Zack Settel » Biography

Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, 1957

• Composer

Zack Settel studied at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts, Valencia, USA), where he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in composition. He did his doctorate studies at the Université de Montréal. In 1986, with a Fulbright Scholarship for computer music at IRCAM, Settel moved to Paris, and the following year he was awarded a grant from the French government. After a two-year composing residency there, Settel remained at IRCAM until 1995, working full-time in the music production and music research groups. In 1997 Settel returned to North America, where he was a professor at McGill University in Canada for two years, chairing the Music Technology area, and a visiting professor of composition at the Université de Montréal. He now composes full-time, and is in (arts/science) collaboration with the Center for Intelligent Machines at McGill, working on immersive audio/music.

Settel’s music often includes the use of advanced live interactive electro-acoustic and audiovisual systems. He has composed chamber and studio works, and music for film, video, television, theater, dance, and opera. He has worked with various performing ensembles, including the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montréal), Zeitgeist (Minneapolis), the California Ear Unit (Los Angeles), and Chants Libres (Montréal), for which he wrote the music for the opera L’enfant des glaces. Settel is also a founding partner of zeep.com, developers of music production software.

[ii-07]