Arthur Gottschalk

Residence: Houston, USA

Arthur Gottschalk was born in San Diego, California, but raised in the Northeast. He attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where, after two years in the pre-med curriculum, he changed career paths, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition, a Master of Arts degree in Music Composition and English Literature, and his Doctorate in Music Composition (cognate: Computer Science), studying with Ross Lee Finney, Leslie Bassett, George Balch Wilson, and William Bolcom. He is currently a Professor at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he is Chair of the Department of Music Theory and Composition, and where he directed the university’s electronic and computer music laboratories until 2002. In 1986 he co-founded Modern Music Ventures, Inc., a company which held a recording studio complex, a record production division, four publishing firms, and an artist management division, and for whom he produced records for PolyGram and Capitol. In 1998 Gottschalk divested himself of these latter holdings, in order that he might devote himself more fully to music composition. Gottschalk’s teaching specialties include electronic music, music theory, music composition, and counterpoint. He is responsible for teaching occasional eight-week CLE seminars on music business and law, and is in demand as a lecturer on music and technology, music in film, and music business and law. He is an active film and television composer, with six feature films, twelve television scores, and numerous industrial films and commercials among his credits. In 1999 and 2000 he was awarded grants from the Hewlett Foundation to develop and co-teach (with physicist Michael Carroll) seminars in acoustics. Among other awards, he is a recipient of the Charles Ives Prize of the National Academy of Arts and Letters, annual ASCAP Awards since 1980, and has been a Composer-in-Residence at the famed Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Center and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. With well over one hundred compositions in his catalog, his music is performed regularly in Europe, South America, Taiwan, and Australia, is recorded on Crystal, Summit, Mark, Golden Crest, Crest, and Orion, and is published by Seesaw Music, Shawnee Press, Ballerbach Music, and Shark Communications (ASCAP). His book, Functional Hearing, was released in the Fall of 1997 and is published by Scarecrow Press, a division of Rowman & Littlefield.

Date: July 17, 2003

Official