Home

RPI/ iEAR

Curtis Bahn is a composer and improviser who specializes in live interactive electronic performance. Currently he is Associate Professor of Music Composition/ Interactive Performance, and Director of the Gradute Programs in the Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy New York. He received his Ph.D. in music composition from Princeton University. From 1986-1993 he was the Technical Director of the Center for Computer Music of the City University of New York where he worked and studied with composer Charles Dodge.

His music has been presented internationally at venues including Lincoln Center, India International Centre – Delhi, Sadler's Wells - London, Palais Garnier - Paris, Grand Theatre de la Ville - Luxembourg, as well as numerous festivals, academic conferences and small clubs. Curtis was the composer for a major residency project entitled “Motione,” in interactive dance and graphics with Choreographer Trisha Brown and Visual Artists Paul Kaiser, Marc Downey and Shelly Eshkar at the Arizona State University Arts Media and Engineering Program. He released a solo recording of live electronic performance on his extended string bass entitled “R!g,” available on the EMF label, a duo recording entitled “./swank” with Dan Trueman on the cycling 74 label, and a DVD with Pauline Oliveros and Tomie Hahn on the Deep Listening label. 

Currently Curtis is a formal student of the Sitar (Shagird) with virtuoso Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan, and has travelled extensively in India studying and accompanying his Guru as the Asian Cultural Council's 2012 "Ralph Sameulson Fellow." He has applied his studies in Indian Classical music to contemporary electronic performance, interactive instrument and installation designs, and his performance with the "Machine Orchestra" a mixed human robotic ensemble at CalArts.