Composer Cort Lippe Joins UB Music Faculty

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Cort Lippe, considered by many to be his generation's leading composer of computer music, has been appointed assistant professor of music and director of the Hiller Computer Music Studios at the University at Buffalo.

Lippe, who has been visiting professor of music composition at UB since 1994, will teach music composition and be responsible for overall program administration, management, funding, equipment and staffing of the Hiller's three-studio suite in Baird Hall, plus a satellite studio in Slee Hall. The studios use IRCAM signal processing workstations to assist composers in the development of live interactive computer music.

"We are absolutely ecstatic to have Professor Lippe as a member of our faculty," said David Felder, chair of the UB Department of Music. "He is internationally acknowledged to be his generation's leading composer of computer music. We know that his energies and expertise will provide terrific vitality to our program in the Hiller Studios."

Lippe is uniquely qualified for his new position, having studied under several of the most celebrated composers of our time. He also helped to develop new technologies at IRCAM, the world-famous, state-supported French institution for research into the techniques of modern music composition founded by renowned French avant garde composer/conductor Pierre Boulez.

Lippe's mentors include composers Larry Austin in the United States and G. M. Koenig and Paul Berg at the Netherlands' Institut voor Sonologie, where Lippe studied computer and formalized music.

He also studied at the University at Paris with innovative composer Iannis Xenakis, and worked for three years at the Centre d'Etudes de Mathematiques et Automatique Musical (School of Mathematical and Automated Music or CEMAMu), which Xenakis directed.

Lippe later worked at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique-Musique) at the Georges Pompidou Centre where he developed real-time musical applications and taught courses on new technologies used in music composition.

Lippe's compositions have received many international prizes and have been premiered at major festivals in North America, South America, Europe and the Far East.