Janis Mattox

Janis Mattox (born March 18, 1949) is an American composer and pianist. An early creator of computer music, she is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.

Janis Mattox
Born	(1949-03-18) March 18, 1949 (age 76) Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Minnesota Northwestern University
Occupations	Composer pianist
Awards	Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)
Musical career
Genres	Computer music[1]

Biography

Janis Mattox was born on March 18, 1949 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.^[1] She obtained her BA at the University of Minnesota in 1972 and her MA at Northwestern University in 1974.^[1]

Mattox moved to the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), where she started using computer technology to create her work in 1978.^[1] She composed several pieces featuring computerized music;^[1] one of these pieces, "Shaman", was sampled in the 1983 album The Digital Domain: A Demonstration.^[2] She performed a hymn on Naut Humon's album Swarm of Doves, which Paul Verna of Billboard called one of the album's highlights.^[3] In 2002, she created the hour-long electronic piece Solumbra, inspired by poet Cecília Meireles.^[4] In 2006, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.^[5] She is also a Silicon Valley Fellow.^[6] Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner said that some of Mattox's pieces "reflect her interest in combining live performers with computer-generated and processed sounds in an all-encompassing aural and visual experience".^[4]

She also does video art, with one of them being the 1992 piece Book of Shadows, which won several film festival awards throughout the United States.^[4] She has also performed as a pianist, particularly for the Good Sound Band.^[1] She has also worked as a teacher, including in computer music at CCRMA^[1] or in piano.^[4] She also worked for the Good Sound Foundation as a project consultant.^[1]

Her husband Loren Rush is a composer.^[1] She is based in Woodside, California.^[6]