George E. Lewis | |
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![]() George E. Lewis playing at the Moers Festival in 2009 | |
Background information | |
Born | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | July 14, 1952
Genres | Experimental, contemporary classical, avant-garde jazz, computer music |
Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, professor |
Labels | Sackville, Charly, Black Saint, Soul Note, Avant, Music & Arts, Pi, Incus, Tzadik |
Website | music |
George Emanuel Lewis (born July 14, 1952) is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music.[1] He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization at the age of 19.[2] He is renowned for his work as an improvising trombonist and considered a pioneer of computer music, which he began pursuing in the late 1970s; in the 1980s he created Voyager, an improvising software he has used in interactive performances.[2] Lewis's many honors include a MacArthur Fellowship[1] and a Guggenheim Fellowship,[3] and his book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music[4] received the American Book Award.[1] Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at Columbia University.[5]