Biography
Juan Pampin is Professor and Chair of the UW Department of Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS), and an Adjunct Professor of Music Composition at the UW School of Music. He received an MA in Composition from Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, France, and a DMA in Composition from Stanford University, where he studied with composer Jonathan Harvey.
Juan Pampin's music compositions –including pieces for instrumental, electronic, and mixed media– are performed around the world by world-class soloists and ensembles. His “Percussion Cycle” –recorded by Les Percussions de Strasbourg– has been released on CD by Sargasso Records, London, and his piece “On Space” –for percussion sextet and 3D electronic sounds– was included in the group’s 50th anniversary historical edition box published by Universal France.
In recent years Pampin collaborated with composer Richard Karpen and the JACK Quartet to create “Human Subjects”, a large-scale composition exploring new extended performance techniques based on brain and nervous system sensing. This project was hosted by the Meany Center for the Performing Arts and was made possible through the UW Creative Fellowships Initiative with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Karpen and Pampin also worked together with Neuroscientist Thomas Deuel for the “Performing with the Brain” project, a collaboration between DXARTS and Swedish Hospital to develop a music prosthetic using EEG signals ('brain waves') from paralyzed individuals to play musical instruments hands-free, thus re-enabling musical expression in those who have lost this from neurological injury. This project was funded by a Creativity Connects grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
As electronic music performer, Pampin has been member of “Indigo Mist”, improvisation ensemble. The group has developed collaborations with artists such as Stomu Takeishi, Bill Frisell and George Garzone, and was featured at the 2018 Earshot Jazz Festival.
Juan Pampin's current research interests include high-dimensional sound reproduction systems, ultrasonic beamforming, sensing and control systems for music performance, brain-computer interfaces, and data-driven generative sound systems.