Otto Luening

Pioneering American Composer and Electronic Music Innovator

b. June 15, 1900, Milwaukee, Wisconsin d. September 2, 1996, New York, New York American composer, conductor, composition teacher, and flutist. In the 1950s, Luening and fellow composer Vladimir Ussachevsky helped to establish the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center where they created on a landmark series of collaborative compositions for magnetic tape and synthesizer, as well as works for acoustic instruments in combination with electronic sounds. This association resulted in twenty compositions, Luening's sole-authored works including Fantasy in Space for tape (1952), Gargoyles for violin and tape (1960), and Synthesis for orchestra and tape (1962). Although this is the music he is most famous for today, Luening also composed a vast body of music, much of it chamber music.