Warren Burt is an Australia-based composer of American birth. He is known for composing in a wide variety of new music styles, ranging from acoustic music, electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...

, sound art installations

Sound installation

Sound installation is an intermedia and time based art form. It is an expansion of an art installation in the sense that it includes the sound element and therefore the time element...

, and text-based music

Sound poetry

Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...

. Burt often employs elements of improvisation

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

, microtonality, humour, live interaction, and lo-fi electronic techniques into his music. Warren Burt attended the State University of New York, Albany

University at Albany, SUNY

The State University of New York at Albany, also known as University at Albany, State University of New York, SUNY Albany or simply UAlbany, is a public university located in Albany, Guilderland, and East Greenbush, New York, United States; is the senior campus of the State University of New York ...

 (BA, 1971) and the University of California, San Diego

University of California, San Diego

The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...

 (MA, 1975) before moving to Australia in 1975.

In 1986 he won the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award

Albert H. Maggs Composition Award

The Albert H. Maggs Composition Award is a commission-based Australian classical composition award given in order to "encourage and assist composers who might otherwise abandon their efforts for want of means"....

.

Currently, he is a research fellow at the University of Wollongong

University of Wollongong

The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...

, where he recently completed a Ph.D. thesis, "Algorithms, Microtonality, Performance: Eleven Musical Compositions".

Further reading

• Bandt, Ros. Sound Sculpture: Intersections in Sound and Sculpture in Australian Artworks. Sydney: Fine Art Publishing, 2001.
• Burt, Warren. "Aardvarks IV: A Real-time Electronic Music Performance Machine." MM thesis, University of California San Diego, 1975.
• Burt, Warren. "Algorithms, Microtonality, Performance: Eleven Musical Compositions". Ph.D. thesis, University of Wollongong, 2007.
• Burt, Warren. "Interactive Improvisations With Electronic Music Systems." Sounds Australian 32 (1992): 41-44.
• Jenkins, John. 22 Contemporary Australian Composers. Melbourne: NMA Publications, 1988.
• Zurbrugg, Nicholas. Critical Vices: The Myths of Postmodern Theory. Commentary by Warren Burt. Australia: G+B Arts International, 2000.

External links

• Official web site
• Australian Music Centre: Warren Burt
• Warren Burt bio from John Jenkins, 22 Contemporary Australian Composers
• Audio-interview with Warren Burt on the Clifton Hill Community Centre Tapes website