Eli Fieldsteel, 2019 guest faculty
Dr. Eli Fieldsteel, Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory and Director of the Experimental Music Studios at the University of Illinois, is a composer specializing in music technology with a diverse history of cross-disciplinary collaboration. He is the recipient of an Arnold O. Beckman Research Grant, the 2014 James E. Croft Grant for Young and Emerging Wind Band Composers, first prize in the 2012 ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition, as well as awards and recognition from other organizations, including the Bandmasters’ Academic Society of Japan and the Frank Ticheli Competition. His music has been performed by national and international ensembles such as the Dallas Wind Symphony, the North Texas Symphony Orchestra, the Kawagoe Sohwa Wind Ensemble of Tokyo, and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Wind Ensemble, and presented at national and international conferences, including the International Computer Music Conference, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, Electronic Music Midwest, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and the Electroacoustic Barn Dance. His music is published under Lovebird Music, and has been recorded on the SEAMUS and Aerocade Music record labels.
Eli’s music and research engages with the intersection between music technology and performance, focusing on topics such as human-computer improvisation, tactile music, interactivity, and sensor-driven music. Utilizing new technologies and real-time environments, his works are highly gestural, expressive, and richly detailed. As an active collaborator, he has worked closely with dancers, choreographers, lighting designers, architects, and video artists, resulting in a variety of unique and site-specific installations and performances. Eli maintains an active teaching presence online through a well-trafficked series of SuperCollider tutorials.
Eli holds degrees from The University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A.), The University of North Texas (M.M.) and Brown University (B.A.). His principal composition teachers have included Russell Pinkston, Bruce Pennycook, Jon Christopher Nelson, Cindy McTee, and Gerald Shapiro.