ANDREW SCHLOSS, percussionist, composer and researcher, was born in
Hartford, Connecticut in 1952. He studied at Bennington College, the University
of Washington, and Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1985.
Since that time, he has taught at Brown University, the University of
California at San Diego, and since 1990 at the University of Victoria. In 1988,
he was awarded a Fulbright grant to conduct research at IRCAM, during which
time he tested, refined and employed the Radio-Drum. His research and
performance with "intelligent musical instruments" is widely recognized, and he
is currently performing extensively on this new instrument; he has been called
a virtuoso on this new instrument by its inventors. Schloss's research and composition in computer music have been presented in North and South America, and in Europe at various festivals. He has performed as a percussionist in many situations, such as on Broadway in New York, and with Peter Brook's production of "The Conference of the Birds." He has performed frequently with Jaffe and appeared as percussionist soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Jaffe's Would You Just As Soon Sing As Make That Noise?, conducted by Lukas Foss. In 1991, he and Jaffe collaborated on the creation of the improvisational duo Wildlife, for Zeta violin and Radio-Drum, a recording of which is available on the Centaur CDCM series. He also frequently performs with Paris-based jazz pianist Jeff Gardner in Europe and the United States.
In 1993, Schloss was elected a fellow of the British Columbia Advanced Systems Institute, the first time this has been awarded to a researcher in the Fine Arts. In August 1994, he directed a major international festival at the Banff Centre for the Arts called "Afrocubanismo!", which was the most comprehensive offering of Afrocuban music and dance held anywhere in the world outside of Cuba since the 1959 revolution.