A Brief History of the Computer Music Center
Experiments in creative electronic sound manipulation at Columbia University and Barnard College began in earnest in 1951 when Vladimir Ussachevsky (Columbia) and Otto Luening (Barnard) reached out to Peter Mauzey at WKCR to experiment with a then newly-acquired Magnachord tape recorder. In a flurry of experimentation after the acquisition of an Ampex 400 (and the addition of speed and feedback modification devices created by Mauzey), Luening and Ussachevsky presented the first public concert of electronic music in the United States at a concert produced by Leopold Stokowski at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on October 28, 1952.
The notoriety of the MoMA concert would lead to funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to Barnard College, enabling Luening and Ussachevsky to acquire additional tape machines, tone-generating oscillators, filters, and to commission a custom mixing console from Peter Mauzey. In 1958, with another major grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (CPEMC) was formed in collaboration with Milton Babbitt and Roger Sessions atPrinceton, making it the oldest center for Electroacoustic music in North America. The Prentis Hall studios featured four purpose-built tape studios for electronic composition and experimentation, as well as the famed RCA Mark II Synthesizer (the first programmable music synthesizer) which is still housed at the CMC. From the 1960s to 1980s the center would acquire one of the earliest Buchla systems, a substantial Serge synthesizer, as well as create many custom devices designed at or with the staff of the center including the earliest Ring Modulators and Frequency Shifters created by Harald Bode. Computer technology was also in use at the center through the 1970s and 80s, and its ever increasing importance was reflected in the center's name change in the mid-1990s. For anecdotal insight into early computer-use at the center, refer to the recollections of Peter Mauzey, Virgilio de Carvalho and Howard Eskin.
For 75 years, Columbia and Barnard College have been a central hub for electro-acoustic and computer generated sound experimentation, hosting hundreds of composers including Ruth Anderson, Jon Appleton, Bülent Arel, Norma Beecroft, Kitty Brazelton, Luciano Berio, Eric Chasalow, Wendy Carlos, Philip Corner, Charles Dodge, Jakob Druckman, Halim El-Dabh, Malcolm Goldstein, Mara Helmuth, Ilhan Mimaroglu, Daria Semegen, Alice Shields, Pril Smiley, Laurie Spiegel, Michiko Toyama, Edgard Varèse and Charles Wuorinen to name only a few. The last forty years of CMC alumni represents a significant contribution to the global faculty of colleges, conservatories, art schools, and universities at all levels and major posts at corporations engaged in cutting edge research. For a list of alumni as well as current composers and researchers affiliated with the center, see our people page.
Vladimir Ussachevsky served as director of the center from its inception until 1980 marked by rapid growth in technological capacity and creative experimentation, followed by Mario Davidovsky, who served as director from 1980 to 1994 expanding the center's international reach. Fred Lerdahl and Brad Garton became co-directors on the center in 1994; the center's name was changed to the Columbia University Computer Music Center (CMC) under the directorship of Brad Garton in 1996 establishing the CMC as a major global research center for sound and music computing. In 2014, the Computer Music Center partnered with the School of the Arts to create an MFA program in Sound Art, Directed by Douglas Repetto; Miya Masaoka has been Director since 2017, establishing the CMC as a leader in the education and support of gallery-facing sound artists. Seth Cluett joined the CMC in 2018 and took over the directorship in 2022, overseeing a major renovation of the facilities until his departure in 2026. The current leadership of the CMC consists of Interim Director is Ted Moore and Interim Assistant Director Anna Meadors.