Carl Stone

Carl Stone

Carl Stone is an American electronic composer from Los Angeles, born in 1953. He works primarily in live electronic music and has composed electroacoustic music almost exclusively since 1972. His work is associated with minimalism, and he is also linked with ambient, plunderphonics and tape music.

Work and approach

Stone uses a laptop computer as his main instrument. His pieces often involve very gradual transformations of sampled acoustic music, speech and other recorded sounds. He studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts with Morton Subotnick and James Tenney.

Performances and collaborations

His music has been performed in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and the Near East. He collaborates frequently with Asian performers, including the pipa player Min Xiao-Fen. From the early years of the 21st century, he also composes more often for acoustic instruments and ensembles, including a work for the San Francisco Bay Area-based American Baroque.

Career and teaching

Stone is a faculty member in the Media Department at Chukyo University in Japan. He divides his time between San Francisco and Japan. He has served as president of the American Music Center from 1992 to 1995, as director of Meet the Composer/California from 1981 to 1997, and as music director of KPFK-FM in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1981.