Scott Smallwood

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Music. Lecturer in Music.

Scott Smallwood was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up at 10,000 feet in elevation in the Colorado Rockies. When Smallwood was 10 years old, he received his first tape recorder, and ever since he has been fascinated by the possibilities of recorded sound. Currently based in New Jersey, Smallwood's work exists in the world of real and abstracted sound textures based on a practice of listening, improvisation, and phonography.  Ranging between sonic photographs, abstracted studio pieces, improvisations, and composed structures, his work attempts to deal with the puzzle of pulling signal out of noise.   He has performed with a variety of improvisors including Cor Fuhler, Leroy Jenkins, Joe McPhee, Phil Gelb, Todd Reynolds, John Butcher, Mark Dresser, and Pauline Oliveros.  His work has been presented in a variety of national and international venues including recent presentations at  the Issue Project Room in NYC, the 2007 New Instruments for Musical Expression (NIME) Conference in Philadelphia, and the Kulturhaus E-Werk in Frieberg, Germany. His work has been released on Autumn Records, Deep Listening, Televaw, Simple Logic, Static Caravan, and Webbed Hand Records. Scott holds a Ph.D. in composition from Princeton University, where he is currently employed as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant.