Phillip Werren

Experimental Canadian Electronic Composer

Born in Vallejo, California, April 6th, 1942. He studied with Milton Babbitt in Princeton and took additional studies in Darmstadt, Germany and Warsaw, Poland with the European avant-garde. He then moved to Canada, where he taught from 1968-71 at the Centre for Communications and the Arts at the Simon Fraser University. He taught electronic music, composition and theory at the York University in Toronto from 1977 onward. His earlier works include the three-part "Phases" (1970), based on the poetic imagery of William Butler Yeats; "Vortex" (1970), which explores the intermodulation of 12 oscillators and high rates of left-right panning; and "Music for Phyllis" (1971), a four-channel piece choreographed by Phyllis Lamhut for New York Dance. He then composed mainly for choreographers. In 1984 Werren began researching the possibility of expanding the Sound Chaser Music System, a computer music system, which led to his twenty studies for sampler titled "Absolute Musik" (1987).