Scott Wyatt

Bio

Scott A. Wyatt (b. 1951, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is Professor Emeritus of Music Composition, and has actively served as a faculty member of the University of Illinois School of Music teaching music composition, music theory, and electroacoustic music, as well as serving as director of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios for 40 years. As a composer of concert art music, he has composed works for theatre, voice, acoustic instruments, small and large ensembles, orchestra, electroacoustic music, and music for a variety of media including modern dance, documentary film, radio, television, and large scale laser presentations. Among other honors that he has received, Wyatt was one of the winners of the International Society for Contemporary Music National Composers Competition of 1978, the National Flute Association’s 1979 Composition Competition, the 1979 Concorso Internazionale Luigi Russolo Composition Competition in Italy, the 1984 International Confederation of Electro-Acoustic Music GRAND PRIZE at the 12th annual International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition in Bourges, France, and a finalist in the 1989 Bourges Competition. He was the 1990 recipient of an Arnold Beckman Research Award for the development of digital timescaling applications, and among others, several 1996-2011 grants for the development of a specific compositional and live performance methodology for eight-channel sound diffusion. Professor Wyatt also received a 1991 Illinois Arts Council finalist award, several FAA College special projects faculty award grants for digital image processing, a 1994 Educational Technologies Assistance Grant, and several recent FAA College special projects grants in support of course development.

Among many other commissions, Wyatt was commissioned in 1989 by the Champaign-Urbana Symphony to create Time Pinnacle for orchestra, electroacoustic music, visual projections, and lasers for the Beckman Institute dedication. In 1995, Wyatt was commissioned by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts to create an opening composition (for 6 choral octets, percussionist, conductor, and 8-channel electroacoustic music with 600+ automated lighting cues), titled Visions in Time for the KCPA 25th Anniversary Gala Commemoration performances.

In 1985, he was awarded the University of Illinois University Scholar Award as part of the University’s first class of University Scholars to acknowledge nationally and internationally recognized achievement and distinction as a faculty member of the University. In 1997, he was awarded the U of I College of Fine and Applied Arts Outstanding Faculty Award, and in 1998 he was appointed as an Associate in the Center for Advanced Study, one of the highest honors the University of Illinois bestows upon its faculty. Professor Wyatt also served as an invited member of the international jury for the 2000 Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition in Bourges, France.

His continuing research involves the development and application of positional three-dimensional audio imaging for multi-channel audio. In 2008, he received a Fine and Applied Arts Creative Research Award for the collaborative research/composition/performance of Risky Business: a tribute to Nikola Tesla, composition for electroacoustic music with live Continuum performance and two giant 900,000 Volt Tesla Coils. Most recently, Scott Wyatt was guest artist/composer at Ball State University, the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the University of Oregon School of Music, Roosevelt University, University of Chicago, and the University of West Virginia School of Music. Among many other performances, his compositions were also selected for performances at the almost all of the national conferences of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS). He served as president of SEAMUS from 1989 until 1996, and he remained on its Board of Directors through 2016, while also serving as director, engineer, and producer of the Music from SEAMUS compact disc recording series. SEAMUS recently awarded Scott Wyatt its highest honor, the 2018 SEAMUS Award, recognizing his dedication and important contributions to the field of electroacoustic music.

His compositions are recorded on 26 commercial recordings appearing on CAPSTONE, CENTAUR, GMEB Cultures Electroniques Series, Library of Congress, MARK, OFFICE, Music from SEAMUS, UBRES, and VERIATZA recordings.

Archive of Compositions by Scott Wyatt