Peter Traub
Encyclopedia
Peter Traub is an American composer of electronic and acoustic music and sound installations. His work often focuses on the use of technology to mediate physical and virtual spaces.
. Studying with Dr. James Paul Sain, he wrote his first pieces of electronic music at the Florida Electroacoustic Music Studio from 1995 - 1997. In 1997, Traub entered the Masters Program in Electro-Acoustic Music at Dartmouth College
. There, he studied for two years with Jon Appleton
, Charles Dodge
, Eric Lyon, Larry Polansky
, and Christian Wolff
. His Masters Thesis was the Internet sound installation, bits & pieces (1999)http://www.fictive.org/bits. After leaving Dartmouth, Traub move to the San Francisco Bay Area
where he worked for various internet startups until 2004. While there, he also spent time composing at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustic.
In 2004, Traub moved to Charlottesville, Virginia
to begin Ph.D. work at The Virginia Center for Computer Music. There, he studied with Matthew Burtner
, Ted Coffey, and Judith Shatin
until completing his Ph.D. in 2010. Since 2007 Traub has also been a guest contributor to the Networked_Music_Review, a blog that focuses on art and music that incorporates computer networks. His primary contributions to the blog are interviews with established new media artists such as Bill Fontana
, Max Neuhaus
, Janet Cardiff
and George Bures Miller
, and Golan Levin
.
On February 25, 2008, NPR's
mid-day news show, "Day to Day
" featured a segment on his online sound installation, ItSpace http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19338285
Samples of his work can be heard on his website, petertraub.net http://www.petertraub.net
Biography
Traub was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1974, emigrating to the United States with his family in 1982. Although he lacked a musical upbringing and did not play an instrument, Traub discovered the possibilities of electronic music during his undergraduate work at the University of FloridaUniversity of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
. Studying with Dr. James Paul Sain, he wrote his first pieces of electronic music at the Florida Electroacoustic Music Studio from 1995 - 1997. In 1997, Traub entered the Masters Program in Electro-Acoustic Music at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
. There, he studied for two years with Jon Appleton
Jon Appleton
Jon Howard Appleton is an American composer and teacher who was a pioneer in electro-acoustic music. His earliest compositions in the medium, e.g. Chef d'Oeuvre and Newark Airport Rock attracted attention because they established a new tradition some have called programmatic electronic music...
, Charles Dodge
Charles Dodge (composer)
Charles Dodge is an American composer best known for his electronic music, specifically his computer music. He is a former student of Darius Milhaud and Gunther Schuller.-Education and teaching career:...
, Eric Lyon, Larry Polansky
Larry Polansky
Larry Polansky is a composer, guitarist, mandolinist, and a professor at Dartmouth College. He is a founding member and co-director of . He co-wrote HMSL with Phil Burk and David Rosenboom....
, and Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (composer)
Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...
. His Masters Thesis was the Internet sound installation, bits & pieces (1999)http://www.fictive.org/bits. After leaving Dartmouth, Traub move to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
where he worked for various internet startups until 2004. While there, he also spent time composing at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustic.
In 2004, Traub moved to Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
to begin Ph.D. work at The Virginia Center for Computer Music. There, he studied with Matthew Burtner
Matthew Burtner
Dr. Matthew Burtner is a contemporary American composer.Taking from his own website, Matthew Burtner "explores environmental systems , technological embodiment, and extended polyrhythmic and noise-based musical systems...
, Ted Coffey, and Judith Shatin
Judith Shatin
Judith Shatin is an American composer. Currently, she is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor at the University of Virginia.She also founded and is Director of the Virginia Center for Computer Music.-References:...
until completing his Ph.D. in 2010. Since 2007 Traub has also been a guest contributor to the Networked_Music_Review, a blog that focuses on art and music that incorporates computer networks. His primary contributions to the blog are interviews with established new media artists such as Bill Fontana
Bill Fontana
Bill Fontana is known internationally for his pioneering experiments in sound art.Fontana attended New School for Social Research in New York and studied both music and philosophy. He traveled to Australia, and also stayed in Japan and Germany composing. Fontana began making sound sculptures in 1976...
, Max Neuhaus
Max Neuhaus
American musician Max Neuhaus was a percussionist and interpreter of contemporary music of the 1960s who moved on to become a pioneer in the field of sound art, a term he rejected but with which he is nonetheless associated...
, Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff is a Canadian installation artist. Born in Brussels, Ontario in 1957 Cardiff studied at Queen's University where she graduated in 1980. She also studied at the University of Alberta and graduated in 1983. She works in collaboration with her partner George Bures Miller. Cardiff and...
and George Bures Miller
George Bures Miller
George Bures Miller is a Canadian artist noted for his collaborative works with wife Janet Cardiff. Miller and Cardiff represented Canada at the 2001 Venice Biennale...
, and Golan Levin
Golan Levin
Golan Levin is an American new media artist, composer, performer and engineer interested in developing artifacts and events which explore supple new modes of reactive expression.-Biography:...
.
On February 25, 2008, NPR's
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
mid-day news show, "Day to Day
Day to Day
Day to Day was a one-hour weekday American radio newsmagazine distributed by National Public Radio , and produced by NPR in collaboration with Slate. Madeleine Brand served as host since 2006...
" featured a segment on his online sound installation, ItSpace http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19338285
Samples of his work can be heard on his website, petertraub.net http://www.petertraub.net
Selected Concert Works and Installations
- Curve (2010), site-specific sound installation for a long curved wall
- Study No. 1 for Bodies, Metal, and Air (2010), collaboration with choreographer Dinah Grah
- Solera: for sound, site, and time (2009), site-specific sound installation
- convergence (2007), for multichannel tape
- nodes (2006), for violin, oboe, and network-connected spaces
- ground loops (2005), for solo percussion and internet feedback
- points of interest (2005), for solo trombone
- bassoonism (2004), for solo bassoon
- portfoliosis (2003), eight-channel computer generated tape
- retour (2002), eight-channel computer generated tape
- cable (1999), computer generated tape
- experiment on unknown sample (1999), processed internet sound
- Jonestown (1999), tambourine, voice, and real-time computer processing
- trilogy (1998), computer generated tape
- water retention (1996), computer generated tape
Network Art
- ItSpace (2007) http://transition.turbulence.org/works/itspace, an online participatory sound installation using MySpace.com
- Sibling Revelry (2001) http://www.fictive.org/sr web-based interactive sound installation, collaboration with Gregory Traub
- NetSong (2000) http://www.netsong.org web-based sound installation for synthesized voice and search engine, collaboration with Amy AlexanderAmy AlexanderAmy Alexander is an artist and researcher working in audio/visual performance, interactive art and software art, working under a number of pseudonyms including VJ Übergeek and Cue P. Doll...
- bits & pieces (1999) http://www.fictive.org/bits web-based sound installation for processing and collaging internet audio samples