' through American record label

Somewherecold Records Somewherecold Records (formerly Somewhere Cold Records) is an American independent record label established in late 2004 by Jason T. Lamoreaux. The record company was founded in Lexington, Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, but is currently headquart ...

References

External links

Listening

* one work by the composer (''Acouasm'' - composed in 2001)

Websites

robertscottthompson.com
Personal website.
Aucourant Records
Publisher/Distributor website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Robert Scott American male composers 21st-century American composers Living people 1959 births 21st-century American male musicians Somewherecold Records artists