Janis Mattox
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox biography
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|3|18}}
| birth_place = Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Composer
- pianist
}}
| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (2006)
| alma_mater = {{ublist|
}}
| module = {{Infobox musical artist
| embed = yes
| genre = Computer music
}}
}}
Janis Mattox (born March 18, 1949) is an American composer and pianist. An early creator of computer music, she is a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.
Biography
Janis Mattox was born on March 18, 1949 in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She obtained her BA at the University of Minnesota in 1972 and her MA at Northwestern University in 1974.
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. She composed several pieces featuring computerized music; one of these pieces, "Shaman", was sampled in the 1983 album The Digital Domain: A Demonstration.{{Cite journal |last=Farmer |first=Roscoe |date=1985 |title=Review of The Digital Domain: A Demonstration |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679630 |journal=Computer Music Journal |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=72–73 |doi=10.2307/3679630 |jstor=3679630 |issn=0148-9267|url-access=subscription }} She performed a hymn on Naut Humon's album Swarm of Doves, which Paul Verna of Billboard called one of the album's highlights.{{Cite magazine |last=Verna |first=Paul |date=1996-01-20 |title=Albums -- Swarm Of Doves by various artists |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/227099258 |magazine=Billboard |page=69 |volume=108 |issue=3|id={{ProQuest|227099258}} }} In 2002, she created the hour-long electronic piece Solumbra, inspired by poet Cecília Meireles. In 2006, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.{{Cite web |title=Janis Mattox |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/janis-mattox/ |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=Guggenheim Fellowship}} She is also a Silicon Valley Fellow.{{Cite news |title=Janis Mattox |url=http://www.svlaureates.org/artist/janis-mattox/ |access-date=2025-04-30}} 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".
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.{{Cite book |last=Hinkle-Turner |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FBydHQwZwWkC |title=Women Composers and Music Technology in the United States |date=2006 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=9780754604617 |location=Aldershot |page=100 |oclc=60393911}} She has also performed as a pianist, particularly for the Good Sound Band. She has also worked as a teacher, including in computer music at CCRMA or in piano. She also worked for the Good Sound Foundation as a project consultant.
Her husband Loren Rush is a composer.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Mattox, Janis |encyclopedia=Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/mattox-janis |access-date=2025-04-30 |last1=Slonimsky |first1=Nicolas |last2=Kuhn |first2=Laura |last3=McIntire |first3=Dennis |via=Encyclopedia.com}} She is based in Woodside, California.
References
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Category:20th-century American composers
Category:20th-century American women composers
Category:21st-century American composers
Category:21st-century American women composers
Category:Musicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Category:American women pianists
Category:University of Minnesota alumni