Barry Truax is a Professor in the School of Communication and (formerly) the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University where he teaches courses in acoustic communication and electroacoustic composition, specializing in soundscape composition.He has worked with the World Soundscape Project, editing its Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, and has published a book Acoustic Communication dealing with all aspects of sound and technology.
As a composer, Truax is best known for his work with the PODX computer music system which he has used for tape solo works and those which combine tape with live performers or computer graphics.
A selection of these pieces may be heard on the recording Sequence of Earlier Heaven, and the Compact Discs Digital Soundscapes, Pacific Rim, Song of Songs, Inside, Islands, and Twin Souls, all on the Cambridge Street Records label, as well as the double CD of the opera Powers of Two and the latest CD, Spirit Journies.
In 1991 his work, Riverrun, was awarded the Magisterium at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, France, a category open only to electroacoustic composers of 20 or more years experience. He is also the recipient of one of the 1999 Awards for Teaching Excellence at Simon Fraser University.
Barry is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a founding member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.For more information, here's the Globe & Mail's In Person profile.
Email: truax@sfu.ca; Skype ID: barrytruax (please email in advance if you want to use this communication link)
High resolution photo
A more recent high res photo
Interview (Computer Music Journal, 1994)
You can also read a more recent (and extensive) interview and reviews on the Asymmetry website (posted Feb. 10/09).
Recent Press and Internet articles:
The Vancouver Sun, Nov. 18/10
Jonathan Sterne's blog, Nov. 29/10
Vancouver Computer Music Meeting lecture, Sept. 2009
Musicworks article by Jerry Pergolesi #108, 2010
Candid Photos:
Guest composer, 9th Annual Electroacoustic Music Festival, University of Florida, Gainesville, April 6-8/00
Barry with James Paul Sain, Gainesville, Florida
With Paula & Miguel Azguime, Musica Viva, 2003, Coimbra, Portugal
Barry's octophonic concert at Musica Viva, Coimbra, Portugal, Sept. /03,
with Miguel Azguime & Carlos Augusto
Giving a master class at Musica Viva, Coimbra, Portugal, Sept. /03
(photos by Jaime Reis)
l. to r.: Takayuki Rai, Paul Rudy, Simon Emmerson, Barry, Wayne Siegel, at Coimbra, 2003
Performing The Shaman Ascending in the magnificent Palais Jacques Coeur,
Bourges, France, June 2005
Barry's seminar on The Shaman Ascending (sculpture in background),
Bourges festival, June 2005, photos courtesy IMEB
Recording a new piano album
Barry with "Dan Patch", Nov. 2005
Carrying the mace at SFU convocation, June 2006
(photo by Florence Chee)
Barry with Simon Emmerson, Bourges Festival, 2007
(photo by Judy Klein)
With members of the Academy of Electroacoustic Music, Bourges, June 2005
With Sammy Chien at an SFU electroacoustic concert, April/08
With Alessandro Cipriani at ICMC 2008, Belfast
Guenther & Barry at SFU Convocation June 2009 on the occasion of Guenther's Ph.D.
&
posing with President Stevenson & Chancellor Louie (below)
Lecturing at Sonic Acts 13, Amsterdam, Feb. 2010
After the soundwalk in Barcelona, July/10 (photo by Enric Guaus)
With Lucha Turchet after the soundwalk in Barcelona
Concert space in Helsinki, the "House of Nobility", site of the solo concert, June 11/10
With David Paquette and John Drever in Helsinki, June/10
With the SFU Grad Students (aka the "Acoustic Crew"), July 2011
l. to r. Vincent Andrisani, Jenni Schine, Andrew Czink (seated), Barry, Milena Droumeva, James O'Callaghan, Nathan Clarkson, Adam Basanta (seated)
... and from the scrapbooks
Barry getting an early start in electroacoustics, ca. 1949
(probably communicating with Pierre Schaeffer about musique concrete)
With his first car, a 1957 Mercedes 220S, ca. 1976
At the console of the quad mixing studio, Institute of Sonology, ca. 1973
Working on the score for She, A Solo in an attic room in Utrecht, 1973
The graphic score for She, A Solo "drying", Utrecht 1973
Working on a PDP-15 at the Institute of Sonology, 1973, on the POD system
Working on a Hewlett Packard system, SFU, ca. 1978
In the Sonic Research Studio, SFU, ca. 1977
Performing in the Palais Jacques Coeur, Bourges, ca. 1979
Performing in the Palais Jacques Coeur, Bourges, ca. 1983
In front of the hotel in Bourges during the work on The Blind Man at the GMEB, 1979
Working on the score for Trigon, ca. 1975
With Barbara Pentland on the occasion of her honorary Ph.D., SFU, 1985
The launch of Cambridge Street Records, 1985, with "Bailey"
Noonhour quadraphonic concert in the Academic Quadrangle, SFU, during ICMC 85
Philippe Ménard at the ICMC 1985 noonhour concert
Noonhour quadraphonic concert in the Academic Quadrangle, SFU, during ICMC 85 where Solar Ellipse was played
With Italian friends at ICMC 1982, Venice. Left to right, Giorgio Nottoli, not known, Barry, Luigi Ceccarelli, Giovanni de Poli, Walter Branchi
With Alain Savouret in Bourges, 1985
With Eugenio Giordani, Amelia, Italy, Music and Complexity seminar, 1988
With Rodney Sharman, CMC 10th anniversary gala, Dec. 1987
Lecturing at the Music and Complexity seminars, Amelia, Italy, August 1988
With Susan Frykberg & Franco Sbacco, Sonic Research Studio, 1989
With Curtis Roads & Otto Laske, Cambridge, MA, 1989
At the 20th Anniversary Symposium of Interface, The Hague, Sept. 1991. Left to right, Barry, Charles Ames, Jean-Claude Risset, Marc Leman
In the Sonic Research Studio, SFU, ca. 1996
With Peter Manning, at Brandywine Falls, BC, 1993
With Hans Ulrich Werner, Tuning of the World Conference, Banff, 1993
With Powers of Two: The Artist cast at the premiere in Banff, ICMC 95 (l. to r.: Marcel van Neer, Barry, Thecla Schiphorst, David Garfinkle)
Rehearsing Bamboo, Silk and Stone, ICMC 96, Hong Kong
With R. Murray Schafer on the occasion of his Honorary Doctorate degree from SFU
and the launching of the Vancouver Soundscape double CD, 1997
The Vancouver Soundscape CD launch at the Goethe Institute, Vancouver, June 1996
left to right (back row), Dr. Werner Wolf, Bob MacNevin, Barry, Hans Ulrich Werner, Susan Frykberg;
(front row) Hildegard Westerkamp, Darren Copeland, Claude Schryer, Sabine Breitsameter
Guest Composer at the Conservatory of Music, Catania, Sicily, June 1998
With Ludger Bruemmer, Palais Jacques Coeur, Bourges, 1998
With Carlos Augusto, at the Soundscape Conference, Stockholm, 1998
With Peter Manning, Michael Clarke and a student at Huddersfield, 2000
With Paul Dolden, at home in Vancouver
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