Lawrence Fritts, PhD in Composition

Biography

Lawrence Fritts is an American composer born in Richland, Washington in 1952. He received his PhD in Composition at the University of Chicago, where his teachers included Shulamit Ran, Ralph Shapey, and John Eaton. He is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Iowa, where he has directed the Electronic Music Studios since 1994.

His recent works combine instruments and voice with electronics. These have been performed throughout the world and are recorded on the Albany, Innova, Frog Peak, SEAMUS, and Tempo Primo labels. He has received awards from SEAMUS, the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, International Look and Listen Festival, International Society of Contemporary Music, International New Music Consortium Competition, and the International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics. As a composer, he is interested in musical applications of mathematical group theory and has written a number of papers on the subject. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Mathematics and Music.

In 1997, he created the University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples database, a collection of 30 orchestral instruments recorded in an anechoic chamber. These recordings may be freely used for any purpose without restriction and may be downloaded by following the link at the top of this page.

fritts
PhD in Composition at University of Chicago