Department of Music

Dissertation: "Amplified Whispers and the Artifice of Inaction: for Electroacoustic Music and Interactive Dance"

Placement: Associate Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts, Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, OH)

Previous Placement: Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts, Technology in Music and Related Arts Program, Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, OH)

Bio Information:

Swendsen spent 2006-07 working on a soundscape composition project while in residence as a Fulbright Fellow at the NoTAM Computer Music Studios in Oslo, Norway. His dissertation project at UVA is a large- scale composition for electroacoustic music, interactive dance, and extended/prepared piano. Swendsen's music has been called "highly skillful" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and "marvelous" by the San Francisco Chronicle. He received his MFA from the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music and his BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His music has been heard throughout the United States and recently in Canada, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Norway, India, Korea, Chile, Argentina, and as part of a CD release called "Resonance: Steel Pan in the 21st Century." Swendsen has studied composition with Gary Nelson, Richard Povall, Kristine Burns, Gail Wight, Maggi Payne, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Matthew Burtner and Judith Shatin, and is currently creating and performing with electroacoustic music, extended instrumental techniques, interactive environments, dance, installation, and video. He also serves as Assistant Editor for Journal SEAMUS. Swendsen is the co-artistic director of Prospect Dance Group and works extensively in collaboration with choreographers.

Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/con/faculty/peter_swendsen.html