Wendy Carlos

Biography

Wendy Carlos was born in 1939 and is an American musician and composer who specialized in electronic music and film score, known for her switched-on bach, performed on a synthesizer in 1968.

She completed a hybrid major in music and physics at Brown University, and earned an M.A. in music composition at Columbia University, studying at the first electronic music center in the U.S.A. She began working as a recording engineer and soon hit platinum sales status with her switched-on Bach in 1968, which popularized the Moog synthesizer. She then continued to record classical music but also ventured into film score, with several successful projects.

In 1992 she circled back and remade Switched-On Bach with modern techniques, which showed how far the equipment had progressed over 25 years. She even worked on processes of soundtrack restoration and surround stereo conversion for remastering older works. In 2005 she was presented with the SEAMUS 2005 Life Achievement Award in recognition of her groundbreaking work. Carlos is a member of the Audio Engineering Society, among others, and has delivered papers their digital audio conference.

Further Reading

http://www.wendycarlos.com/biog.html