Author

Peter Torvik

Professor of composition and computer music

I am interested in sound and in contemporary music, working both with conventional instruments and ensembles and with computer technology for music and sound. I compose concert music which is presented in a variety of venues in Europe and also have recently been enjoying collaborations in the areas of dance and theater.

I am also an enthusiastic teacher in the areas of contemporary music and computer music, working with students ranging from elementary and middle schools in France to masters level students in the conservatory of Cuneo’s biennio curriculum in Music and New Technology. I’m currently running an experimental project in the French school system involving collective electroacoustic music-making for groups of young children (8-11 years) using a network of gamepads and the MetaMallette software.

I am also an enthusiastic collaborator with artists in various fields where my computer science expertise and artistic insight can fuel a creative project. I have collaborated with artists in video, theater, dance and music, generally around realtime and interactive systems. I have extensive professional experience in software design and computer programming, including operating systems and middleware development, databases and transaction management, real time systems and particularly large scale distributed systems architectures. Extensive programming experience at various levels of abstraction particularly including various assembly languages, C and LISP.

Specialties: Physical model synthesis using Genesis software. Realtime and interactive applications with MAX/MSP and Pure Data. Also working with Digital Performer and Quantum Leap sample libraries for more conventional music making and PuceMuse MetaMallette for collective electroacoustic music-making. Work with Peak, Finale, Audacity and a variety of other tools as required.